In its original version, the acronym stood for Specific, Measurable, Assignable ("specify who will do it"), Realistic, and Time-related, but it is now commonly interpreted as the setting of Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, and Time-bound goals. In assisting their clients to set appropriate goals, most public health and physical activity professionals are advised to use the "SMART" heuristic (Doran, Citation1981), which was first proposed as a mnemonic rule in a 965-word article published in Management Review by George Doran – a business consultant. Footnote 1 Furthermore, goal-setting is an effective behaviour change technique (Epton et al., Citation2017) that achieves substantive improvements in physical activity (McEwan et al., Citation2016). Goal-setting is one of the most commonly used behaviour-change techniques in interventions designed to increase physical activity (Howlett et al., Citation2019). Recommendations are provided to guide the field towards better practice and, ultimately, more effective goal setting interventions to help individuals become physically active.Ī goal is defined as what an individual is trying to accomplish – it is the aim or object of an action (Locke et al., Citation1981), such as to attain a specific standard of proficiency on a task (Locke & Latham, Citation2002). These issues are likely leading to sub-optimal outcomes, confusion, and inconsistency. ![]() Specifically, our review suggests that the SMART acronym: is not based on scientific theory is not consistent with empirical evidence does not consider what type of goal is set is not applied consistently is lacking detailed guidance has redundancy in its criteria is not being used as originally intended and has a risk of potentially harmful effects. Therefore, we aimed to narratively review and critically examine the scientific underpinnings of the SMART acronym and its application in physical activity promotion. ![]() While it is intuitive, and its practical value has been recognised, the scientific underpinnings of the SMART acronym are less clear. The SMART acronym (e.g., Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, Timebound) is a highly prominent strategy for setting physical activity goals.
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