I love goals. I grew up being encouraged to set and accomplish my goals. Now, through teaching others, I have a much better understanding of what ago all is… AND I also get much more bugged when people set goals like “be more outgoing”, “lose weight”, “pay off debt”, “organize house”. These do not count as goals… Not yet. These are only your umbrella statements. More thought needs to be put into these ideas before they count as goals.Goals need to be specific. For example, if your umbrella statement is “drink more water”, how much more do you want to drink? If your umbrella statement is “call your parents”, how often do you want to call them? The point is, to count as a goal, they need to be specific and measurable. The best way to do this is have a planning day every now and then. I have scheduled a planning day every Friday to make time for each of my goals, and to make sure I have all equipment necessary to accomplish my goal for that week.
This leads me to my next two questions: How can you break your goal down into measurable pieces? And how will you hold yourself accountable? The first- if your goal is to lose 50 pounds (which almost counts as a goal because it's a specific number), you can't really do that all at once, so break it down- how many pounds per week? How am I going to lose the weight? The second- accountability helps with motivation. I have an “accountability buddy” for a few of my goals. I also like to make charts that I can “check off”. It gives me a great sense of accomplishment.
It's important to give yourself some type of reward system for doing what you set out to do. Give yourself smaller rewards along the way, and a big reward for when you accomplish your goal. Ideas for rewards are: buying small treats, treat yourself to a movie, your favorite restaurant; or if funds won't allow it, treat yourself to a night in- watch your favorite chick flick, have a bubble bath, have some crafting time, or anything else you enjoy doing but don't usually have the time. Your big reward at the end might be the same thing as your motivation for getting there: a special trip, a shopping spree, etc.
In short, if you can answer the basic questions, you have a good goal:
- Who?
- What?
- When?
- Where?
- How?
- Why?
I thought I would break down my New Years goals (which mostly revolve around managing Bipolar). It's not necessary in setting goals for the new year, but I like working on my whole self, so that I keep a balance in my life. Some goals fit into multiple categories- I tried to show that by the use of color. Don't worry too much about it. A lot of the purpose for this visual is for me.
NEW YEARS 2016: I WANT TO BE MORE CONSISTENT
IN TAKING CARE OF MYSELF
Step 1: Who and What?
(Most of the time, the “who” is the person setting the goal. Although, sometimes we set a goal for our young kids, or even a goal as a family. If that's the case, each person must share in the “what”.)
Take Care of MIND
Blog every week- publish on Thursday
Do meditations at least 4x per week
Read about new things- tues/fri
Ideas: skin care, Buddhism, Laban
Kids learning time- every weekday (homework and educational games)
Take Care of BODY
Exercise 3x a week- Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday
Yoga 1x a week- Sunday
Food: plan menu- all meals, including snacks
count calories: 1400 on non-gym days/1900on gym days, (keep track on app)
100 oz water daily
Skin: wash every morning/night,
Exfoliate/mask 1x a week- Sunday
Take Care of SPIRIT
One creative thing each week (include business things)- Wednesday
Take "me time" 1x a week- Sunday
Ideas: diy facials, watch your shows/movie, read,
Step 3: How?
Some of my goals have a weekly time, but lack the actual specifics. For example, Mondays and Saturdays are my chore days. Likewise, each Wednesday, I've given myself time to be creative. For this purpose, I have set aside time to plan. I've made several lists: chores that need doing regularly, creative projects I want to do, ideas for pampering time, and books that I want to read. During my planning time each week, I look at my lists and decide which chore, which creative project, which pampering thing, and which book to read. This also allows me the flexibility in case something new catches my attention, and I want to do that right away (this happens all the time with my creative projects. Too bad I can't keep up with the inspiration…).
You also have flexibility within your schedule to move things around as you need and still get everything done. In my case, it's best to stick to the same routine as much as possible, but if I have a doctor’s appointment during gym time, I can go on a Monday, and push chores to 11.
Step 4: Why?
If you have no reason for doing whatever goal, you will have no motivation to stick to said goal. Maybe you are losing weight to avoid diabetes, or so you can be confident when you go on that cruise. Maybe you're saving money so you can take a trip to China (changed my life- I highly recommend it), or maybe just to get out of debt and feel that burden lifted. Whatever your reason, put it somewhere to keep you going, to stay motivated.
My reason- though all goals are to better myself- is for my family. I need to keep routine and be consistent in order to manage bipolar and be stable and reliable for my kids; for my family. I know that they love me, but I want them to know they can count on me and come to me with any concern or need they have. We are going through a lot of changes right now. They need consistency. I need to be that consistency. My family is worth it- I am worth it.I know this looks like a lot (you shouldn't have too many goals- you don't want to overwhelm yourself), but I was already doing a lot of these things before this new year started. Many of them, like meditations and exercising, proves to be beneficial to my Bipolar management, so I wanted to make sure I kept them in my schedule and didn't forget about them.
Good Luck in the New Year- may your motivation stay strong and your vision stay focused!
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