Setting SMART Goals for Recovery

Recovery from an eating disorder is made up of many small steps. In order to achieve your long term goals you will need to break these goals into smaller manageable pieces to work on over days, weeks and months. What these goals look like specifically will be completely unique to you however a good overall approach to goals setting is to have ‘SMART’ goals.

‘SMART’ stands for Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant and Time-bound.

Achievable

The goal set must be specific; it should be sensible, simple and clear, not abstract or confusing. You and your supports should know exactly what you need to do to achieve the goal. For example, you might consider what is involved in achieving the goal, what resources you need and a clear idea of why the goal is important.

Example 1: Eating Regularly

Setting yourself the goal to “eat regularly” is not specific. Eating regularly is an excellent long term goal but in order to achieve it you need to break it down into specific steps starting with a specific step like “I will eat breakfast each day”

Example 2: Stop Binge Eating

Setting yourself the goal to “stop binge eating” is also a good long-term goal but not specific. Instead you could start with a step such as “when the urge to binge comes up I will distract myself”

Measurable

If your goals are measurable you’ll be able to track your progress more easily. If you are able to measure your success you will find that you stay motivated to achieve you goal. A measurable goal addresses the following questions: How much? How many? How will I know when I have achieved this goal?

Let’s add to our example goals

Example 1: Eating Regularly

I will eat breakfast of eggs on toast in the kitchen each day between 8am and 9am. Mum will cook and sit with me while I eat

Example 2: Stop Binge Eating

When the urge to binge comes up I will distract myself for at least 10 minutes with a television show.

Achievable

The goal must be achievable; it cannot be so difficult and unattainable that you are not likely to complete it. Giving yourself unachievable goals sets you up for failure and failing leaves you feeling unmotivated to try again.

If we think about our examples it would be unachievable for someone who has been restricting their variety and is fearful of many foods to set themselves a goal “to eat whatever the rest of the family is eating at breakfast lunch and dinner” as a first step. It would also likely be unachievable for someone who has been binge eating every day for months to set themselves a goal “to not binge eat for the next two weeks” as a first step. There is nothing wrong with these goals as medium or long term goals but they are not achievable today.

It can be tempting to set high expectations for yourself and try to rush towards your long term goal but sustainable change comes from setting small achievable goals and building on the over time.

Relevant

The goals must be relevant to you. They need to make sense in terms of what you want for your future and what is important to you in your life and for your recovery.

If you are already feeling comfortable with eating breakfast each day whilst you could set a specific, measurable and achievable goal to “eat breakfast each day” this wouldn’t be relevant as it doesn’t help you to move forward towards your larger goal of eating regularly. Instead you might move on to working on to a goal such as “eat breakfast, lunch and dinner each day”

Timely

It is important for every goal to have a target date. Will this goal be achieved today, in the next 2 weeks, 3 months or 6 months? The timeline will likely depend on how complex the goal is.

For example, you may have a goal to find some distraction activities to help you with your urges to binge eat. This is a helpful goal but does not have all the elements we need. In order to make this a smart goal you might instead set a goal “to write a list of at least 10 potential distraction activities and to try 2 activities off the list within two weeks”.