The Best Way to Set Goals: Ditching SMART Goals for More Effective Goal-Setting Strategies

Coaches and clients are constantly looking for the best goal-setting techniques and then get frustrated when they don’t achieve those goals.

You have probably heard about SMART goals and even used this framework with your clients, but as a mindset researcher and fitness coach with over ten years of experience, I've found a better goal-setting strategy.

It's not that the SMART goal strategy is inherently harmful or wrong, but when it comes to behavior change-related goals (especially in health and fitness), I have some improvements to make it better and make it more likely that your client will actually achieve goals they set.

I developed the SMARTER goal-setting method, which I teach in the Health Mindset Coaching Certification. This framework is based on behavior change research and years of health coaching experience.

What is Goal Setting, And Why Does it Matter?

Goal setting is the process of identifying something you want to achieve and establishing measurable and specific objectives.

For example, clients often come to us wanting to lose weight or build muscle. As a fitness coach, it is your job to teach and empower your client to achieve those goals.

Goal-setting also provides direction and purpose in life and helps you stay focused and motivated. Learning how to set the right type of goals activates our intrinsic motivation and makes achieving goals much more likely.

Goal setting is a crucial part of achieving success in both personal and professional life, so while you may be teaching clients how to set personal goals that benefit their health and fitness, the methods you teach them will also help them achieve goals in other areas of their lives, such as their career goals.

When you set goals with your clients, it provides them with vision and motivation. Goals give them long and short-term objectives to aim for in their pursuit of health and wellness. Just remember to keep the client part of the goal-setting process to help them maintain autonomy and increase their chances of success.

Types of Goals

When working with your fitness coaching clients, you'll mostly focus on health and wellness goals, but your conversations may lead to other types of goals, including personal, professional, financial, and educational goals.

When clients start improving one aspect of their lives, we often see that they're motivated to pursue more personal development to better other aspects of their lives.

Identifying the types of goals that align with your client's values and priorities is important for effective goal-setting.

If they want to lose weight because their aunt comments on their physique every holiday rather than because they want to reduce their blood pressure, increase their energy levels, improve their sleep quality, etc., your client is less likely to achieve those goals because they are not in alignment with the client's values and priorities.

If, however, they want to achieve a goal, such as some performance goals, because they want to get better at the sport they play and are hoping to win a championship, your client is more likely to stay focused and put in the work on a daily basis.

Why I Don't Like Setting SMART Goals

SMART goal setting is a strategy that’s gained widespread popularity since it originated in 1981 thanks to George T. Doran, a consultant and former Director of Corporate Planning for Washington Water Power Company.

The framework has been tweaked over the years and currently states that each goal should be SMART: specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, and time-bound.

The Health Mindset Coaching Certification's updated goal-setting framework is based on behavior change research and years of coaching experience, so we swapped out a few concepts from the⁣ SMART framework and added a couple more elements.

Ultimately, the biggest issue I have with SMART goals is that they don’t account for fixed mindset tendencies.

Humans have a tendency to hold themselves back. What we think is “attainable” and “realistic” could very well be selling ourselves short.

Did you know that unrealistic weight loss expectations aren’t even a strong predictor of weight loss success and maintenance in the first place (Ohsiek & Williams, 2011)⁣?

This is one of the many concepts I teach inside the Health Mindset Coaching Certification, which includes in-depth conversations breaking down the psychological theories that influenced this framework change.

Effective Goal-Setting Techniques (The SMARTER Framework)

While I'm a fan of the specific and measurable aspects of SMART goals, I'm not a fan of the attainable, realistic, and time-bound aspects.

As I mentioned, we often sell ourselves short in what we can achieve when setting goals.

The HMCC SMARTER goal-setting framework goes as follows:

• Specific
• Measurable
• Additive
• Rewarding
• Timely
• Efficacy

Reverse engineering

Specific Goals

Specific goal setting doesn't look like saying, "I want to be healthier," because that isn't going to get clients very far. Getting more specific presents more action-oriented goals.

For example, "I want to work out three days per week and drink 100 oz water per day."

Setting specific goals like this gives your client clear, manageable tasks to do on a weekly or daily basis to help them stay focused and achieve their goals.

Measurable Goals

What you can measure, you can improve.

Behavior change research shows it's difficult to know whether you're making progress if you're not self-monitoring in some way.

Have your clients track specific milestones and metrics that are meaningful to them. For example, they can track the amount of water they drink in a day or how many days they hit the gym.

These are clear metrics that will indicate if they are headed in the right direction.

Additive Goals

This is where we start changing the SMART goals framework.

How much would you achieve if you only ever pursued what you thought were attainable goals? You might miss out on a lot. And the same goes for your clients.

Many people don't realize their potential and will sell themselves short, which is why I like creating additive goals.

We should be more concerned about helping clients take goal-oriented actions that are adding to their lives and steering clear of seeing goals as taking something away from them.

For example, if your client is saying, "I have to take away Netflix time to get to the gym," have them try saying, "I get to add activity into my life, and that makes me feel more energized and happy."

Rewarding Goals

Your client's perspective of what are realistic goals could be skewed.

While it's important not to encourage clients to set absurd goals (e.g., losing 100 lbs in 30 days), the idea of setting realistic goals could be an unhelpful tool. There's something better we can use.

