You Can: How SMART Goal Setting Helps Turn Good Intentions Into Lasting Change

Why New Year’s Resolutions Often Fail

Now that the new year is well underway, it’s likely that some of your New Year’s resolutions have faded into being simply “good intentions,” rather than actually becoming healthy habits. However, it is never too late to make a fresh start. Research shows that choosing a meaningful start date — even a random Wednesday — can increase your success rate when creating new habits. Setting a conscientious date for a lifestyle reboot on your own timeline is more likely to become a defining moment in your life, rather than making a pressured decision in the final hours before the end of the year. But change is never easy, no matter what the time or season of life. With smart goal setting, you can create structured and achievable objectives that transform your intentions into actionable plans.

Why “You Can” Matters More Than You Think

While at the store, I saw this pair of socks and made an impulse purchase. One sock says, “you,” and the other sock says, “can.” It is true. You can! You can choose a path that leads to health and wellness, or you can remain stuck in destructive habits that will deteriorate your quality of life. But why do some folks succeed and others fail at making positive changes in their lives? The main setback most individuals face when setting goals is that their viewpoint is too broad and lofty, rather than being manageable and focused.

What Are SMART Goals?

As counselors, we regularly help clients use evidence-based SMART goal-setting strategies, including the SMART goal setting framework. SMART is an acronym that stands for:

• Specific
• Measurable
• Achievable
• Realistic
• Timely

SMART goals begin with specificity, allowing a person to clearly define what needs to change and why.  A vague goal is to “reduce spending and get out of debt.” Using SMART goal setting, a more inspiring goal might be to split this into two specific targets, which go hand-in-hand for success. We might say instead, “I would like to reduce making unnecessary purchases over the next six months,” and “I would like to pay off my VISA card by the end of June.”

The next task is to determine how to measure and keep track of our goals. In the above example, a simple three-column spreadsheet can be used to log purchases. In the first column, necessary items, such as rent and gasoline, can be listed. In the second column, discretionary purchases, such as books, entertainment, and fast food, can be listed. There are many grey areas for spending, such as clothing and food, which can be entered in the third column. These purchases can be both frivolous and necessary, and seeing your expenditures on paper (or online) can be very revealing.

CAN YOU? (A Question Worth Asking)

If you try to meet a standard that is out of the range of possibility, you might be tempted to doubt yourself and to put the socks on the opposite feet. “CAN YOU” change? Is it worth the work?

Setting Achievable Goals Without Burnout

Thus, when you set an achievable goal, you set yourself up for success. Saying that you want to pay off your home mortgage by the end of 2028 may be too lofty, and you would feel defeated by falling short of the target. However, you may be able to put a dent into this goal by determining to pay an extra $200 per month on your house payment, which would yield an additional $4600 toward paying down debt if you start now, and long-term interest would also be decreased, which is an additional “gain.”

Creating Realistic Plans for Real Life

Making realistic plans means honestly assessing your time, energy, and resources — not just your motivation.  For example, if your top goals are to run a marathon, clean out your basement, and research a new career, none of these things will likely get accomplished, as a person only has so much capacity to juggle multiple tasks.

It is also probable that you are also working, taking care of children–or your parents–and participating in some form of civic or sports activities. Modifying a plan that would be more realistic could be as follows:

Establishing a running plan to train for a 5K may be a reasonable first step to accomplish, and many local races are both fun and affordable. Building a sense of community and accountability, such as signing up for a race in the spring, can also increase your chances of success. From there, building on your base of fitness could lead to running a 10K or a marathon later in the year.

Cleaning out the basement may be an afternoon project for some, and this is a great way to build momentum in your new lifestyle changes. However, for most people, cleaning out the basement would be a months-long task, and breaking the task into smaller jobs is not as overwhelming. You could write down a list of specific rooms and/or projects and rank them by priority to make the plan less insurmountable.

Why Timelines Matter

The final component of SMART goals — timeliness — turns intention into action through structure and accountability. Here is where a more structured approach comes into play. Here is where utilizing a paper calendar may provide a working visual reminder of goals and when each step is to be completed.

To meet goals in a timely fashion, setting a start and end date is ideal. If you would like to take up the challenges of paying down a mortgage or credit card debt and tracking expenses, here is what it might look like:

On Sunday nights, set aside 30 minutes after supper to enter expenses into your spreadsheet. This task would be entered into your weekly calendar. Work to identify any areas of extra expenses that might be applied toward your debt retirement. Each week, aim to set aside an extra $50 to pay toward the mortgage or credit card bill, knowing that you may not meet this goal every week. Transfer payments every week, and hold yourself accountable for areas in which your overspending may be holding you back from paying off bills and/or debts. At the end of the month, identify how you will work toward continuing to make progress. These weekly “dates” will help develop consistency, and establishing a routine is the best way to build success toward any goal.

If, instead, you wanted to get in shape to run a 5K, you could download a schedule based on your fitness level, and you would add these training dates into your calendar, treating them as if they were “appointments” to yourself, not just “suggestions.” The goal might be to start on the first of February, and then to be able to run/walk the full distance by May 1 st. Signing up for a late spring race will also create a sense of urgency and timeliness to meet your training deadlines.

How Counseling Can Support Your Goals

After reading about SMART goal setting, you may be inspired to start a new journey toward wellness, whether it be mental, physical, financial, or spiritual. Our counseling team is here to support clients in reaching their goals — whether they feel big, small, or somewhere in between. Please contact us if you are ready to implement changes and would like the insight and support of a counselor. If you are in doubt, say, “YOU CAN!”

Download your FREE SMART Goal Setting Worksheet!

Brenda Gonyou MA, LLPC