How you can Set SMART Running Goals

Lol….you are so funny but you are so right!!!!! Go head Brandon!!!!!!!

எனக்கு ஆடம்பர மாளிகை வேண்டாம்
சிறிய அளவிலான வீடு போதும்
ஆபிஸ் வேண்டாம்
வீடே போதும்
ஓரு பாட்டி சமையல்

I actually just listened to a podcast explaining how a set goal and a deadline is exactly what took us to the moon. The podcaster argued that because our government doesn’t set deadlines anymore, our country hasn’t made any changes. I guess this argument has its points, but also? Setting deadlines for yourself will never go out of style sooooooo. I just really don’t know why any aspect of S.M.A.R.T. goals is irrelevant to the things you’re saying. Smart is the acronym, not the definition. Idk man, seems like click-bait to me. You’re making all these people misunderstand what that acronym is all about.

Any race tips for breaking 2:10 in the 800? I’m more of a 3200/5000 runner but am trying out the 800 for the first time in a race tomorrow

if you are talking abt those visions or mission stuff, why don’t you use VMOSA? How do you expect a tool can solve all problems? so funny.

Love this, DUMB goals!! Set those goals that set us on fire on the inside again, that explodes beyond ourselves!! ��

It was not a smart goal to think someone on YouTube could actually explain what they have to say in a straight forward organized context.

You are really a very great person. Thank you very much for this great video. I learn many things from this video. Now I am going to execute it. Thanks again.

People are not lazy. They simply have impotent goals that is, goals that do not inspire them.
Tony Robbins

I am enjoying to journal now. It brings clarity and I feel great after doing it.

I absolutely love this. Brendon You’ve gone and lit a fire under us again and given us the courage to dream BIG!

Thank you so much for sharing, I love the way  you explain & make things easy:)

This video makes a fundemental mistake, which is blurring the line between a “goal” which is in physical reality, and a vision/dream which is in visionary reality.

Your visions can be as lofty as you like, but making goals you will not reach kills your momentum, and weakens the strength of your declaration. If you ALWAYS accomplish your goals, you have accountability to yourself. If you always set goals you dont meet, then you no longer have the value of being able to guaruntee that you will do what you said you will do, precicely

Left brain is useful for some things, right braing is useful for vision, which can be as lofty as you like

DUMB is for people who are already SMART.
yes for beginners, they should use SMART then forwarded to DUMB.

Coz beginners have to be time bound otherwise they’d trapped in vicious cycle of procrastinations.
Notemy observations.

Brendan, much as I usually admire him, has missed the point here. He is mixing up Vision with Goals and Objectives. Yes I agree DUMB Vision and high-level Goals, but keep SMART Objectives.

Totally agree on SMART goals are BS. Over a decade of coaching and consulting work, I found there’s only one step when it comes to setting and completing/exceeding goals for individuals, teams and companies focus on building the system, rather than the outcome. The system, or habits of the individuals, is where all the success of accomplishing goals resides. Everything else is busy work.

I see your point about the lofty dreams of cultural leaders. However, it’s not very applicable to everybody in normal day life. You’re pulling examples of the outliers of the world.

Putting up too lofty of a goal that is outside of your wheelhouse can be just as foolish as not having goals at all.

Is it a ‘DUMB’ goal if I’m super passionate about basketball and want to play in the NBA against Lebron if I’m 5’8″ and 28 years old?

you don’t have to down one method to promote yours that dumb dumb. DUMD-SMART yea thats its D.u.m.d S.m.a.r.t.

Wow! Have watched a million motivation or goal setting videos and never saw this guy before. Powerful ideas. Thanks!

Happy New Year to you and your family Heather, I’m currently thinking about goals but I have a half (March) and full (October) booked to keep me training and still hoping to do Dopey 2020. Have fun doing the Disney half next week looking forward to the recap.

