The main thing to remember, no matter what you’re setting a goal for, is that your goals should be SMART. That means they need to be specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, and timely. If you make a habit of creating goals for all aspects of your life using this acronym, you’ll be a lot more successful – no matter what you do.
But before you get started with your SMART walking goals, let’s talk about some factors to consider as you’re creating your goals.
1) Know Your Fitness Level – Almost everyone can walk. This includes people who are very unhealthy, even if they can only walk for five minutes. Start with your fitness level and set your goals accordingly.
2) Know What You’re Working Toward – Pretend you stuck to everything you are supposed to on this journey; what is the dream goal you’re working toward? Even if it seems crazy, knowing that final goal is essential for designing your plans.
3) Know Your Time Availability – This is part of being realistic because if you have roadblocks to having enough time to devote to walking for health to meet your goals, you may not succeed
Creating SMART Walking Goals
Here is an example of a healthy yet sedentary office worker for you to follow:
* Specific – My goal is to walk a minimum of 10,000 steps per day by the end of six months, starting where I am now at 1000 steps per day.
* Measurable – Every day, I will add 100 steps to my total. It will take me 90 days to reach 10,000 steps per day.
* Attainable – I am overweight but with no health problems, so my goal to walk 10,000 steps a day by the end of 90 days and to maintain it for 6 months is entirely doable in terms of my health.
* Realistic – Adding in 100 steps a day is realistic because I am healthy, and I have enough time. It’ll take me about an hour and a half at my walking pace to reach 10,000 steps. I plan to walk each morning between 7 and 9 am. I also have an indoor place I can walk when the weather is terrible.
* Timely – By adding the goal of reaching 10,000 steps in 90 days, then maintaining that for six months, it makes the goal timely – meaning it has a time limit that you have set for you to reach your goal.
As you see, crafting SMART walking goals will help you set up a plan that is achievable if you simply follow it. Once you have set the plan up, you can put it in your calendar, tell your accountability partner, and then just follow it. You will reach your goal without issue.