In the fitness and health industry we talk about setting “SMART” goals, That means carefully formulating goals that are specific, measurable, attainable, realistic and timely. For example, instead of setting a general goal like “I’m going to eat better” it may be helpful to take that goal through the “smart” process. Let’s look at that.
To make your goal of eating better more specific we need to evaluate your current behaviour and see what needs to change. Let’s say you drink a diet pop every day. Replacing that chemically-laden beverage with a nice herbal tea would be a specific action you can take to improve your diet. Then we would determine if that goal is measurable, and yes, that’s easy to measure, if you drank seven diet pops a week, you can easily see when that number drops from seven to zero, or anywhere in between. Is our goal attainable? Yes, we have a specific plan of action and you’re confident that you can make the switch. How about realistic? Is there a pop machine at work but no tea kettle? It may not be realistic to have a tea unless you’ve taken care of that stumbling block. Lastly timely refers to putting some time frame around your goal. We could say the goal is to get to zero diet pops by Jan 31st. That might be enough for the first month, and then we might look at another change for the month of February.
Setting “smart” goals can certainly be a step in the right direction for many people, but in my experience and possibly yours too, it’s not enough to help us make significant, lasting change.
To be honest, none of the beneficial changes I’ve made in my life over the years were a result of any sort of “goal-setting” process. My motivation used to be about pushing something AWAY or out of my life. For example, no matter how “smart” the goal, it would be about wanting to lose 20 pounds and the energy of resistance and struggle was driving it.
The whole idea of setting a goal and then using willpower and effort to push away something unwanted feels way too unnatural to me now.
I have a very different approach to making changes these days. Now my motivation to eat well and take care of myself comes from wanting to FEEL well and BE strong for as long as I possibly can. That’s such a mindset shift from wanting to lose 20 pounds!
This motivation to be truly well has naturally bled over into other areas of my life. Holistic health really means health on all levels of our beings.
I’ve begun describing my approach to total wellness as “dynamic balance“. If you’ve heard me talk about this approach before you may recall that dynamic balance refers to using the natural ebb and flow of life to gradually and permanently build greater and greater wellness in all the sectors of our life; Body, Mind, Relationships, Spirit and Society.
One of the most common problems I see is that we micromanage our lives and never really step back to look at the big picture. We might look at our big financial picture once in a while and think about retirement, but when it comes to work, relationships, health, spiritual fulfilment and connection to society we usually just plug along waiting for life to happen to us and wake up one day with a big bag of regret.
Regretting that you didn’t take the time to look after your health is NOT something I want you to experience. Regretting that you didn’t do the personal development or spiritual growth work that would’ve saved your marriage is NOT something you need to live through.
It can seem like an impossible task to balance ALL of these elements, but there IS a way and if you start now it will get easier and easier as your life gets better and better.
So to help you with your 2015 goals and WAY beyond, I’ve put together a free three session course on Finding Dynamic Balance that we’re starting in early 2015.
I’d love it if you’d join me.
Register and get all the details here