In April 2021, during the Q&A after a virtual keynote for UHA Health Insurance, event host Michael Story asked what I thought about SMART goals. I was glad to be asked this question because I have some strong thoughts on the subject.
SMART goals are all about, well, setting goals. And goal setting is important because we need to know where we’re headed if we intend to get there. Widely promoted change strategies like SMART goals can be great for some things, such as in business settings. But they can easily misguide many of us who care about adopting complex lifestyle behaviors like healthy eating and regular exercise. Let me explain.
Like many change strategies, SMART goals assume we do things in logical ways — specific, measurable, actionable, realistic, time-sensitive — but as decades of research shows, in real life, we typically don’t.
Remember the fundamental role of memories and past experiences on our lifestyle choices that we discussed in the last newsletter? These below-the-surface forces are the powerhouse when it comes to influencing our actions in the moment, and they easily overpower our neatly organized and logical intentions and plans.
Because we are human, we tend to avoid pain and reach out for what feels good. SMART goals are admirable, but they have nothing to do with whether we experience certain behaviors as a chore or a gift on a gut level. Getting specific can help in some situations, but it won’t change our often problematic relationship with the behaviors we are aiming to make life partners. Converting eating and exercise into allies for life is more central to creating sustainable change than trying to plan — and then execute — specific goals.
Here’s another problem: SMART goals don’t set us up to think flexibly, which is a key predictor of lasting change). They can get us so focused on a specific goal that we don’t know what to do when life upsets our plans. (And let’s be honest, how often doesn’t this happen?)
So, despite their extreme popularity, I don’t believe SMART goals are the most strategic way to help us (or others) think about striving toward changes that can last. And I’m not alone! As I was contemplating writing this very newsletter, I came across a newly published paper critiquing the value of SMART goals for physical activity. Although the authors discussed eight separate problems with SMART goals, I will only highlight three of them here:
The SMART heuristic is not based on scientific theory. Parts of SMART are actually not consistent with what research shows is needed when it comes to physical activity goal setting.
The traditional SMART heuristic omits any focus on people’s “why” for being active. If you’re familiar with my earlier work, which I wrote about in No Sweat, our “why” is our motivational North Star. A “why” that guides us to pick activities that feel good and resonates with our core values keeps us on track. But a “why” that feels controlling or obligatory leaves us (or the people we work with) seeking reasons to skip it all together. Consider the ways in which a single SMART goal can easily transform into another “should.”
Finally, and importantly, some research finds that SMART goals actually undermine physical activity participation among less active individuals – the very individuals who are in most need of effective strategies!
On the surface, the story of behavior change we have been taught, including setting SMART goals, seems to make a lot of sense. But once we begin to think more critically about the assumptions that underlie this story and the popular change strategies that are its protagonists, we can begin to see that these logical goals may be actually endangering our success. If we over-focus on the goal-setting tip of the iceberg, we will inevitably collide — again and again — with the much larger forces lying just beneath the surface.
We’ll take a clear-eyed look at more assumptions that underlie some of the most popular behavior change strategies, look at our brain’s role in our eating and exercise choices, and much more in my new book. Look for the official announcement coming soon!
Feel free to share this post with others who share your interest in the science-based how-to’s of creating lasting changes that can survive in the real world.
Copyright © Segar, Michelle.