Already wrote my goals down! Also i was wondering if you could address something in an upcoming Q&A if you were meaning to do one soon. You’ve talked about cutting weight during cross season for longer distance races and would run 10-15 lbs lighter in the fall. How do/did you effectively cut weight?

our Physical education teacher tells us to use smart goals. I just make them in front of him then throw them away.:)

I always enjoy what you have to say, Brandon, however, I don’t believe that S.M.A.R.T. goals are set up to only to be used in a left brain way. In fact, I believe it truly depends upon how you go about this activity, and come to your answers! If, like the Saturday Night Live bunch of smart, L. and R. brained creates and visionaries, I can’t see them sitting quitely taking turns as the brainstorm their ideas, no way! I bet it looks like a Right Brained circus as they go back and forth creating it. And yet they better darn-tutton be timely, have order, be specific and ON TIME! Not to mention have a way to measure their effectiveness in all their skits and programs. But I’ll bet you anything they have to have their Left brainers to keep them on track dotting their i’s and crossing their t’s as well as their Right brained dreamers with so much creativity bursting from their little finger. Not to mention these folks have to accomplish this amazing feat of creativity and silliness every week, week in and week out! So again, I believe it’s in how and what your answers are what determines if it’s being done with the left or right brain. For instance, I can use my right brain when answering “S” “specific” answers as I list1. draw various logos 2. make time to find a song to represent my business. 3. pick the colors for my branding All of which can be L. or R brained activities, depending on how you go about doing them. And in fact, I would tout that it’s the Right brained folks that need S.M.A.R.T. Goals the most so that they stay on task and actually accomplish something. 98% of the time I agree with you Brandon, I just think here there may be another way see and do this! Best to you and your system though!

Excellent description of SMART goals.
My main event though secondary in terms of my usual running events is the Last Man(sic) Standing: that will be a test of my mental and physical fitness: my goal? 24hours, 24 × 4(and a little) mile laps = 100miles.
Achievable? Yes. Need to practice my walking techniques/walking speed.

Second goal: do the 24hr event again and stagger an extra lap…or 2?

I finished 2018 on a good note. Winter Star Ultra. 45miles. 7hrs 8mins… Over 55 mins faster than last year. 1st in age category and 8th overall….. perfect weather, cool and sunny with no rain….and my new Garmin 35 is working well!
Have a 12 hr fairly local event in 3ish weeks: will practice a bit of speed-walking during it.
Happy running to you.
I really do enjoy your vids as your enthusiasm…. intensity….shines through.

My concrete goal is to break 2:40 in the marathon. I am nearly 40 and been running consistently for about 27 months ❤️����
Looking forward to see the warm up routine ��

Thank you for this video, I was about to go remind myself about smart goals. Now watching this, I have remembered my big idea for the future. This video has given me q diffrent outlook on my tasks, and I want to re-focus on my dreams. Now as a teen I have learned more and more on how to do some of the things I am wanting to do in life, this video is helping point me in the right direction. Thank you for takeing the time to make this video.

Great video about the importance of goals, and what goals are. but if you added the difference between goals and objectives, the video would be even better. but above all, your style, tips and ethusiasm are uplifting!

thia is my assigantemt at AIU ONLINE FOR CRIMASL JUSTICE SICENCEN

I believe you have some misconceptions to the reasons why SMART is used. Its a management tool within business to create structure and evaluate efforts. Furthermore, its a dynamic process that tries to increase effeciency. What you are talking about in this video are actions of visionaries, and people that are in the top 5% of interlectual thinkers. These people do exist and are achieving great things. However, to relate a business management tool to someones dreams and ambitions is irrelvant. Think big works well for innovation, however, its only an ability of a small proportion of the population.

