Goal Setting- Part 1

I love the new year – as Corny as it seems it really is full of all kinds of hope and promise for new (maybe even better!) things.  Kind of like the first day of school:  you can be anything you want!   I think there are two kinds of people in this world: those that set New Years Resolutions and those that do not.  I am in the resolution category and one of my favorite things is looking back on my year and think about how I can make the next year better. I pull out my calendar and set up all my goals and dream about what can be!

Resolutions are very rarely kept:

75% are kept the first week

71% after the second week

64% after the first month

and after 6 months only 41% of people keep their resolutions.  

I see this as an excellent opportunity to stand out!

So every year I like to have one resolution that is easy to keep.  Last year I chose to accessorize more!  I did a great job and kept it up all year.  :)

For resolutions that demand more focus and willpower, there are many tools out there to get you going that I will share with you but I have a few things that I think help set you up for a great year!

1. Clean out your closet!  That’s right- toss stuff you haven’t worn all year, organize your shoes and get the clutter out of there. It’s hard to be focused every day if the first thing you see when you go to get dressed in the morning is complete disorganization.

2. Clean out your car.  Bring it to the car wash and pay the extra $25 to get that thing scrubbed out. Don’t think a clean car matters?  When was the last time you were in someone else’s filthy car?  What did you think about that person when you were done?  Good – now clean it up.  Pay your kid to do it if that makes you feel better about spending the money but get the funk out.

3. Toss the crap out of your cupboards.  I don’t care if losing weight isn’t one of your goals – nobody needs to eat a bunch of sugar and crap. The holidays are over (by the time you are doing all this!) so just get rid of it. You will start the year feeling like you have self control.

4. Pull out something that you did good- an award, an email from your boss saying you did a good job, a nice picture from your kid.  Take it out and frame it.  You DO good things!  This coming year will be just more of the same.  (It’s the mindset,  people!)

Okay.. so now we are ready to start.  You probably have some ideas of what you want to do this year but I think it’s helpful to break it down by goal.  Sure you may have one BIG goal (lose weight, stop smoking etc) but I think the start of a new year is a great time to evaluate all areas of your life, even if you don’t think you’ll focus as much on these other areas.

I like to make a list of all the different areas of my life:  Mom, Girlfriend, Employee and then list what I would like that ‘category’ to look like by December of next year.

example:

Mom:  I would like to have gone on a girls weekend trip with my daughter (just the two of us), I would like to have created special game nights a few times a month so we are sure we are spending ‘non- electronic’ time together and I’d really like to help her with some of her fitness goals.  

Once I know what I want to think of myself by December of next year in the ‘mom’ category, I can pull out my calendar and break down how I’m going to do fit it into my life.  With this example, I’ll look at my daughters school schedule, ask her what kinds of things she may like to do this year for a trip and determine how much money I’ll need to save to make that happen.  Then I mark it in my calendar on that month (lets say June) and then back up to each month before June.  May I’ll need to confirm and make any final plans with the dogs etc, April I’ll need to pay the final payment on the trip etc etc.

So I do this with each category until I have all the areas of my life broken down.

But what about my big goals?  Well.. you do it the same way!  Break those things down by month!  Start at December of next year and work backwards. Break down each month until it is in smaller pieces.  Then at the beginning of each month, break that months step down even further.

Okay okay… so I know so much of goal planning, especially with something emotional like losing weight is overwhelming.  Break down your goals into each month like I talk about above, but then figure out the HOW.  You know WHAT… You need to know the HOW.

How Do I get in shape?

You know how to breakdown a goal now!    *Do you need to join a gym?  Hire a few personal training sessions to get you going?  Can you do something electronic to get you on track?  I’ve seen lots of great looking online training programs that may work well for people.  One that looked especially interesting to me was Precision Nutrition  - I can’t vouch for it because I haven’t used them, but heard about it from a friend and it looks great. They have some excellent before and afters up there that may give you a confidence boost about what can be done in 12 months.  I have a  high school friend who made an AMAZING transformation over this past year and I’ll be interviewing her on the site in the next few weeks!  Be on the look out for that – it’s awesome.

                                                                                       Start Where You Are.

                                                                                        Use What You Have.

                                                                            Do What You Can.  -Arthur Ashe

So get what you need set up, break it down per month and move forward.   If you aren’t getting a trainer or doing any online training, sign up for a community online so you can get support, feedback and track yourself in some measurable way.   Many of my friends use Fat Secret but look around online and see what you find but whatever you do – GET some kind of community support.  If you have an idea or tool to share, post it to the comments below!

I created a 10 week downloadable tracker during the start of our last challenge that may help give you some additional ideas as well.

Part 2 of Goal Setting coming up next with more downloadable forms to get you on your way!