Friday, December 19, 2008

Holiday Survival Guide - Week 7 - 2009 Goal Setting

Now that we've bragged about where we've came from in 2008 its time for us to get started on setting goals for 2009. There is nothing better than feeling as if you are in control of this process and crossing some things off our list of "to-do's"

Many people have a hard time setting goals. I know I'm still not the best but I'm getting better and just starting with a few things and accomplishing them can really help us be motivated to set bigger and longer term goals.

The other thing I want you thinking about are goals that are not necessarily related to your ideal scale number. Let's start looking at life in terms that are much bigger than the scale. After all, does that 12x12 pad control your life, are you living for the three digit number that appears there? I hope not! Let's start living LIFE!

Here are a few S.M.A.R.T. tips to help you set some goals:

• Specific. Some of the questions you might want to answer are who, what, when, where and why of the goal. For example, "I want to compete in the OSU Triathlon, May 3, 2009."

• Measureable. Can you measure the specific pieces of the goal or points along the way so that you know how close you are to achieving it or when you actually do?

• Attainable. Can you achieve the goal? Anything is attainable if you are willing and able to do what is necessary to achieve that goal.

• Realistic. Is the goal realistic? The objective of the goal is to be able to achieve it and if we truly believe that we can achieve it then I believe we can but we also need to look at the entire spectrum of what needs to happen to get to that end result.

• Timeline. We need to set a time to when we will finish this goal. That gives us an opportunity to put a plan into place and know that everything we do helps us to reach one step closer to our goal.


It is easy for us folks that have struggled with weight loss and fitness to have our entire being and self revolve around a scale. I so often ask people how they are and the response I get is inevitably that they will know once they step on the scale. Isn't that sad?

Folks, there is more to us than a number on the scale. We are living, breathing, loving, learning, individuals that should be putting forth more into our lives and obtaining dreams than worry about a 10 second stance on the scale.

I'm challenging you this week to start righting down some goals for 2009. It could be anything from learning to paint, maybe you have always wanted to, to learning to drive a tractor.

The key here is to start putting down on paper the hopes and dreams that we all had as small children and believed that we could do and start working towards realizing those dreams.

I would love to get comments on goals that you are setting out for yourself for the 2009 year. I'll be posting mine.

No comments: