Do it to it

Make your goals happen

Now that you’ve identified your goals, let’s make them work! Often identifying the goals is not as difficult as realizing them. I could easily create a beautiful color-coded calendar with a meal plan, exercise schedule, and workout plan. However, following that plan is much more difficult. Let’s make your goals more attainable and achievable by editing your goals. Just as we edit a paper to clearly communicate what we want to say, we can edit our goals to work better for us.

The Real Work:

Based upon the work you did in the previous post, identify three goals you have for 2022. I am going to use an example with one goal – exercising more. You may have heard of SMART goals. We are going to use a modified version of SMART goals from Russ Harris (*with one tweak from me). This activity is more impactful if you write out your goal and then edit it at each step.

Goal: I want to exercise more.

SMART steps: Specific, Meaningful, *Adaptable, Realistic, Time-bound

Let’s edit our goals together to make them SMARTer

Goal: I want to exercise more.

Specific – what does “more” mean? Are you already exercising? Starting from no exercise?

I want to exercise more I want to exercise every day.

Meaningful – Why do you want to exercise every day? What will this bring you? (Tie back to values from previous post!)

I want to exercise every day so I can go on a hiking trip with my partner.

Maybe I can’t currently keep up on hikes and know that my partner would like to go on a hiking trip together. The underlying values are health, wellness, connection, love, relationships, etc.

I want to exercise everyday so I can go on a hiking trip with my partner.

*Adaptable - Anticipate setbacks and “life” getting in the way – Here is where I add my own spin. How can your goal adapt for things that naturally come up in life? What if you get a head ache? What if the gym is closed due to a COVID outbreak? What are things that normally get in the way of working out and how can we modify our plans?  

I want to exercise everyday so I can go on a hiking trip with my partner and spend more time with them. Plan B: If I am feeling under the weather, I will do a short yoga routine at home to still move my body. Plan C: If I am not feeling well, I will take care of my body and allow for rest.

Realistic – Is my goal realistic? It is possible to do something every day, but it is often ambitious and not as realistic to go from not doing something, to doing it every day. Even things we enjoy and feel internally motivated to do may not happen every day. Look at your schedule – what is a realistic frequency?

I want to exercise everyday 3 times per week so I can go on a hiking trip with my partner and spend more time with them.

After looking at my work schedule I realize that I can workout Tuesdays and Thursdays and one day per weekend. This is realistic and doable in my life. Maybe someday I will workout every day, or increase by one day, but until then, I will workout 3 times per week.

Time bound - What is the time frame for this goal? Indefinitely? Before a hiking trip?

I want to exercise 3 times per week for our hiking trip to the Grand Canyon in June.

Let’s circle back to specificity. How can we make this goal even more specific?

I will run on Tuesdays and Thursdays and lift weights on Saturdays from January 2022 until our trip to the Grand Canyon in June 2022.

Can we make this MORE specific? Of course!

I will run on the treadmill on Tuesdays, outside on Thursdays, and do upper body weight lifting workouts on Saturdays, from January 2022 until our hiking trip to the Grand Canyon in June 2022. If I have a head ache or feel under the weather, I will do yoga at home or take a rest day.

More specific??

I will run on the treadmill for X miles on Tuesdays, increasing my mileage by X miles per week. I will walk outside with my backpack and camping supplies on Thursdays on hilly terrain. I will do upper body weight lifting workouts on Saturdays, increasing my weights each week by X pounds. I will start January 1st, 2022 and continue this plan until June 2022. If I have a head ache or feel under the weather, I will do yoga at home or take a rest day to regroup. This goal is important to me because I want to spend time with my partner and support their hobbies. This goal will help me prepare for our hiking trip to the Grand Canyon in June 2022.

Lastly, but most importantly, goals can be fun! Often, we set goals to “punish” ourselves. We want to lose weight to punish ourselves for past meals or for how we look. Regularly our goals are about changing who we are into a “better” version of ourselves. This can be helpful and needed at times. However, we can also think about using goal setting to dig deeper into our truer selves. That is why we start with values. We are not trying to become a different version of ourselves but a more authentic version of ourselves.

Examples of “fun” goals: join a book club, get back into a hobby, try something new, go on a trip, read outside of your comfort zone, make a new recipe, go thrift shopping, try new restaurants, explore your own city/town, actually use your PTO, let go of an expectation, connect with old friends, try new foods, try to shop from more small businesses, create a garden, try a home improvement project, learn a language, learn to play an instrument, etc.

Again, we want to be mindful of the framework and mindset we have when we create and choose our goals. We can shift our mindset from “I am not enough and need to improve” to “I want to cultivate joy and reconnect with what makes me, me.”  

Let’s do it!

The Real Work from here:

How will I track my goals?

How can I reward myself for reaching milestones?

How can I break my goals into more specific and smaller steps?

How will I know if my plan is working?

How will I know if my plan is too ambitious?

What will get in the way of these goals?

What are your goals for 2022? Share in the comments below!