How To Set A Goal You Can Achieve, Ep #009
Today's episode is all about setting goals. If you are like most of my patients, you have set lots of goals in your life around health and weight. Maybe you haven't always been successful with them, maybe you haven't always accomplished them, maybe you haven't even started them. Some of that may be that you are choosing the wrong goal. It is the beginning of 2023 and many people like to start their year by setting a goal, but you can set goals any time of the year so don't let a date on a calendar limit you. Today I'm gonna teach you how to set goals that you can actually achieve and how to set yourself up for success!
Points of interest...
Is your goal specific [2:18]
Is your goal measurable? [4:14]
Is your goal attainable? [6:43]
Is your goal realistic? [9:16]
Does your goal have a deadline? [11:43]
Once you have a goal how do you make it happen? [15:55]
Getting help with your goal [21:43]
Setting SMART goals that are specific and realistic
When you find yourself thinking about your goals for the year or the month or your life, think about them in S.M.A.R.T. terms so that you can create success. Is your goal specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, and have a timeline?
Let’s talk about what specific and realistic goals look like. If your goal is to get healthier, be more specific by saying getting healthier is something like reducing your A1C by a full point, getting your cholesterol under 200, or being able to walk up a flight of stairs without feeling short of breath. An exercise goal, maybe not I want to exercise more, but I want to exercise five days a week. So that's getting a little bit more realistic and specific with your goals. Those are specific. What may be a realistic weight loss goal? A goal of between 5-10% is a pretty realistic and you will see significant health benefits from a 10% weight loss.
Once you get real and specific with your goals then you need to come up with how you're going to get there.
Making it happen!
Once you have a good goal how do you make it happen? One of the most important things is to write your goal down. Make it real. Put it somewhere you can see it. You might even consider sharing it with people. That is an important part of accountability and making things real so consider sharing your goal with people in some way.
The next thing is to come up with a plan. If your goal is to eat more vegetables, what's your plan to get there? If you know that you're not eating very many, figure out why. Do you not like them? Do you not buy them? Is it just not part of your habit? Then figure out how to solve those problems. If you don't buy them, you need to be intentional and say, okay, part of my plan is every Sunday I'm either going to go to the grocery store or I'll order groceries and I'll make sure that I order the vegetables I need for the week. Additionally, have a backup plan. Your first plan is to have fresh veggies but the backup plan might be keeping frozen vegetables around so that you always have something available.
That is going to help you turn your goal from a dream, from a vision, from an intention into a concrete thing you can accomplish.
So set a good smart goal. Declare your goal to the world, or at least yourself. Then come up with a plan of how you can actually achieve that goal. Sometimes you might need help, there are lots of goals that you may not be able to accomplish completely on your own. You may need a specialist, trainer, or coach to help you reach your goals. That is another way to achieve your goal is if you're not having the success you want, find out who the expert is who can help you because there's an expert on everything and they're kind of easy to find nowadays.
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