If you can believe it, we are officially a week away from September!
As much as it brings sadness that warm summer days are coming to an end, the cooler weather is a great time to set new goals and make changes.
During the summer, there are many things that are out of routine, the nights are lighter – so you stay up later and your weekends are filled with beach days, potlucks, weddings, and other summer get-togethers.
As your life begins to return back to a normal routine, we encourage you set some new goals for yourself – and incorporate related changes into your routine.
Why are Goals important?
Setting goals has shown to be an effective way of creating change in your life. Regardless of how small the change is, outlining a clear and precise goal, along with exactly how you plan to carry out this goal is important to creating change.
Below is a Step-by-Step Goal Developer, which you can use to make both short and long term goals.
Go through the five following steps to develop a smart goal as fall begins.
Step by Step Goal Developer
Step 1:
Creating a goal begins with a vision. Start with your most important goal: if you could only change one thing in your life, what would you change?
Example: Let’s say the most important change is to exercise more often.
Step 2:
What was the change you thought was the most important? Turn this into a specific, quantifiable goal.
Example: If your most important change was to exercise more often, turn this into a goal by making a specific number of times a week you want to exercise. My goal is to exercise more, so I will exercise 4 times a week.
Step 3:
The next step is to make your goal even more specific and detailed. Add details such as days, times, amounts, etc. – details that you feel are important to your goal. The more details you have, the more likely you will be to effectively reach your goals.
Example: My goal is to exercise more, so I will exercise for 1 hour, 4 times a week. I will exercise at 7:30 am on Sundays, Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. On Sundays and Wednesdays, I will do 1 hour of a cardio workout, either running, biking, or swimming. On Mondays and Fridays, I will do a strength training workout at the gym.
Step 4:
Keep yourself accountable, tell someone about your goals.
Example: you could have someone workout with you to ensure that you will not skip out, or you have an accountability partner that is very consistent at exercising. Give them the times you will exercise, and when you finish your workout – let them know that you have finished your planned workout.
Step 5:
The next step is to evaluate what barriers there may be to completing your goal. On a scale from 1-10, evaluate how likely you will be to complete this goal. 10 being it will happen. 1 being it will not happen.
If you did not give yourself a 10/10, what are the barriers that prevent you from being fully confident you can reach your goal?
Now that you are aware of these barriers, brainstorm ways to overcome these barriers.
Example: Using the goal of wanting to exercise more, if you rank 8/10 for how confident you are to achieve this goal because you think you might not have enough time. When brainstorming, think about something that takes a lot of your time, for example, social media. Limit the amount of time you spend on social media to allow for more time to exercise.
If you find yourself overwhelmed by your goal, and ranking your confidence to change very low, it may be a good idea to re-think your goal and make it more attainable for you.
Action Steps
1. Use the “Goal Developer” to create a 6-week goal, and a 6, & 12-month goal. Write it down somewhere where it is constantly visible by you.
2. Tell a close friend your goals, and ask them to keep you accountable!