You Set Goals For Your Clients... What About You?

One of the biggest tasks facing fitness professionals is setting proper goals for their clients. You know the deal, your client comes to you and they have a goal in mind, they flat out tell you their goals and want your help in achieving them. The thing is, are also setting goals for yourself?

There are so many trainers that let their businesses and skills get stale and outdated. Where do you think they end up in a few years? I'm willing to bet for the most part they definitely are not where they want to be. What about you? Where do you want to be?

Are you setting challenging, worthwhile goals for yourself and your own business?

The power of goal setting is incredible. The process of crafting a goal along with an action plan and following the steps to achieving it are greatly rewarding and cause us to feel tremendously good about ourselves and our new found progress. Why don't we live our lives like this everyday?

One thing I've found to be very helpful for not only myself but for other fitness professionals is the same exact formula for setting goals that we are taught to teach to our clients. It's the SMART goal setting formula, and you know something? It works when you actually use it.

If your not familiar with SMART goal setting or need a refesher since everyone seems to teach it a little bit differently, here is what it stands for:

The SMART Goal Setting Formula

Specific: a number, habit or action as a goal.
What exactly do I want to achieve?

Measureable: a set amount, process or steps to accomplish.
How am I going to measure my success?

Action: actions you will take.
What actions am I going to take to achieve this goal?

Realistic: you know it can be accomplished.
Is my goal reasonable for me to achieve?

Time-Bound: by a certain date, even time.
When do I want to achieve this by?

In order to use this information, remember something very critical. Always use a present tense when setting your SMART goals. For instance use "I am", "I enjoy", "I have", etc. Don't try to make it something past or future tense, make it in the now.

When you start setting SMART goals for yourself and your business, you start seeing what I like to call "intelligent reactions" happening around you. Things start to flow. Clients start to come to you almost effortlessly. People start talking about the results you are getting for them. You bring about more confidence in yourself and into your business. You begin to start looking at bigger and better things that you are capable of.

Don't sell yourself short. Really push yourself to make a challenging goal for yourself that you know you can do. If you are still having trouble figuring out how to set a SMART goal for yourself, check out the following example:

I am steadily attracting five new qualified personal training clients using my integrated marketing approaches of direct mailings, networking and referrals into my business by May 15th, 2006.

Let's break that down so it makes some more sense...

Specific: "qualified personal training clients"
Measureable: "five"
Action: "using my integrated marketing approaches of direct mailings, networking and referrals"
Realistic: (signing up five personal training clients is fairly realistic for most fitness professionals)
Time-Bound: "May 15th, 2006"

Now go ahead and make up some of your own SMART goals to follow. Don't limit them to just your business, expand them for yourself. Think about your own personal goals, educational goals, relationship goals, community goals, financial goals and health goals. You should be setting goals in those areas as well.

I'll leave you with three favorite quotes of mine about today's lesson on goals...

"A properly set goal is halfway reached." - Zig Ziglar

"Your ability to set and achieve goals is perhaps the most important skill you can ever develop." - Brian Tracy

"Without goals, and plans to reach them, you are like a ship that has set sail with no destination." - Fitzhugh Dodson

http://www.evolvingfitnesspro.com/