Are SMART Goals Overrated?
Why setting a goal hierarchy based on your values and ideal self is now my preferred goal setting approach.
Spark Notes:
SMART goals appear to be overrated when it comes to fitness and surprisingly aren’t as supported by empirical evidence as other goal setting strategies are.
Instead of cramming your goals into the rigid SMART box, aim to establish a goal hierarchy based on your ideal self, the key behaviours that will get you there and then some actionable habits to make it real.
Setting a goal hierarchy that is inline with your ideal self, upholds your values and also factors in your constraints is a much better strategy than solely focusing on setting SMART goals that tick off every letter of the acronym.
Establishing your goals should take some work & self reflection. They shouldn’t be overzealous plans, fuelled by high octane motivation, guilt, an upcoming vacation or all of the above. That is, if you want your results to last.
Last year I wrote a deep dive looking at a meta-analysis covering the widely known Goal Setting Theory by Edwin Locke and Gary Latham.
In this article, I also talked about the importance of SMART goals. SMART goals are standard operating procedure in the fitness industry, but it seems their prevalence is not what we’d call “evidence based.” In fact, a recent narrative review did a great job breaking down the history of SMART goals and the lack of empirical data we have to really support their vast application.
Eric Trexler also wrote a fantastic article on an evidence based approach to goal setting, where he shares a table including the revolving door of how many alternative words have been misused within the acronym itself.
After reading all of this, combined with reading this paper about the use of setting superordinate goals and the importance of setting goal hierarchies, my perspective of SMART goals has undeniably changed.
In hindsight, this isn’t shocking — my acceptance of SMART goals was more rooted in the consistent repetition and exposure of them, than it was in my experience of successfully goal setting with clients.
Whenever I used to set goals with a client, I would start off by using the SMART framework — but would eventually find myself spending the hour trying to understand my client better. Together, we would lay out their thoughts, goals and their driving forces more clearly. The rigidity of trying to hit all five components of the SMART goal was more of a nuisance than it was a helpful framework. This led me to be more relieved than anything after taking a deeper dive into the goal setting literature and reading works from smarter folks than myself.
With all of this in mind, I want to share and lay out what I believe to be a more effective goal setting framework for long-term success.
Establishing a Goal Hierarchy
Referring back to the paper I mentioned above, superordinate goals are identity and values driven. They are based on your ideal self & the person you want to be. This is crucial for longterm success — if a goal doesn’t actually mesh with the person you want to be and doesn’t reflect your values, it will be all that more challenging to sustain it long-term.
This is clearer nowhere than in fitness. We’ve all set goals before that could never coexist with who we are or the life we want to live long-term. Think of any crash diet you’ve ever been on. Or any extreme fitness phase you’ve been in. These behaviours are often sustainable in the short term, especially if the rewards are coming in hot. But long term? They almost always crash.
Why? Well, because once the novelty and high reward yield begins to taper off — as it always does — all you’re left with is the process itself. And that process needs to bring you some form of pleasure, reward or fulfillment, for you to continue doing it.
It’s easy to say no to going out for drinks with your friends when you’re in the middle of a crash diet, where the pounds are melting off — but what about when you reach the dreaded plateau? What about when you actually reach your goal? Unless your ideal self simply no longer socializes in that manner or a night out like that doesn’t fit with your values, it’s damn hard to say no if you’re just maintaining. Not to mention, if you haven’t found other methods of meeting your social needs in the process, this can make it even harder.
Now if you’re still, deep down, a low-key casual-drinker who genuinely enjoys the company and experience of a night like that, avoiding this habit won’t last long term, because a night like this is a part of your identity. I have plenty of clients like this. True socialites who love going out for some nice wine and a fancy dinner on a weekly basis. There is nothing wrong with this whatsoever — but if you haven’t made room for much self-reflection, then trying to establish any kind of behaviour change might be an uphill battle. As you don’t know what you are and aren’t willing to give up. You don’t know which behaviours are just products of your environment or products of your identity.
I’ll give you one example. Pizza on a Friday night with my partner, is a product of my and our relationship’s identity. If someone said I had to give that up to reach my goals, I’d have to reassess my goals or look for a different approach.
While grabbing a donut from the cafe across from my gym is a product of my environment, not my identity. I don’t really value it. I just do it when I don’t plan my lunch appropriately and end up scrambling for convenient food with lackluster options. Having to change that is very realistic to me and just requires better planning.
So when establishing this goal hierarchy, it’s important to indentify your ideal self and what values you hold. From there you can set intermediate and subordinate goals that reflect these.
Here’s an easy breakdown:
Superordinate = identity based/values driven. More broad and vague. Reflects a state of being.
Intermediate = less broad and more specific to helping superordinate goals come true. Key characteristics that will aid achievement of larger goals.
Subordinate = highly specific and actionable that directly impacts intermediate goals
As you can see above, there is a hierarchy to these goals. All of which help this person strive toward their ideal self.
To touch back on SMART goals, you can see the idea of it is not completely abandoned, but instead, stripped of its parts and applied in a more effective way. The subordinate part has some SMART influence, but isn’t so rigid that it needs to hit all 5 letters. Instead, the subordinate goal should be the most specific and should directly benefit up the chain. As you can see, all of these subordinate goals would directly impact the intermediate goal they’re attached to, but you could make a case they would also indirectly help out the other intermediate goals. Regardless, the idea is that the subordinate goals will benefit the intermediate goals, which will in turn benefit the superordinate goals.
