Goal Setting

How can we make the best of what’s remaining for 2020? Let’s set a few goals… realistic goals, ones that will make your life a bit better

Let’s begin with some questions to consider.

What are one or two goals you can set now and actually achieve over the next three months?Perhaps it will be something that will give you a sense of purpose or something you have never tried before and wish to research and implement? Perhaps it may be a positive habit that could be integrated into your life? Or maybe a goal associated with the coming winter like snowshoeing or cross country skiing at a particular venue or a certain number of times...

Once you have some thoughts, go ahead and grab a piece of paper and scribble a bunch of them down. Anything at this point is good, view all ideas as worthy of noting. During this process, allow yourself some time, say a 20 minute window. Take 5-10 of those minutes jotting those ideas down, then widdle those ideas down to a couple that you feel, are highly likely to be attainable, prioritizing your list.

A friend of mine did this recently and came up with a few ideas that would give her more time in the day, while providing a sense of success/achievement from the minute she got up out of bed (as long as she stuck to her game plan).

She decided that waking up 15 minutes earlier, so that she could do some light stretching. Turns out that this helped clear her mind, help her body feel more mobile while getting the blood flowing through her body before breakfast. It also made her feel a sense of accomplishment as she had ‘her time’ before giving the rest of her time to her family and her boss.

At first glance the above might seem really easy but there’s a little bit more to it. For her, when we broke this down into a plan that would help her succeed, we needed to address a few things to ensure her plan was going to be a success. She highlighted some barriers and we brainstormed other ideas to make sure that success would be reached.

• Night before:
  1. Set the alarm 15 minutes earlier.
  2. Move the alarm away from the bed - away from the reach of the snooze slap!
  3. Lay out the clothes you will do your stretching in… or maybe you’re ok with doing it in your pj’s.
  4. Lay out your mat or towel in the stretching location.
  5. Have your routine ready. This might take a bit of research, finding a video of poses online or consulting your fitness professional for recommendations (Remember safety first).
  6. Discuss with your house members. Let people in your house know that these 15 minutes are for you. This goal is all about you. It is important to you, so perhaps you may need to communicate this if you would like their support, even to be left alone during this time block.
  

Another area that she wanted help with was meal planning. I can relate to this one!

In her instance we decided to make it a family affair. We asked for ideas, got her family to write their suggestions on the menu for the week. We allocated a day for this to be done and if there were gaps in the days, she had allocated a time block to research ideas. Overall, this worked well because her children and partner had a few favourites that automatically came to mind so that served two purposes. The first was that they were happy eating their favourite meal and the second was that it saved time on finding recipe ideas. We found that there are some great meal planning websites and meal delivery services. Even the grocery stores now have online shopping! This is great because it keeps you fixed on the process and saves time! Pick it up or have it delivered, the choice is now yours. A real time-saver and shopping this way can even save you money. It did with her as she no longer grabbed items that were not necessarily needed.

Reflecting on these topics that my friend needed help with, and areas that I have adopted change into, I have noticed a few fundamentals that contribute to making change a success. 

I have noticed that starting with the end in mind, (from Seven Habits of Highly Effective People - book) allows us to back step the entire process, in order to lay out the steps required for us to make our intended goal a success (remember our goal setting exercise at the beginning).

Identifying and having an idea on the barriers that we may face, be it from previous experience or knowing ourselves well, identifying the obstacles that may prevent us from making the next step in the process certainly helps us to keep going.

Alternate Route - Knowing where the barriers/obstacles are is not enough. We need a plan on how to overcome them! Reducing the resistance or eliminating it entirely will lead to success.

Time Blocking - Essential for giving yourself a chance to achieve your goal. Have your time block, and use it for that task (it is ok to give yourself permission to be fairly rigid on this). 

Sticking to the plan to attain that goal! In reality, we cannot foresee everything that may present as a barrier or an obstacle to us. The important thing to remember is to be flexible. A shorter time block may be required today so as not to affect other things, but tomorrow, this won’t happen again (persist in the direction of your goal).

Ultimately, the goals that you set for yourself, are important to you. Friends, family, they may not understand or may not buy-in to your goal as much as you emotionally, but that is ok. What they are likely to enjoy is your excitement when you are ‘doing’ your thing and the impact that is having on your wellbeing! 

Nurturing our soul, tending to our inner spirit/wellbeing (whatever you choose to call it) should be a task that I believe we should all tend to more frequently. Enjoy!