Okay, I’m fairly new to Brendon and his stuff and this video caught my eye, for the fact that it slated SMART goals. Now a million studies have been done on goal setting, and results consistently show that setting goals have positive effects. The size of the effect can depend on how emm… smartly, or how effective the goals set are. Again the evidence has proven SMART goals to be effective, they give something of a framework in to how set goals that will help you achieve bigger, or faster results and improvements. Nonetheless, I’m very much open to new and innovative thinking, so I was keen to see what he had to say.

So Brendon went with a different acronym, DUMB goals, obviously making the point that we shouldn’t simply subscribe to what the popular SMART method suggests, and that’s fine. While effective SMART goals have been proven to work, simply getting reverting to “in the box” and “completing the checklist” thinking is something we need to be wary of. In DUMB, I do like the D, and U. It’s good for goals to be exciting, so thinking big, going after dreams and picking uplifting goals, these sort of things are absolutely the sort of things that will inspire and motivate us to take the action to reach our goals. Though that’s not to say SMART goals don’t implement these, or at the very least that they can’t. There is nothing wrong with dreaming big, the challenge is that it can be disheartening if the goal we want to reach is seemingly a million miles away, which can result in people giving up, especially if they hit a bump or setback in their progress (very common). This is where setting short, medium and long-term goals is advantageous. By setting goals that are attainable in the short term that help us improve, we get closer to the long term dream. We also get uplifteda boost when we reach the targets set, whether that’s 2 minutes off a 10k race, finishing a module in the course we are doing, or hit a sales target. This gives us confidence, motivation and belief to push on towards that big dream goal (completing a marathon, getting a qualification, getting a promotion).

I fully agree with uplifting goals, though I wouldn’t say this is particularly radical or groundbreaking. Again, there is a wealth of literature that tells us that instructions should be positive, not negative. Typically people setting SMART goals know to set their goals in a positive mannerfocusing on what to do, move towards. That said, it’s not part of the SMART acronym, so this inclusion is a worthy part of the DUMB goal that helps us to remember to set us goals that will get us inspired/excited (although I have seen the Acronym “SMARTER” in which the E stands for exciting).

The M and B (in DUMB) I’m not crazy about. I don’t disagree with them, they just aren’t as clear or as concrete in terms of what we need to do. Okay, method based and behaviour driven, understoodbut these things don’t give me an instant feeling of “this is what I need to do”. Meanwhile in SMART goals, we can look at the goals we have set and quickly ask ourselves “is this a specific goal, can I measure this, what time frame am I working in””. There should be a method, a way of moving in the right direction, but the term Method-Based is too abstract and not specific enough for me. And on Behaviour Driven, goal setting is all about putting the framework in place to change our behaviour (that’s how we reach our goals), so setting behaviour driven as one of the fundamentals seems unnecessary. These parts of “DUMB” feel more to me like they are just filling in the letters in the (anti-SMART) acronym as opposed to serving an important and crucial purpose.

So overall, I like the part of the message that urges us to think big, get excited and to think outwith the parameters of “SMART”. Absolutely yes. But DUMB as a direct replacement to SMART? I’m afraid not for me. Principles such as being specific as to what you want to achieve, how you can measure your progress, whether the goal is achievable (and more importantly how to go about to achieving it), keeping records of your progress and having a time frame to do your stuff in are all worthwhile and beneficial things to think about and include when setting your goals. A lot of people will be uncertain of how to get maximum effectiveness from goal setting, there is a sizeable amount of groundwork to put in and you want to be effective with it, SMART goals will help the average person do that more than DUMB goals.

I’m interested in seeing more of Brendon’s vids, but coming from a sport psychology perspective, I wouldn’t go reinventing the wheel on this one.

Awesome indeed……………..super enthusiastic……..Thanks for sharing.

love smart goals! Every year we, as a family, write our goals/bucket list on a large piece of paper and hang it on the wall. We are reminded daily of what we set out to do and we get the satisfaction of checking things off the list! One of my goals is to get my running coach cirt., I know you are a running coach and was wondering how or where you received yours. Any help is greatly appreciated!