As you can see, this not only addresses the short term goals that may be more superficial and immediately rewarding, but also the long term goals that are deeper, identity based and more fulfilling.
I’d argue we need both for long term success. If we receive no rewards from our behaviours, it’s hard to keep going in the short term. But if we feel no fulfillment, it’s hard to keep going in the long term. These are both crucial to success and this goal hierarchy helps address both rather than only focusing on one.
How Do I Start?
I would start by doing a deep dive on your values and what your ideal self looks like. I know this can be overwhelming, but this is crucial. I’ll also mention you don’t need to paint the complete picture of your ideal self. You can begin by constructing your ideal self in one area or role in your life. It may be in fitness, in your career or in your relationships.
What does your ideal self look like in that context? How does that ideal self differ from who you currently are in that role? What are your values and how do you uphold them?
Answering these questions is a great start.
These would from your superordinate goals.
After, you’ll want to establish your intermediate goals. This would be identifying the key behaviours that will pay dividends up the chain to your superordinate goals.
You can start by asking yourself:
“what behaviours and habits would my ideal self exhibit?”
Here you’ll see that the intermediate goals are a bit more specific than the superordinate goals and if all achieved, would help push you closer to becoming that ideal self you’re striving for.
Lastly, the subordinate goals are the most granular and most actionable part of the puzzle. They are where you could take some of the SMART strategies and apply them. Or better yet, this is where you could apply more of the goal setting theory framework that I mentioned above. As this theory has much more evidence to back it up compared to the SMART approach.
This would be:
Goals should be conscious and specific
Goals should be adequately challenging
You should be committed to the goal
Goals should not be too complex
Feedback should be given back to the person/group working toward a goal
There is some crossover between this and the SMART approach, but making sure it’s challenging enough is a key factor. As if it’s too easy, it might actually be detrimental to your success. Especially if it’s so easy, you get no feeling of reward from it. Secondly, getting feedback is also quite helpful. It inherently makes you not completely alone in the process, it can help you feel more supported and if it’s useful feedback, it can give you some additional encouragement and strategies going forward.
With all of this in mind, let’s paint a picture to what these subordinate goals may look like.
Above you’ll see three subordinate goals that relate to the intermediate goals I listed earlier. The gym relates to exercising regularly. Meditation relates to being more mindful and reading in bed relates to getting to bed at a regular time.
The differing factor here is that these are more specific action plans. I know what I’m doing and when I’m doing it.
In practice, you’ll be best off to establish one main intermediate goal you’re working on and then try to master each subordinate one at at time until they become engrained habits. Then progress from there. As opposed to working on 10 habits at one time, as that can be quite overwhelming
This example is a broken down version of the first hierarchy I shared. Instead I got rid of two of the other intermediate goals for the sake of this practice. They still matter, but they will be a direct focus later. In fact, they may indirectly benefit from nailing down these behaviours, but that’s just a cherry on top.
Here we’ve chosen to focus on being in good shape as the main intermediate goal of focus. From there we’d want to establish whichever subordinate goal makes the most sense to you. If one particularly motivates you, then go for it. If you feel like you need a layup to get the ball rolling, then go for whichever one will be the easiest for you to get started with. There is individuality to this, so there isn’t one correct one to focus on. Instead, I’d just suggest going after whichever makes the most sense to you at this time point.
If you find it really easy to do, then feel free to add a second one. This is just where I’d be cautious. Sometimes we can get overly ambitious during the novel phase of starting any goal. This is not a bad thing, it’s just important to acknowledge this and make sure your goals are challenging, but not overwhelming.
Once you’ve nailed down all these habits, then I’d say it’s time to start attacking that next intermediate goal.
And voíla — that is how I would start to establish your goal hierarchy and put it into practice. I’d say it’s a bit more work than you may be used to, but this helps curb the habit of just setting new goals for the sake of boredom. This framework inherently takes more effort on your part, but that effort will only help you get to know yourself better and make sure the goals you set are actually aligned with your ideal self, the things you want to achieve while upholding your values. Rather than just writing down goals and cramming them into the SMART box, even if they don’t fit.
In summary, I’ll just remind you to take the time to set these goals. Doing an exercise like this is much more valuable than just writing down another overzealous plan fuelled by high octane motivation. We’ve all done this. It rarely works for real behaviour change. And if you want lasting behaviour change, you need to make sure the behaviours you’re adopting fit within the ideal version of you that you’re striving for, the values you hold and the constraints your life will always bring eventually.
Cheers,
Coach Dylan 🍻
References:
1. How To Effectively Set Your Fitness Goals
https://www.five-elements.ca/blog-2/how-to-effectively-set-your-fitness-goals
2. Unique effects of setting goals on behavior change: Systematic review and meta-analysis.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29189034/
3. The (over)use of SMART goals for physical activity promotion: A narrative review and critique
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35094640/
4. An Evidence-Based Approach To Goal Setting And Behavior Change
https://www.strongerbyscience.com/goal-setting/
5. How Focusing on Superordinate Goals Motivates Broad, Long-Term Goal Pursuit: A Theoretical Perspective
https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2018.01879/full