Patients come to our practice for numerous reasons, some with referrals from physicians or specialists and others who come directly to us. Regardless of their path into our office, we want to work with each patient early on in setting physical therapy goals so that we have a measuring stick by which to gauge their progress.
Patients should set physical therapy goals that are specific, measurable, realistic, and focused on meaningful improvements in their daily lives. Break long-term recovery into smaller milestones, celebrate progress, and adjust goals as your strength, mobility, and function improve.
In this article, we’ll discuss the difference between short-term and long-term goals in physical therapy and help you understand how to measure your progress along the way.
The SMART acronym for goal setting in physical therapy
Before we provide specific examples, we’ll discuss how we, as physical therapists, think about goal setting. We typically use what is called the SMART framework to help patients create goals that are clear and achievable.
Whether your physical therapist use these terms with you or not, the goals we help you set in your initial evaluation should generally follow this format.
Here’s why we like it: rather than setting a broad goal like “I want to get better,” SMART goals define exactly what success looks like and how you’ll know you’ve reached it.
SMART stands for:
- Specific: Focus on one clear objective (such as walking without a cane or reaching overhead)
- Measurable: Progress can be tracked (walking farther, bending a knee to a certain angle, reducing your pain from an 8 to a 3, etc)
- Achievable: Goals should challenge you while remaining realistic for your current stage of recovery
- Relevant: Your goals should reflect the activities that matter most to you (returning to work, playing with your grandchildren, getting back to your favorite sport, etc)
- Time-Bound: Setting a target timeframe helps you and your therapist evaluate your progress and adjust your treatment plan if needed
For example, instead of saying, “I want my shoulder to feel better,” a SMART goal might be: “Within six weeks, I want to reach into my kitchen cabinets without pain.”
Short-Term and Long-Term Goals: Why we recommend both
We don’t recover all at once. Instead, recovery happens through a series of small wins that build toward a larger outcome. That’s why we encourage patients to think about both short-term and long-term goals from the beginning of treatment.
Short-term goals help us measure progress over the next several weeks. Long-term goals keep us focused on the reason you came to physical therapy in the first place, and working towards them may involve continuing to progress your home exercise program after discharge.
Together, they give your treatment direction and allow us to celebrate meaningful progress along the way.
What we mean by short-term goals
Short-term goals are the milestones you’ll work toward first, and generally apply to the specific bout of physical therapy we’re currently engaged in.
In other words, these goals should be achievable within 1-3 months of beginning the rehabilitation process.
These goals are designed to improve the specific limitations we identify during your evaluation and should be achievable within a reasonable period of time.
Depending on your condition, a short-term goal might be:
- Reducing pain
- Improving balance
- Increasing shoulder range of motion
- Walking around the block without needing to stop and rest
While these goals may seem small, they’re often the building blocks that make your larger recovery possible.
What we mean by long-term goals
At the risk of stating the obvious, long-term goals are those we think will take longer than three months, but likely less than a year (say, between 3-9 months).
More importantly, long-term goals answer a simple question: What do you want to get back to doing?
For some people, that’s returning to work without restrictions. For others, it’s hiking, golfing, gardening, keeping up with grandchildren, or simply getting through the day without thinking about pain.
These goals are more personal, which is why we spend time discussing them during your physical therapy evaluation. Your treatment plan shouldn’t just improve your symptoms. It should help you get back to living the life you want to live.
How you’ll know you’re making progress
Many patients expect progress to be measured only by their level of pain relief, but that’s just one part of the picture.
As you move through therapy, we’ll also look at improvements in your strength, mobility, balance, endurance, and ability to perform everyday activities. Maybe you’re climbing stairs more easily, sleeping through the night, or carrying groceries without discomfort. Those are all signs that your body is recovering, even if you aren’t completely pain-free yet.
Recovery isn’t always a straight line. Some weeks you’ll notice dramatic improvement, while others may feel slower. That’s normal, and it’s reason we measure progress in several different ways.
When goals should change
Goals aren’t meant to stay the same throughout your entire course of physical therapy.
As you reach one milestone, we’ll establish the next one. If your recovery is progressing faster than expected, we’ll challenge you with new objectives. If you experience a setback, we’ll adjust your goals so they remain realistic rather than concluding that physical therapy didn’t work.
The goal-setting process should evolve as you do. By revisiting your goals throughout treatment, we can make sure we’re always working toward the outcomes that matter most to you.
Every patient’s journey is different, but one thing remains the same: meaningful recovery happens one goal at a time. By setting realistic expectations, tracking your progress, and adjusting your goals as needed, you’ll be better prepared to return to the activities that matter most to you.
