A new year has come around, and many people are busy writing down goals they will soon forget. This will not be a negative post about how lazy or unintentional most people are. But many people go through the motions of creating objectives but abandon them. How does a person stick to what they want to do?
Life gets in the way. It’s January 2022, and Omicron (I want to say Omicron Persei 8, but it is not an episode of Futurama) is running rampant. Even so, Omicron has not stopped people from resuming normalcy. Life getting in the way is an everyday occurrence. The same is true of people who fall into the normalcy of not achieving their goals.
Of course, there are other factors. Family, raising kids, school stress, job stress, a sick family member, car accident. The list can grow even further. Sometimes these occurrences are setbacks. Other times they have you slam into a brick wall and leave you flat as a pancake. After peeling yourself off the wall, sometimes the best thing is to indulge in an edible stress reliever. There goes that new diet for.
Stress
Speaking of stress, let’ get into this dangerous condition with an example. If you deal with people daily, you are going to encounter someone unpleasant. After such an exchange, a person may fall back into a habit they wanted to break. They might take a few drags of a cigarette or hit the convenience store for that frosty beer. Or eat something that will make them feel oh-so-good.
Breaking habits is hard enough. But breaking habits while achieving new year resolutions can be challenging. How can a person stay on track through the spontaneity of negative occurrences? Developing a plan to overcome difficulties is essential if a person wants to achieve their goals.
Expect that “stuff” will happen
A goal is a shiny new object that many people want to have. The path to getting to that object will have a lot of difficulties in your way. How you deal with the mess will lead you to (or from) your goal. If you have a stressful job and feel drained at the end of the day, what is your regular habit? For many people, it’s picking up fast food. That quick fix of something delicious and terrible for you will bring temporary joy. But what could you do instead?
You could knock the crap out of the punching bag at the gym or get a deep-tissue massage. But for those of you who need to eat something, then find an alternative. You could find a healthy eatery that has something on the menu you would enjoy. You can indulge in that item and get those much-needed feel-good endorphins, all while keeping your calorie count low.
The message: get creative in addressing your stress so it does not become a roadblock to your goal.
S.M.A.R.T Goals
Lack of a plan is the downfall for most people and their goals. It’s easy to say, “I want to lose 20lbs”, and write that in your phone or notebook or put it on the wall. But how much planning is there behind it? Are you planning on working out? How often are you going to work out? Are you going to do weight training or cardio? How many times per week will you work out? And there is the eating, drinking water, getting rest, etc. It seems like a lot.
You need to make a SMART goal. SMART stands for Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, Timely. This acronym helps plan out what a person needs to do to achieve their goals. Let’s see what that looks like.
Specific
The more specific a person is with their goal, the more likely they will see it through to the end. For example, “I want to be a successful entrepreneur” is a broad goal. A more specific goal would be, “I want to write copy for tech businesses.” Another example would be losing 12 pounds in 8 weeks. The more detailed your destination, the stronger your focus.
Measurable
Measuring where one is in their journey is a big one for people. Most do not know how to measure if they are getting close to their goal or not. A little extra work (sometimes a lot) I needed here. Setting up checkpoints helps keep people motivated and moving in the right direction. For example, if a person wants to lose weight, they would weigh themselves once a week, on the same day at the same time.
Attainable
Creating an attainable goal is another one that brings discouragement to people. Is your goal achievable? When people begin making plans, they do so with the highest goal they can create in their minds. Having a big goal does work, but only for a tiny group of people. For most, the size of the plans is too big for them and they end up quitting before even starting.
Relevant/Realistic
Is the goal relevant to who you are and your life? For instance, losing weight is relevant to the health of your body. Creating a business you love is relevant to your happiness and lifestyle. How will your goal benefit you in the long term? Even if it’s for a short amount of time, a plan should be relevant to you when you create it.
Timely
Setting a date by which you will achieve your goal can have many benefits — first, it’s a measurable checkpoint. Even if you do not hit your goal by your end date, you can extend the date. Human beings hate not knowing when something is going to end. Not knowing can be powerful enough to propel a person forward with an end date in sight.
It’s great to have goals as they give us purpose and focus. But many people seem to create plans, only to throw them away as part of their habitual actions. Habits are not easy to make or break.
No one can ignore your greatness if you have the fortitude to make good habits and break bad habits.
Please commit below and tell us about your SMART goals and habits you want to establish or break.
