I’m a big advocate for setting goals. I constantly talk about goals with my clients, my students, my friends and my family. I train and coach for it. It is a starting point of all performance management initiatives. I bet all of you had to set S.M.A.R.T. goals at some point in your career. Maybe it’s just a mandatory exercise for you, maybe you do it willingly and regularly.

I’ve been running for a couple of years now, but it’s really been this year that I took it up a notch. I ran more often, fairly regularly, faster and longer. At the beginning of the year I told myself that I will run 50k each month. It was a S.M.A.R.T. goal. It was specific, measurable, attainable and timely. Realistic, a bit of a stretch, but something I thought I could do.

Each month I came under. I was anywhere between 24 and 43k. It didn’t really bother me much, I was happy with my performance. I settled. It was good enough.

However, I wasn’t reaching my goal. Not once since April till September. I’ve reached some milestones in terms of time and distance, but not my overall goal. Something always came up. Vacation, people visiting, too much work, the weather, you name it, there was always an excuse.

At the end of September, my friend wrote to me what her running goal for the month of October was. I replied that I will run 50k in October. I wrote it down. I committed. There it was, a SMART goal with all it had to have, the same goal I set six months ago, except this time it was down on paper. I told someone I will do it. Suddenly, it had a whole new meaning. The accountability kicked in. I committed. It was my word.

Not that it changed much at first. The first week I had two strong long runs, so I was happy and figured that at this rate it’ll be a piece of cake. Then I stopped paying attention. Around the 20th I counted and saw I was ok, but should run a bit more often. On the 27th I knew exactly what was left and how many times I needed to run until the end of October. I had to go at least 3 more times and there were only 4 days left.

The problem now really was the weather. It was nasty. Cold, heavy rain, extremely windy. I really didn’t want to go outside. But I put my running shoes on and I went. And then again the next day.  And the next. And for the first time, I reached that goal.

It was an exhilarating and seriously eye-opening experience. At the end, I was focused like never before. My goal became my priority.  Interestingly, my pattern of working toward something hasn’t changed, even when the goal was set. But the outcome has changed. I achieved my goal.

All this led me to understand that setting SMART goals is a good start, but it’s not enough. It’s not enough to type it up and send it off to HR or to your manager. You need that extra dimension. It’s commitment. Writing it down. Telling someone you will do it. You need that accountability piece.

Once you add that dimension, maybe it will become something more than just that mandatory exercise for you. I know it will for me, because I saw it work. I saw how it forced me to go out there when I really didn’t want to. And I know that without that commitment, I would have just stayed home and I would have come under yet another month.