New Year, New You: Stay on Track with your Goals!

As new year begins, often people will set “new Years resolutions” or goals for the new year. However after about a month (around this time), many people will have dropped off in their progress or given up altogether . The goals are not shiny and new anymore and are less exciting. This is the time of year where usually the pitfalls people run into when setting goals kick in. Why are people unsuccessful in their goal attainment and tend to drop off on their efforts after a month? Read on to find out and stay on track with your goals!

 

1. Starting with mount Everest level goals

The number one reason why people are not successful in their goals is because they fall into the trap of setting lofty goals as they are enthusiastic and excited to turn over a new leaf. This results in them starting with an end goal, rather than on the step-by-step goals that are necessary to get to the end goal. Setting goals that are too ambitious and not realistic for the current you will result in you being discouraged, unmotivated, and unable to recognize or celebrate your success with working towards the end goal. Don't start with your Everest!

For example, a common goal is to increase or implement a workout routine. If your end goal is to go to the gym 5 days per week for an hour: this is an END goal. NOT a starting goal.

In order for that goal to be achievable and sustainable there are several goals that need to be accomplished first including:

• Establishing the best time slot for your activity

• Determining what you like/don’t like

• Making sure you have the adequate equipment/tools (including workout clothes you are comfortable in)

• Establishing motivation for doing the activity

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Once these goals are accomplished, there is another important set of sub-goals to consider, which involve increasing the frequency, intensity, and length of time you are spending on your goal: NOT all at the same time.  

For example, if you are starting at a baseline of 0 minutes of exercise per day a step 1 goal would be to move your body for 5 minutes a certain number of days per week (for example 3 to start). Then work on increasing the amount of time, the frequency of which you are moving your body, OR the intensity (NOT All three of these things at the same time). Once you have established consistency in that, then you may be ready to level up your movement goals by going to the gym one day per week. Remember, going to the gym is not just as simple as doing a workout: You have to commute, get your equipment/outfit ready, change, commute back, etc.

Have the end goal in mind, but focus on the sub-goals to get you there is important or you will get derailed and not be successful: break your goal down into manageable steps!

2. Choosing irrelevant goals

People also drop off in their goal attainment efforts because they pick goals that seem like they are helpful at face value, but when they get into them they realize they are not relevant or beneficial. If you can’t see the purpose when things get hard, then you are going to be unlikely to continue with the goal. For example, drinking water is a good goal, but what impact is it really going to have on your life? If you can name and experience specific benefits such as having better skin, a more clear voice, and less bloating: then it is more likely that you will continue with the goal.

3. Having unclear goals

Goals that are not clearly defined make it harder to achieve them. If you want to drink more water, you need to define what “more” actually is. How much water are you currently drinking? How much is “more” that you are aiming for? Be specific with your goals. If you can’t measure your success then you are not going to be able to celebrate your progress and be motivated to keep going. To measure your success you need to know what your baseline or starting point is, and where you want to end up. Having a goal of “exercising more” is too general. Define what “more” means for you and your lifestyle, or you won’t be able to see if you have improved or not.

4. Not evaluating your progress

Objectively evaluating your progress on your goals on a regular basis is important so you keep doing the things that work and take care of the barriers that come up and get in the way of achieving your goals. Since it may have been a month since you set your new year’s resolutions, now may be a great time to evaluate how you have been doing. What has been going well with your goal? What challenges have you come up against?

To really get good at making the most of your goal evaluation: make a plan to take care of the challenges or barriers that you came up against so you can be more successful in the coming weeks.

If you do this process each week (or at minimum once per month), eventually you will be more successful because you will be actually problem solving the goal rather than just shaming yourself for not achieving it to your level of satisfaction.

5. Not celebrating progress

People who do not acknowledge or celebrate their progress will become unmotivated to continue with their goals. If you are constantly focusing on the times you did not achieve the goal, and ignoring the times where you did achieve it: you are losing out on valuable information as to what you did differently to be successful and what barriers got in the way of you not being successful.

People are sometimes resistant to celebrating their progress on the sub-goals it takes to get to the end goal because they haven’t accomplished the end goal. Usually the sentence goes something like “I have accomplished ___ BUT I haven’t accomplished ___ so I didn’t really achieve anything”.

This is nonsensical, illogical thinking.

Do athletes in the junior leagues deserve less recognition for their improvements than Olympic athletes? I think not.  You have to go through the lower levels before you can level up. Celebrate what you have accomplished! You have worked hard and that deserves recognition!