Setting Goals
May 07, 2010, Updated Dec 23, 2016
When I started on my path to eating and living more healthfully (gawd, that sounds so new-agey. sorry.), I didn’t really have a plan. I started practicing free yoga in my living room in short twenty-minute sessions — where no one could see me fall over.
I found it made me feel good, so I kept doing it.
As I progressed, I continued to lose weight while improving my strength and flexibility (it wasn’t just the yoga — I started eating better, too).
Then a specific deadline sort of fell in my lap: I was going to Hawaii with friends in the summer, and I wanted to have “six-pack abs” by then.
A few things happened:
1) I told my friends about my goal.
2) I worked hard to eat well and exercise frequently, all with my goal and time-frame in mind.
3) I didn’t get my six-pack.
I’m not upset about that last one, since I got pretty darn close. I knew it was a bit of a lofty goal anyway, and I still felt good about how much progress I had made.
Nevertheless, determining both The What and The When made all the difference.
Once you have those two, you can work backwards to figure out the steps you need to take, and how long you have for each. Including a time frame is critical, since it helps keep you from procrastinating: “I’ve got to go to the gym today, or I won’t meet my deadline.”
My deadline came even though my rippling abs did not. I was not deterred; they would now have to be there by New Year’s Eve. Yeah, okay, so five months into 2010 and I’m still working on it. I’m awfully close — really! — so now I strive to have that washboard by, you guessed it, this summer.
I’ve got another goal for this August, too: To complete an annual “mini-triathlon” on Catalina Island. It’s a 1/3-mile swim, 1/2-mile kayak, and a 2.8-mile run.*
And in 2011? I plan to finish that triathlon in first place.
It doesn’t truly matter if I actually achieve my goal by the date I specify — as long as I’m still making progress. If the target keeps moving, so be it.
There’s a third element: The social aspect. Sharing your goals with others can help keep you on track. That’s exactly what I’m doing by writing this post.
Beyond simply sharing your goal, surrounding yourself with supportive friends and family — who will encourage you rather than work against you — makes all the difference in the world.
So, there you have it. Choose a specific, measurable goal. Set a deadline. Share your goal with supportive people in your life.
What goals have you set, and what techniques do you find helpful for staying on track?
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* The swim is the part that’ll kill me. If you have any brilliant pointers, please post in the comments. Any swim coaches out there? 🙂
Image of the Guillemins Train Station in Liège, Belgium by Philip Klinger.
Jim – I think it’s particularly tough to make it a lifelong habit that sticks — it seems that the price of weightloss is eternal vigilance (ahem). We’re constantly bombarded with myriad stimuli that leads us to (over)eat, whether it’s internal (hunger, emotion, stress) or external (marketing, social situations) – we’re always being pulled in that direction, and over time that can really wear us out. Last year, I lost most of my excess weight while using a calorie tracking iPhone app (which I’ll be writing more about soon). I used that for about two months, until eating “properly” had become an ingrained habit, and the data entry became more of a burden than a game. However, since then, I’ve slowly drifted away from the super-diligence, and I know I’ve been consuming more calories than I should. Because of that, I decided to start tracking calories again for a little… Read more »
Andrew, You sure have put up a lot of good content in so little time. I agree that setting a goal with daily actions is the key. My simple rules are: 1. 3500. This is the number of calories that must be reduced or burned to eliminate a pound of weight. I assumed that at 45 years of age and doing sedentary work, my maintenance calories were 1600. So if I could eat 1350 calories per day (more if i exercised), I would reduce or burn an extra 1750 calories per week and lose 1/2 lbs per week. In 50 weeks I would be 25 lbs lighter. And i figured if I could take a year to get my result, I would build habits I could keep for the rest of my life. I logged my food and exercise every day. and I shed those 25 lbs. The part about… Read more »
Kelly –
Those are some great strategies — thanks! It’s definitely all about figuring out what works for you…. Although I’ve found the “set a goal with a deadline” strategy to work for me, it may not be enough for others… Those other techniques, like you mention, might be great tools for people as well.
As for the swimming — yup, I need to get my butt back into the pool. Gotta start swimming more than 20 minutes every other week; that’s just not going to cut it! Like I just said to Kathy… it’s all about how badly I want it. I’ll be going swimming tomorrow, thankyouverymuch! 🙂
Kathy –
The thing about setting goals is that you have to truly want it — with a dogged determination. If it’s just a “Hey, that would be nice” kind of goal, it’s probably not going to happen. If you really want to accomplish it, I’m guessing you won’t get lost along the way.
If it’s a goal because you think you should do it, that’s probably not going to be enough… You’ll need to consider all the reasons why you “should,” and decide if those reasons are truly enough to make you determined to accomplish whatever goal you set out.
So… what do you really want? 🙂
I think that setting a deadline is great, but for many people, planning too far ahead may be discouraging. I like to take the advice that I once read, and that’s to print out a monthly calendar and make it a goal to work out a certain number of days in the month. But since even a month can be daunting for some people, I’d suggest setting a goal of working out, say, 3 days a week. No scheduling specific days, just doing it when you can (no guilt that way). Beyond that you can set goals to increase the number of days (or minutes per workout) that you exercise for future weeks. As for the swim portion of your triathlon, I’d suggest training for that sooner than later. A friend of mine did one and even with her swim experience from her younger years she had a rough time… Read more »
This was very motivating. I seem to set goals and loose track along the way. My hubby calls me a talker not a doer, I shall prove him wrong!
…and for some folks in the group, I think it was a Pony Keg! 🙂
I don’t know what you’re talking about; there were many six packs in Hawaii. Twelve packs even!
My swim coach, who I love, does private technique lessons. In San Diego. Roadtrip?