The difference is in the approach!
Hello and, again, a happy new year to you all! Now that the holiday rush seems to be settling down (and snow days on the East Coast seem to be on the rise), it’s a good time to reflect and set your sights on the goals you have for 2015.
As a health and wellness professional, I often encounter individuals with the best intentions for change and a healthier life, but the realization of these plans seems to evade them. This sort of set back or lack of direction can be disheartening and zap the motivation you had to achieve your dreams. Thus, as promised in my previous blog, I’m setting out to hopefully provide some guidance toward goal achievement!
When it comes to setting goals, the main authority on the matter is YOU! If a person feels pressured into a life change that they didn’t initiate, the motivation to achieve the change isn’t there. It can also hurt you if you actively work against your goal (consciously or subconsciously) as a form of rebellion. As such, step one for goal-setting for me is to make sure I’m the one setting the goal. This doesn’t mean you can’t take the advice from a well-meaning family member; just that they aren’t the ones making the decision here. (And if you think YOU are that well-meaning family member, well…you might want to rethink your approach).
hmmm…
Once you have a goal in mind, it’s time to make it SMART: Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, Timely.
Since I’m a wellness person, we’ll use increased wellness as our example goal for this exercise.
Let’s say I’ve decided to “be healthier in 2015.” That sounds pretty awesome, but I have no idea what that means. Further, each person will define that differently! In order to keep myself on track and focused on my desired goal, I need to be more specific. Instead of “be healthier” maybe my goal will be “lower cholesterol via lifestyle and diet changes” or “improve the condition of my joints so I can be more active” or “eat foods that have only have 5 (recognizable) ingredients or less” or, the all-time favorite of many, “lose xx pounds”.
Now that my goal is specific I can start a plan to actually get myself there, which brings us to our next step: make your goal Measurable. We’ll continue with the first example from above, “lower cholesterol via lifestyle and diet changes.” In order to measure my progress, I have to know where I am now. For our cholesterol example, this means I need a doctor’s appointment unless I know what my cholesterol is already.
Total cholesterol is made up of HDL (good aka helpful cholesterol) and LDL (bad aka harmful cholesterol), and there are desirable levels for each of them. For simplicity’s sake, we’ll just look at Total cholesterol, or TC.
Keeping your cholesterol in a desirable range helps prevent many health issues, especially those pertaining to the cardiovascular system. To be “desirable”, your TC should be under 200 mg/dol. Let’s say my latest check up shows my current TC at 280 mg/dol. Knowing where I’m starting from helps me keep my goal measurable: I need to lower my TC by at least 80 mg/dol.
Next up is making sure our goals are Attainable and Relevant, and I tend to think of these two as a complementary pair. Attainable goals are things that are possible for me to do: ie, if my goal is to fly it is NOT possible for me to sprout wings, but it is possible for me to consider things like para-sailing or parachuting. Relevant goals are things that make sense for me to do: ie, if my goal is to fly, buying roller blades probably won’t help me.
Alright, digressing back to our example of lowering cholesterol. Never going out to eat again is Attainable, and would probably help me lower cholesterol, but it isn’t really Relevant to my lifestyle now, and I would miss out on the opportunity to socialize which is in important component of overall wellness.
Having a recipe in mind when writing your grocery list can help you stay on track while shopping. Having multiple recipes in mind that use the same or similar ingredients can help you cut down on waste and keep your grocery bill low!
Making sure that I am prepared when I go grocery shopping by having recipes in mind and a list to follow will help me keep my cholesterol down when eating at home. Making sure I’m prepared when eating out means looking up menus in advance and knowing what I’ll order before arriving. I might even make a habit of calling in advance to ask about food preparation. Being armed with this information will make me a more informed consumer, and will help me feel in control of my cholesterol no matter where I am. Feeling empowered will keep me motivated at times when lifestyle changes get hard (because those times will come, no matter what your goal is).
Finally, we need to make our goals Timely. As in, it needs a deadline. Saying “I’ll lower my cholesterol by 80 mg/dol via lifestyle changes at some point” is nothing compared to stating “I’ll lower my cholesterol by 80 mg/dol via lifestyle changes by Dec 1, 2015.”
And while being very specific is essential for success, it’s also important to be flexible. Don’t expect to make a lot of changes at once, and give yourself some grace if you stumble from time to time. We’re only human, after all!
What are some ways you set goals that are geared toward success? What are some struggles you have had with goal achievement? How have you overcome those struggles? What have you learned about yourself along the way?
Happy goal-achieving in 2015!
lifezeal 