During the course of Part I of this article we looked at the best way in which to successfully use goal setting to our advantage. This included the introduction of using “SMARTER” to aid us when setting goals to achieve and also introducing the rule to “break down long-term goals into short-term goals”. Firstly, having covered “SMART”, we shall now move on to the remainder of the acronym – “ER”.

Evaluate. It is very important for us to evaluate where we are at during the goal setting process. This includes evaluating possible improvements we have made since the start, possible pitfalls of the goal setting process (e.g. areas that may have been missed during the initial setting of the goals) and also looking at our overall performance and exercise behaviour.

Review. One of the most important points within goal setting (and one that is most often missed) is reviewing your goals. The most common mistake we can make when using goal setting is rigidly and stubbornly sticking to the same goal we set 3, 4 or even 6 months earlier. Our goals need to adapt to our demands and as you begin to make improvements within exercise you will notice that your goal may seem too easy or too far away. It is therefore necessary for us to regularly review our goals and look at whether or not we need to reassess what we wish to achieve. This can be done once a month or even once a week depending on your progress. Remember that this can be discussed with a friend or partner and keep a log of your goals and progression (ideally somewhere regularly visible, like the fridge or noticeboard).

REMEMBER: SMARTER goals make better goals and keep us confident, motivated individuals.

Now to briefly explain what “breaking down your long-term goals into short-term goals” meant. Ideally, when setting your goals you will make one long-term goal your priority. This is different for everyone and is often the main reason why people tend to abandon goal setting, because they’re simply not achieving something quick enough and it has become too difficult. The best way to maintain motivation and retain your goal setting process is by breaking that long-term goal down into short-term goals. Here is a brief example to illustrate what I mean by breaking down goals. The example is centred on a new runner setting a goal to run a 10K charity event in the future:

“I have never run a 10K before, but my long-term goal is to run a 10K event in 6 months in a time of 1 hour.”

We now break this down into:

As you can see from the example, the long-term goal is now broken down into short-term goals. This provides us with regular motivation to continue achieving our goals with the aim of completing an overall long-term goal. As we continue to regularly achieve smaller goals, this then provides us with an injection of regular confidence as we maintain motivation to achieve. The same can be applied for anything that we wish to achieve. It is important to remember that when setting goals we stick to the SMARTER principle as well as BREAKING GOALS DOWN.