I’m holding off on making any new running goals until after Marathon weekend when I meet my goal of running my first half marathon but I definitely want to do more races in 2019 than in 2018. I’ve already learned that I’m super motivated by bling so I want to find some races to do with really cool medals.

Now see, I just want to run all the races, so my goal is to show some restraint. Some. Boy is that going to be hard. But my other goals are to… run 1,000 miles this year, PR my full marathon and my 10K, possibly PR my half or 10 miler time for a better corral placement for a future WDW full/dopey. And to have lots of fun running and maintain the joy that running brings me.

Thank you for the video! I’m doing my goalsetting at a good way ��✔️… the why is so important! Happy New Year to you and yours Heather…

I love your attitude and I don’t want to detract from your message, but I think you are mixing up business jargon.

KPIs are measurable performance indicators which can be trended over time. Businesses use KPIs to trend costs, manufacturing capability, etc. If you want to apply the concept to running, then an example might be VO2 max which you can track pretty frequently. Resolution is important for KPIs. Selecting race shoes is a good milestone, but not a KPI because it is a single event and not possible to trend. Setting specific milestones is also a good idea for achieving a desired goal, so I’ll give you a mulligan.

I’ve been following most of the best known middle distance runner’s carreer since I fell in love and practiced this beautiful sport, and I can’t believe that you’re sharing your experiences with us!!! I’m a huge fan of yours so thanks a lot for doing this…

Greetings and best wishes from Costa Rica!!!

You can do the sub 10sec.100m Nick! I’ll keep watching your progress.

I am an amateur soccer player. how can I run fast is there any tips

Hi Ian, you brought up some very valuable insights in this video. My wife/coach insists that I start doing time trials and shorter distance races after I recover from CIM. I scoffed at the idea at first, but I soon realized I’m completely untested at anything shorter than the half. I’m stoked to try these time trials now! I agree with you that there should be an effort and mindfulness to be a balanced athlete. So, I’m relieved that my coach isn’t completely leading me astray��.

Otherwise, I like your three tier goal setup. I only have a two tier goal list, which seems to put a lot more pressure on me from an expectation standpoint. My A goal (top) for CIM is within a minute or two from 2:40. My B goal is a sub 2:45. My B goal is driven by my desire to run either Berlin or Tokyo as my second marathon along with my first Boston in 2020/2021. Best wishes to you and your running endeavors in 2020!

My 2020 goals:
Sub 2:40 marathon
Sub 1:17 half
10K no clue
5K no clue
1 mile I hope sub 5
800m no clue
400m no clue. Ah the joy of being a dumb endurance runner!

Glad to see another video from you. I’m in my first ever training cycle and I’m going for sub 1:50 in half marathon. I’d be quite happy if I hit 1:45. I think I’m scheduled to race in Feb, but it will be a personal race and not anything official. Just trying to get in decent shape. I’ve had the goal of a 6min mile for a few years but never trained for it. I think they may be my goal after the half. Cheers.

Idk that you could be a bison, a G.O.A.T and a bird at the same time

You and Centrowitz should have had a race over 1150/1200 in 2013.

Hello Brendon. I’m been following you for quite sometime now and have learned so much! Now it came to my attention that your videos don’t have any captions for people that don’t understand English. I’m trying to share your videos with my friends on the other side of the world but they can’t understand. Is there anyway you can add captions. Thanks

Nick best of luck with this challenge. Had the pleasure seeing you compete in the Olympics.

