Of course -- we all have!
At the top of every year we tend to have a very positive outlook.
We create a laundry list of things we are going to change in our lives in a magnificent way. There’s nothing wrong with being positive, but when making goals for long term lifestyle changes, being too ambitious may set you up for failure.
It’s best to set realistic goals, as opposed to shooting for the whole cash cow right off the bat.
We’ve all said things like, “I’ll get that bikini body by swimsuit season” and then started working our tails off to achieve that goal. A bikini body doesn’t happen overnight. After several months of butt kicking and still no beach body, we tend to get discouraged despite our strong efforts and quit.
Instead, we would better benefit from making goals like, “I’m going to start lifting weights for 30 minutes two days a week for the next two weeks” then checking in to see how well we did. If you met the first goal with ease and felt that maybe you could fit in a cardio workout for 30 minutes after one of the weight lifting sessions, make that your next goal. Continue on with small goals that build upon one another and you most likely will find yourself successfully and confidently achieving that ultimate goal that seemed daunting at first.
Try using the acronym S.M.A.R.T. to guide you through five simple steps towards making New Year’s resolutions that will lead to success:
Specific
Write down in detail exactly what your goal will be. This should be well defined.
Examples:
- Walking or running harder, faster, or longer.
- Lifting more weight on the leg press.
- Replacing white bread with whole grain bread in my sandwich during lunch.
- Incorporating more fruit into my diet
Measurable
Write down the goal in a way that it can be measured numerically.
Examples:
- I will decrease my mile pace by 30 seconds, I will run one mile further than my current max mileage of ___ miles every day. I will walk two times around my block three times per week.
- I will add 10 pounds to my current max weight of ___ on the leg press.
- I will replace white bread with whole grain bread in my sandwich three days per week.
- I will add 1 piece of fruit to my diet two days each week.
Achievable
Make sure you are not setting yourself up for failure. Set goals that are humanly possible. Losing 100 pounds of weight in a month is not possible. Ultimate goals like that take time to achieve, so instead focus on small persistent attainable goals that will lead to your final objective.
Realistic
There is no ‘one size fits all’ in goal setting. One person may find that their goal will be to increase their mileage by two miles every week, but maybe running just 5 minutes extra would be a more suitable challenge for you. If someone asked you how confident you were in achieving your goal on a scale of 1-10 you should be at a confident seven. If not, maybe you should reconsider your goal.
Timely
Set a time frame in which your goal should be accomplished. Once that time frame is complete evaluate yourself and see how well you did. You may feel confident in the change you made and feel ready to add another goal or increase the difficulty/frequency of your goal or you may realize you need to take it back a notch and give yourself a more realistic goal.
Examples:
- I will decrease my mile pace by 30 seconds within two weeks, I will run one mile further than my current max mileage of ___ miles every day for the next week. I will walk two times around my block three times per week for the next three weeks.
- By the end of the month I will have added 10 pounds to my current max weight of ___ on the leg press.
- I will replace white bread with whole grain bread in my sandwich three days per week for the next month.
- I will add 1 piece of fruit to my diet two days each week for the next two weeks.
What is your SMART resolution this year? Please share in the comments section below.
Fireworks photo credit:
maf04 via photopin cc
