Welcome back friends. I assume you’ve read the last article on how to set smart goals and now you’re back for the next step. If you aren’t caught up,  click here .  We have set our S.M.A.R.T. 2024 fitness goals, now what?  Now we break it down into smaller steps and goals. When we break it down in smaller steps, it allows us to stack wins, stay engaged, stay motivated and change our mindset from what I like to call climbing a mountain to climbing steps.

The T in our S.M.A.R.T as I am sure you know is setting a time-based goal. For this time-based fitness goal to be achievable we would have to set our deadline  to approximately 4 to 6 months away unless we are doing a year-long challenge. When we give ourselves more time to achieve our goals, I believe it substantially increases our chances of success. It also allows us to accomplish our goals  in a healthier manner and our changes are more likely to persist after our challenge is over since the changes will become part of our everyday life. Yes, it is possible to do a crash diet where we starve ourselves for 4 weeks and lose 20 pounds, but not only is it not healthy but the few who succeed often end up going back to their bad habits. So why then am I telling you to break your goals down into smaller ones?  If your goal is 6 months away, staying focused can prove to be difficult. We can also get lulled into a false sense of security thinking we have more time than we actually have. We can break down goals into monthly goals and/or weekly goals. If your goal is to lose 60 pounds in  6 months, that breaks down to 10 pounds a month and even  2.5 pounds per week.  So now we have an achievable weekly challenge which then works into our monthly goal and ultimately allows us to reach our big goal. 

Benefits to breaking it down

1. Stay more engaged with our goal – Because we have smaller goals it gives us weekly challenges. We don’t focus on the 60 pounds we want to lose but we focus on the 2.5 pounds weekly goals.
2.  Stacking wins – every week we hit our weekly goal that’s a win. Instead of waiting for 6 months to get the big win that we are ultimately looking for we get a weekly boost by these smaller victories.
3. Keeps motivation – by stacking up these wins, we build the momentum and the belief in our ability to achieve our goal. Speaking from personal experience,  stacking these wins keeps me motivated and allows me to make the hard decisions the next day to keep me going. This is extremely important since we won’t always have high motivation, we should get it when and where we can.
4. We climb stairs and not a mountain – I am a visual thinker, When people talk to me I create mental pictures. So for me my main goal is the mountain top; when I divide it into smaller goals the image changes to stairs. 2.5 pound steps. This allows me to count what I achieved and not what I have left. In a month assuming I hit every goal, I would have lost 10 pounds. This is more motivational than thinking after a month of work I still have 50 pounds left to lose. That shift of perspective can also help.

Once you’ve set your S.M.A.R.T goal, break it down to smaller, more achievable goals. Step by step we will achieve our fitness goals.