The start of a new year and in the case of 2010, the start of a new decade, is an ideal time to establish new goals or revisit ones you have made in the past.

Tom Venuto of Burn The Fat Feed The Muscle and Burn The Fat Inner Circle has written a couple of excellent and very timely articles on how to set goals that stretch beyond new year’s resolutions which unfortunately often last a couple of weeks and are forgotten soon after. He encourages us to set short term and much longer term for 3, 5 and 10 year goals so we can start planning now for what we would like our lives to look like in the future. Tom has a newsletter you can subscribe to that we recommend to all of our personal training clients.

Goal Setting Articles

1. A New Challenge For 2010: Goal Setting For a Decade

2. The Contest Countdown Calendar: How to Peak Your Physique on a Deadline

3. Instead of New Years Resolutions, Set S.M.A.R.T.E.R. Goals (from 2009)

Setting S.M.A.R.T.E.R Goals

Many people are familiar with the term “SMART” goals. Tom’s article above (#3) offers an important and powerful extension of this to make your goal setting for 2010 even more effective:

S – Specific Set goals with clarity, be clear, be precise and be very specific

M – Measurable Set goals that can be measured, this could be kilograms, body fat %, lost etc.

A – Accountable Set goals you can be held accountable to and by sharing your goals with others

R – Realistic Set goals that are attainable and able to be maintained

T – Time Bound Set goals with deadlines

E – Emotional Strong emotions and goals that are personally very important will be easier to stick to

R – Reviewed Often Read your goals every day so that they become a habit in your daily life