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December 30th, 2008
How SMART Are Your Goals?
6 am Monday morning, your alarm rings waking you up from a deep slumber. Without much thought you change into your running gear, lace up your runners, chug a cup of coffee and head out for your morning run. You do this every day. Mindlessly you run the same route day after day after day. You’ve definitely established a routine, a habit if you will, but not much has changed. Your weight loss has reached a plateau, your race performance hasn’t improved, or you haven’t been able to increase your distance enough to race that half or full marathon that you’ve always wanted to. Maybe you want to run longer? Faster? More consistent? Lose a pound or two?
What are your goals? Pick up a pen and a piece of paper and jot down the goals you’d like to reach. Don’t worry I’ll wait….
Done? Ok, now look at each goal and evaluate it as you read this article. Make any changes necessary to ensure that your goals meet the criteria for SMART goals.
The best goals are smart goals — well, actually SMART goals is more like it. SMART is a handy acronym for the five characteristics of well-designed goals. SMART goals are:
S = Specific
M = Measurable
A = Attainable
R = Realistic
T = Timely
SPECIFIC:
Are your goals straightforward and emphasize what you would like to reach? Do they answer the what, why and how?
WHAT are you going to do? Use action words!
WHY is this important to do at this time? What do you want to ultimately accomplish?
HOW are you going to do it? (By…)
For example, a general goal would be, "Get in shape." But a specific goal would say, "Join a running club and run 3 days a week."
MEASUREABLE:
Do your goals establish concrete criteria for measuring progress? When you measure your progress, you stay on track, reach your target dates, and experience the exhilaration of achievement that spurs you on to continued effort required to reach your goals.
To determine if your goal is measurable, ask questions such as……How much? How many? How will I know when it is accomplished? Some ways to measure progress are: Time, Distance, Weight, # of runs, speed, # of repeats etc…
ATTAINABLE:
When you identify goals that are most important to you, you begin to figure out ways you can make them come true. Goals you set which are too far out of your reach, you probably won’t commit to doing. Although you may start with the best of intentions, the knowledge that it’s too much for you means your subconscious will keep reminding you of this fact and will stop you from even giving it your best.
A goal needs to stretch you slightly so you feel you can do it and it will need a real commitment from you.
REALISTIC:
This is not a synonym for "easy." Realistic, in this case, means "do-able". Devise a plan or a way of getting there which makes the goal realistic. The goal needs to be realistic for you and where you are at the moment. Be sure to set goals that you can attain with some effort! Too difficult and you set the stage for failure, but too low and you’ll have difficulty sticking to your plan as the goal will not be a good motivator. Set the bar high enough for a satisfying achievement!
TIMELY:
Set a timeframe for the goal: for next week, in three months…. Putting an end point on your goal gives you a clear target to work towards. If you don’t set a time, the commitment is too vague. It tends not to happen because you feel you can start at any time. Without a time limit, there’s no urgency to start taking action NOW.
Time must also be measurable, attainable and realistic.
So what does a SMART goal look like?
I knew you would ask that, so I thought I’d share mine with you. My goal is to:
Train to run the Philly’s Fools 10K run on Sunday April 5, 2009 by running 4 times a week during my lunch hour starting when I return to work on January 5, 2009.
S= Train to run a 10K by running 4 times/week
M=running 4 times/week
A=run a 10K (I’m returning from close to a 2 year hiatus caused by the birth of my second daughter)
R=running 4 times/week during my lunch hour (I know that I’d never be able to commit to running every weekday lunch, and I also know that I’d never be able to commit to running on weekends – I value my family time far too much to give that up for some "me" time).
T=Sunday April 5, 2009, 12 weeks is ample time for me to train for a 10K – I know that I won’t post a PB, but I will definitely be able to complete the race and not spend the next two days complaining that I feel like I’m 90 years old…
Now that I’ve shared my goal with you, what are your SMART goals?
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December 29th, 2008
Get Off That Fat Ass and RUN!
After lazing around the house for 3 hours this morning, I finally worked up my motivation, charged up my ipod nano, dusted off my running shoes and headed out for a run. Here’s the proof:
My ass is killing me now.
I need to lose some weight. Not a lot of weight, just about 10-15 lbs. So I figured, why wait for New Year’s? The weather is great, I should start NOW! So I did – I sort of watched what I ate and started running again. I’m hoping to run everyday at lunch time and possibly do some wii fitting to complement my running.
Which reminds me….
I started a challenge on Nike+. If you’re a Nike+ user you can join my Lunch Time Challenge – see if you can log more km’s than me over the next 30 days by running on your lunch. I’ve already had a few people join the challenge, and one is already kicking my outta shape ass:
I can’t lose my own challenge can I?
Popularity: 7% [?]
December 28th, 2008
Home Sweet Messy Home
After a 7 hour drive yesterday that should have taken 5.5 hrs or at the most 6 hrs, we are finally home safe and sound from our Christmas extravaganza at my in-laws place in Ottawa. Brooke didn’t scream as much as she did on the way up to Ottawa, as we had learned that she prefers infant videos over kid’s videos (ie: Baby Einstein, not Toy Story, Bee Movie etc…). However, that didn’t stop her from becoming insanely frustrated while trying to snack on some Goldfish crackers. I couldn’t figure out what on earth could be so frustrating about it until I looked back at her and caught her doing this:
(Kid! It would be easier to eat those WITHOUT a sock on your hand…)
Sierra was completely oblivious to the screaming in the seat beside her as she was completely absorbed in her Bee Movie:
Next time we’ll mount a DVD in front of each kid and allow Sierra to watch hers with head phones. All in all the drive home wasn’t THAT bad. At one point both kids fell asleep and I was able to watch the entire Kung Fu Panda video while they slept. That’s the first time I’ve ever been able to watch something that I’ve wanted to watch during one of our commutes.
Now that we’re home we’re slowly messing up the house one new toy at a time. I now have little people everywhere – airplane, boat, fair, house, castle, pirate ship, playground etc… Fisher Price would be so proud of me for acquiring so much of their "Little People" product-line. I also spent the entire morning "assembling". First a doll stroller, then a doll swing and high chair and finally ending with a Playmobile Penguin Exhibit. There are dollies, doll strollers and other doll paraphernalia for daddy and I to trip on with every step. Yes – Santa thinks we have two very good little girls.
This afternoon Sierra went skating with my hubby, yanno, with the new skates, helmet, elbow and knee pads that she got for Christmas. As we were packing her up to leave she became quite sad that she didn’t have a hockey jersey to wear. Hmmmmm… it seems Santa forgot it at the North Pole – maybe he’ll bring it next year? When Sierra came home from skating she was all excited, so I asked her how it went to which she replied, "I didn’t go skating mommy… I went FALLING!". Good thing we prepared her that skating was hard and that she would have to practise, practise, practise. She can’t wait to try again next weekend.
I have tomorrow off of work but I still have to pay for daycare, so guess what? The kids are going to daycare. I’m going to relax, meet my dad for coffee and relieve him of his dog-sitting duties, and maybe, just maybe I’ll feel up to cleaning my home sweet messy home.
Popularity: 5% [?]
December 25th, 2008
The Grinch May Have Stolen Christmas But At Least I Look Amazing
I got my pay stub as I was leaving for Christmas vacation all excited about my Christmas bonus as I got missed last year. I was promised that I’d get it with the last pay of this year along with this year’s bonus and some retro pay because it was discovered that my salary wasn’t adjusted either – maternity leave messed everything up. We were counting on this to pay for Christmas as double daycare has ruined us financially. We didn’t go crazy ’cause we weren’t sure how much I’d get – never count your chickens before they’re hatched and all…. Needless to say I was very disappointed when I realized that the Grinch stole Christmas. Sigh…. I’m not going to dwell on it because…
It’s Christmas! We made our annual Christmas pilgrimage up north to Ottawa on Tuesday. Sierra napped on and off while Brooke screamed in her carseat for for the whole 6.5 hr drive. We made it up safe and sound and I don’t have to do any Christmas cooking – yay! 
Was Santa good to you? He, along with my MIL and Sister-In-Law absolutely spoiled my kids. I guess my kids were good? We told Brooke to go sit by her stocking so she could open it – instead se sat ON it:
Sierra got skates for Christmas and modelled her new hockey helmet for us:
and my wonderful hubby paid for me to go get my haircut, styled and coloured as my Christmas gift.
Here’s what I wanted:
Here’s the before:
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And here’s the after:
OK – so it doesn’t look much different than before, except now I have bangs. The colour is a lot better now too. I may be broke but at least I look fantastic this Christmas!
Merry Christmas everyone! I hope that Santa has spoiled you with love and good health!
PS – I must’ve been a good girl after all, as I won an iTunes gift card courtesy of Kim @ Mommy Knows!
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