Countless studies show that lasting behavior change stems from things that are personally rewarding and seen as valuable to us.

You should guide your clients to set goals that are intrinsically motivating.

Clients can use guidelines like:

• Am I doing this for myself?
• How does it make me feel?
• How will it positively impact my future?

Their goal-setting will be much more effective when they actually want to achieve the goals they've set out for themselves.

Timely Goals

Time-bound goal setting isn't necessarily the best method because clients won't always know what life will throw at them or how their bodies will respond to a diet phase.

It's hard to set a time-bound goal in the health and fitness space.

I prefer a different perspective.

Deadlines aren't all that bad. Sometimes, clients have no choice but to work toward a deadline, and a deadline can be a push to get things done if it's used wisely.

As a fitness coach, you should encourage your clients to avoid setting lofty and unrealistic timelines.

Timely goals should consider where your clients are currently at, what their life looks like, what's coming up for them, etc. Something that might be a realistic timeline for you may be completely overwhelming for your client.

Efficacy in Goal Setting

Efficacy is such an important concept in the world of behavior change.

Self-efficacy is a massive driver of sustained change. It is the idea that clients feel capable of working toward their goals even in the face of obstacles.

Keep this in mind during the goal-setting process with clients, and ask your clients how they feel about their ability to achieve their goals.

You can read more about questions you should be asking your clients here.

Reverse Engineer Goals

Work with your clients to identify their ideal outcome and then work backward.

It can feel daunting to go after a goal, so breaking it down into smaller pieces, such as weekly goals, and working backward can reduce anxiety and provide a clearer action plan.

If you want to go the extra step, you can create a map-like graphic in Canva with your client if they like having something tangible to work with.

Overcoming Obstacles to Achieve Goals

An essential part of goal-setting is being able to identify potential obstacles that may prevent you or your client from achieving those goals.

I like to teach clients to create implementation intentions (aka if-then planning).

Implementation intentions are similar to habit formation. If-then planning helps your clients use environmental or social cues to initiate goal-directed behaviors, making goal pursuit more automatic.

This method helps them recognize ineffective behaviors and prepares them to replace those behaviors with better alternatives. In other words, they stop doing what isn’t working.

By practicing implementation intentions, your clients will conserve mental resources to avoid competing goals or distractions. The result is they'll have more energy for self-control.

Instead of traditional goal intentions, like, “I want to live a healthier lifestyle,”⁣ implementation intentions connect a future situation with specific goal-directed behavior.

For example, “If I’m offered another glass of wine, then I’ll opt for soda water instead.”⁣

Implementation intentions are especially helpful for situations that typically present obstacles or challenges.⁣⁣

Having your clients think about these situations in advance leads to better perception, attention, and memory concerning that situation.⁣

Also, because of this pre-planned process, the goal-directed action (e.g., drinking soda water) has a greater chance of being performed more automatically and efficiently without much conscious effort or hesitation⁣.

Hesitation provides cracks for excuses to break through, but with this more automated process, your clients will free up more “resources” for their brains to use to avoid competing goals or distractions⁣.

Simply stated, specifying the where, when, and how of the intended behavior makes them more likely to achieve the goal.⁣

Staying Motivated and Focused

Goal-setting isn't a one-time thing you do with your clients at the start of your coaching relationship. It's important to regularly review and refine goals to ensure they remain relevant and aligned with your client's values.

You should encourage your clients to set challenging goals that will keep them motivated to keep pursuing the goal without seeming so challenging that your client gets overwhelmed and feels like the goal is impossible to achieve.

Encourage your clients to use a daily planner or app to track their progress and stay focused after they set goals.

There's nothing worse than setting goals and immediately forgetting about them until it's time to do a check-in.

Having your clients track their goals is also a good way to know when to celebrate achievements and reflect on what they've learned to stay motivated and focused. It also helps them see when things didn't go as well as expected and where they may need to make adjustments to increase their adherence.

Help Clients Create Consistent Progress

Goal-setting is an essential method for achieving success in life, whether through personal goals, health goals, or career goals.

While the SMART goals method has been around for many years, the Health Mindset Coaching Certification's SMARTER goal-setting framework is a more effective goal-setting technique that can make all the difference in achieving success for your clients.

But there's more to creating lasting behavior change than helping clients set achievable goals.

The Health Mindset Coaching Certification can teach you how to help your clients tackle all-or-nothing thinking, overcome self-sabotage, develop self-control, and increase motivation and follow-through (meaning no more getting ghosted on check-in day).

This 13-week program will help you develop the skills to effectively help your clients stick to the plan, stick with you, and achieve long-term success in their health and fitness goals. 

Health Mindset Coaching Certification is recognized by the National Academy of Sports Medicine (NASM), the Athletics and Fitness Association of America (AFAA), the International Sports Science Association (ISSA), the National Board of Health and Wellness Coaches (NBHWC),  and the American Council on Exercise (ACE) as an approved continuing education provider.

Join the waitlist here, and you'll get immediate access to some free primer materials to get you started!

Sources

Ohsiek, S., & Williams, M. (2011). Psychological factors influencing weight loss maintenance: an integrative literature review. Journal of the American Academy of Nurse Practitioners, 23(11), 592–601. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1745-7599.2011.00647.x

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