Are your goals SMART?

By Cheryl Wylie, MSc (PT)

What is a SMART goal?

SMART goals stand for Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant and Time-bound. The purpose of a SMART goal is to provide clarity and guidance in your goal, which will ultimately make it easier to develop a plan and achieve.

Let’s use this common goal:

“I want to feel less dizzy”

And let’s make it SMART.

Specific

Goals need to be clear and detailed. Vague goals can feel overwhelming. Going back to our example goal of “I want to feel less dizzy” we can be more specific by saying:

“I want to have less vertigo attacks”

Measurable

If you have no way of measuring a goal, it’s touch to know when you’ve met it. If we look at our progress with our current goal, we want to add a measurable feature to it. Let’s now say

“I want to have less than 2 vertigo attacks per year”

Attainable

Avoid overly grand goals. Instead base them on what you realistically can do. Is less than 2 vertigo attacks per year attainable for you based on where you currently are at? If not, lets make this more realistic by saying

“I want to have less than 2 vertigo attacks per month”

Relevant

Is your goal important to your life right now? You don’t want to set goals just for the sake of having a goal. It should have purpose, or you may find it difficult to stick with. For example, maying vertigo attacks are not your only concern and you want want to feel better day to day as well. We can then say

“I want to have less than 2 vertigo attacks and less than 10 dizzy days per month”

Time-bound

Does your goal have a time frame which is suitable and something you can achieve right now? Looking at our goal, when do we hope to achieve this? Is this something we can do in the first month or will it take some time to get to this rate? We can place a time frame on this by stating

“By September, I want to have less than 2 vertigo attacks and less than 10 dizzy days per month”.

So now we have taken a very vague goal of:

“I want to feel less dizzy”

And have turned it into a SMART goal:

“By September, I want to have less than 2 vertigo attacks and less than 10 dizzy days per month”

Tips to Achieve your SMART Goals

• Be open to adjusting your goals as you go - sometimes you don’t know what is attainable or relevant yet.

• Take your SMART goal and break it down into smaller SMART goals to begin. What is your goal in the first month? How about the first week?

• Reward yourself along the way and acknowledge the progress you have made. Rewards can look like self-talk, treats, outings, etc.

• Monitor progress with a diary (e.g. Migraine Tracker) or outcome measure (e.g. Dizziness Handicap Inventory). 

• Don’t do it alone. Find an online support group or a healthcare provider to have check ins.

• Stay kind to yourself! Changes are hard, and set backs will occur. Give yourself grace when this happens, regain focus and carry on.

Goal setting is something we will do together when initiating a vestibular rehabilitation program. If you are experiencing dizziness in any way and are looking for help setting goals and achieving them, please reach out to Healing Vertigo to chat! Vestibular Physiotherapy can be very helpful in the reduction of many symptoms of dizziness, imbalance, headaches, pain and more.

We look forward to helping you set and achieve your goals this year!