Welcome back to my three part blog series for Go Get Your Goals! This second part will explore the difference between broad and specific goals, and why your business wants to set goals as specific as possible to ensure success. 

I want to run a marathon. I want to complete the St. Jude Marathon in December 2022. Both of these are goals. The phrase, “I want to run a marathon” is an example of a broad goal. Marathons are 26 miles of running. Most people are not into running, let alone running for 26 miles without a nap, or a week off, in between some of those miles. Wanting to run a marathon doesn’t give you the same clear directive as the phrase, “I want to complete the St. Jude Marathon in December 2022”. The second phrase can be classified as a SMART goal. 

SMART Goals are:

• Specific - Detailed, what you want to accomplish

• Measurable - Your progress should be able to be measurable as a way to gauge if/when you have met your goal

• Attainable - The goal should be challenging but not impossible to achieve

• Relevant/Realistic - What will achieving this goal mean for your business and do you have the time or resources to work towards achieving your goal

• Timebound - Have a specific, concrete deadline for completion. 

Now I want to take our example of training for a marathon and demonstrate how this can be a SMART Goal:

Specific - I want to finish the St. Jude Marathon. Finishing means crossing the finish line at the end of the 26.2 miles of Memphis. Plus, St. Jude is a specific marathon course. 

Measurable - Thanks to Breakway Running, I have a training plan to help measure my success towards achieving this goal. Every week my training miles should increase (unless it's a rest week). Therefore, every week I have a smaller, short term goal that helps me achieve my overall objective. Finishing each training run is a tangible check point on the way towards my overall goal of completing the marathon.

Attainable - I have been running for a few years. I have run 5k’s, Spartan races and other obstacle course races, and half marathons. A full marathon is not out of reach for me. While still being a mental and physical challenge, I have completed various endurance races in the past, so I know I can achieve this goal. 

Relevant/Realistic - Is running a marathon relevant? If you are on a new page of your fitness journey, absolutely. What athlete doesn’t like to challenge themselves? 

Is training for a marathon something realistic? This is a fantastic example of having to really understand your goals and what you will have to do to achieve them. Ask yourself these questions: 

• “Do I have the time to dedicate each week to training runs, and if not, is there an opportunity for me to make time in my schedule to dedicate myself to the training?” 

• Will I have the capacity to dial in my nutrition and prepare food to help fuel me?” 

• “Am I physically capable of the amount of training I will have to do to achieve this goal or should I set a smaller goal for myself by starting with 5k, 10k or half marathon training?”

Timebound - The original example was “I want to complete the St. Jude Marathon in December 2022.” December 2022 is a hard date. Setting a time frame for your goal helps motivate you. An open ended due date allows for procrastination and relaxed engagement. Plus, it sets you up to miss out on your goal completely if you let your motivation and dedication drop off. 

I would like to note that my example does come from personal experience, and in 2018 I ran in and completed the St. Jude Full Marathon after training with Breakaway Running. If you are interested in training with Breakaway, I highly suggest it! I had been training on my own, with NO SMART Goal for myself in place for a few years before discovering this running group and finally training the way I needed to and finishing the full marathon. Check out the running group on Facebook at Breakaway Running.

For more information on SMART Goals and goal setting check out this great article from Mind Tools.