Any clue what 1:59 split times should be for the 800. If I get it it would be my school record.( My school isn’t too good at distance running) Also my time last year was a 2:08 and I’m a junior. Any chance I could drop that much time this outdoor track season. (I’m currently doing swim for my school but still do weekend runs)

My goal is sub- 6:00 in the Mile which would be a PB at age 52. PS I see you’re getting you PPL and there was a pic of you in front of a Cirrus. Are you doing it in the Cirrus? I got mine last year in a C172 and then transitioned to the SR20. You’re going to really enjoy it. My flying goal this year is to get my Instrument and then transition to the SR22T:)

What’s going on Nick! Big fan here. No one big like yourself. What’s your opinion on recovering after a fasciotomy surgery? I’ve been healing for almost 2 months now. I still want to go 2:25 in the marathon and 14:20 in the 5k. Just don’t know where to find the patience after surgery. Also, it would be great to see you come down to Texas! I’ll be there waiting to get a autograph. Booya!!

Hey Nick, just curious… when you were a professional at the height of your career (2012 Olympic final most epic race ever!) what was your 800m goal time??

I want to break 1.54 this year and I got the speed but I gotta work on my endurance so any tips on that?

MAYBE AFT. SOME HARD RUNNING….U CAN COME HOME N LOOK OUT THE WINDOW N SEE PREEE???

My goal is to go sub 9:55 in the 2 mile and 4:35 in the mile. (Also im a hs sophomore).

Aggie Muster track meet should be open to non-NCAA athletes, one of the first meets in on the new Texas A&M track

Nick thank you so much, you are the most inspiring person I’ve ever seen. You really struck a chord in me. Brother, I’m also an Eagle Scout!

Because of you, I’m going to start building a brand of myself. I’m interested in doing something involving the outdoors; what first came to mind was backpacking. Right now I’m struggling to find a backpacking goal:/

Thanks to you, this is the first time I’ve ever had these thoughts!!!! I’m grateful for your videos, please keep it up!

Love the series! Is it sub 11 goal specifically hand timed or electric? I have my own goal for you. Sub 11.50. Am I allowed to do that? lol. What about getting a 60m time in practice or meet? Mine is 7.40s electric. But not sure exactly what that equates to for the 100m? My guess has always been 11.40-11.70s. The 60m time was indoor so no helping wind. You are very articulate and enjoyable to listen watch.

This is typical MBA style education fitting enough for low-class Managers.

This is definitely the best SMART goals explanation I’ve ever watched on YouTube

Do you have any advice on breaking the 5 minute mile. I am currently in 9th grade.

Good luck with going sub 11! What’s on the framed sticky note on your bedside table?!

well done on another great video! i will be setting my 100 meters time on Thursday and then setting my goal! i only have middle distance spikes as well so i will be looking forward to your review on sprinting spikes

Do you happen to know what your fastest 100m split was during another race in your career?

I find Smart goals pointless & inflexible. To each their own. I always go by vision & flow. Great vid Brendon.

great video as always, aprreciate it!:) btw, you and your videos inspired me moving up from 400 to 800-1500m, and now u are moving down, lol ;D

Thanks for this video Nick! I have goals to run 48 seconds for the 400m and run a 1:55 second 800m this season (ends April). Despite having attained some extremely impressive accolades throughout your career your desire to push yourself to the max makes me feel the need to work harder. Keep up the great work!

volume is low compared to previous video. but still really appreciate it.

The SMART metodoly doesn’t say you can set high. It says that, doesn’t matter your goal, you must plan how to get there.

The previous race is like fun to you you are good all rounder…..but nice lines comming from you and my goal is to bring 1.55 my 800m time.. we are working together

I think it’s not enough to set a balanced score card to get good results. It is good to implement enterprise risk management to ensure a good results and don’t lose time in re-evaluating your process with no clue in the source of failure

I don’t agree with this. Goals are broad aims you what to achieve. Objectives are specific and have clearly defined milestones that must be achieved to reach your goal. More that one objective may need to be achieved to reach goal.

The older video explaining smart goals was way better. It explained smart goals in a clearer and more in depth way. Why did you make it private?

We use it with the following terms: Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant and Time-bound, and it works pretty well.

Awesome! I’ve learned, a ton from your vids over the years, and applied that knowledge to multiple organizations with great success.