Setting Realistic Goals
The new year presents the perfect setting to evaluate where we are in our lives and where we would like to be in the future. Unfortunately, goals we set at the beginning of the year are not often achieved. In fact, only 8% of people achieve their New Year’s resolutions.
One common mistake people make is creating goals that are too general. The top resolutions in 2015 were to lose weight, get organized, spend less money, and enjoy life to the fullest. While those are all good aspirations, they are easy to lose track of in our daily lives. Behavior change is complicated, and no matter how great our intentions are in the beginning, it is easy to fall into a routine.
A trick to make your goals more likely to stick is to create S.M.A.R.T. goals: Specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, and timely. If you want to lose weight, think of an amount of weight loss you know you can achieve, and then consider a realistic timeframe to accomplish it. Set both long-term and short-term goals that will put you on the path to success. Short-term goals may be activities you want to accomplish this week, like walking 30 minutes three times a week.
Whatever your goals are, make sure you write them down in a place where you will see them often. That simple task can keep you on the path to success and help you say no to the obstacles between you and achievement.
Tags: Goal Setting, Goals, New Year's Resolutions, Realistic Goals, Resolutions