Ah…the start of a new year, a blank slate from which you will drastically improve your well-being. This is the year you will finally lose 10lbs, find your ideal career, improve your love life and get rich. Sounds plausible, right? Wrong! Don’t do it, don’t set yourself up for failure! We do this to ourselves every year. We make these grandiose New Year’s resolutions at 11:30pm on New Year’s Eve only to have broken them by mid-Jan, which of course makes you feel like a failure for the rest of the year. Stop the madness!

Instead, resolve that this will be the year that you are going to set and achieve reasonable goals. Finding motivation and the dedication to stick with exercise, diet or fiscal responsibility on a regular basis isn't always easy. As working women we have so many demands on our time with so many obstacles that are just waiting to sabotage our best laid plans. What’s a harried woman to do? Get S.M.A.R.T.


The S.M.A.R.T. method (setting Specific, Measurable, Adjustable, Realistic, Time-based goals) is a proven way to achieve your ambitions. I know what you’re thinking: how clever something so smart as S.M.A.R.T. Truthfully I can’t take credit for it, this is a tried and true method of many professional athletes and if it can work for them it can work for you. Here’s how to get S.M.A.R.T. in a nutshell:

Set Specific Goals

Research shows that specific goals are the most motivating. For example, instead of saying “I am going to work out more” change your thinking to something more tangible such as “I am going to go to the gym and use the elliptical for 30 minutes three times a week.” The specific goal helps focus your efforts and allows you to know exactly what you need to do.

Set Measurable Goals

Progress is one of the best motivators. Simply saying that you want to save more money is not enough detail. You need to be able to chart and document progress toward your goal. Set up a spreadsheet and track each savings deposit you make and watch your wealth grow on a graph.

Set Adjustable Goals

This helps to stop the “all or nothing” thinking: you either have full success or you’ve failed. Your goals should be flexible enough to accommodate unexpected challenges without becoming obsolete. For example if your goal was to run in a marathon but you find that once you get over 15 miles your knees hurt, you don’t need to give up running, just set a new goal. Perhaps you could try a half-marathon or even a 10K. With flexible goals an injury won’t force you to abandon all your plans.

Set Realistic Goals

You don’t want to set yourself up for failure. Life is hard enough without self-sabotage. While you want to challenge yourself, you also need to know that there is a chance for success. For example, declaring your ideal career is as a runway model but you’re only 5’1”, the reality is the Paris runway is not for you. Change your ideal: perhaps you can model in a magazine or get a job behind the scenes in the fashion industry. Remember, not everyone has to be in front of the camera to be a success.

Set Time-based Goals

Without a timeline there is a tendency to procrastinate or quit. You may also need to set interim goals with shorter timelines to keep you on track. For example, if you need to lose 100lbs, that goal may just seem way too overwhelming especially knowing that it could take a year or more to achieve. So instead, set a monthly goal of losing 5lbs and then each month you can re-evaluate your status and reset your goal. We are a short-attention span society and goals that stretch out beyond six months tend to be easily forgotten.

While not technically part of the acronym, but equally important, is Support. Know that you don’t have to go at it alone. There is power in numbers. You can join a running group, savings club or hire a life coach. The nice thing about a life coach is that they are committed to you and helping you achieve your goals – it’s their job. A life coach can help you develop, plan and achieve your goals. They will be there to help you each step of the way.

This is going to be a great year! You just need to get S.M.A.R.T. about it.

Up next…what’s the deal with Dairy? Do we need it? Should we avoid it? Where do the cows fit in with all this?