Every year I read about how people make goals, break goals and than at the end of the year decide they are useless. I, on the other hand, love having goals, I think they are important to keep me going and help me remember things for the future.
I do think if you are going to make goals, they must be SMART goals. I think really is the key to making sure that your goals doable and really goals you want to go for. The thought process in making a goal SMART really helps you evaluate the goals and think about them. What do I mean by SMART, well this....(you might have seen or heard this already but I learned about it in one of my college classes and have held on to it!)
I think the reason most goals are not met because we set ones that really miss out on all of the above. We quickly write down a list of things we want to do instead of figuring out the reason behind why we want that goal and how we are going to accomplish it. We need to sit down and think about them. I could write down I want to lose 5 pounds, but that is so open-ended. Instead I need to write down, I want to lose 5 pounds in 2 months through writing down my calories in and out. This is specific, more than attainable and realistic with a time frame.
I always take my goals just a few steps further into my process of achieving a goal.
I make sure that when I set up goals, I evaluate them each month and see how things are going. If after evaluating I realize something isn't working, than I readjust the goal to make sure that in the end I am doing the best I can to attain it. I think we think that the specific goal we set up is super important to cling to that one specific goal. Our lives can change in an instant, our passions get diverted to new things and we never really know what tomorrow holds for us.
So do you have to set these goals on January 1st, nope not at all but for some they like the fresh start of the new year. I know that after the holidays I begin a purge and focus on cleanliness around my house. (which also happens at the end of the school year and the start). Its a natural progression to do goals at the same time. They just work for me and I think its best to do what works for you. So if you want to make a goal, than make one! Ignore the people who tell you new years goals are stupid! They aren't if you make sure you are looking at them the SMART way. I fresh start is always great and goals are important...just write them down and evaluate them!
So now on to my goals:
- Run a Marathon- I feel like this goal is obtainable if I train properly. I just got released from my doctor to start running again and I am very excited. With the setback I am 3 weeks behind the training schedule I planed for the April race. I plan to continue on with the race schedule and if it seems like I am not progressing enough I will just do the half and instead do a full a month or two later. I realize that training for a race can have set backs so I am not setting a particular date for this but I do have a goal date of April 22nd, barring that training goes well. If not I will schedule a new marathon to run later in the year and should be able to accomplish my goal. I will print out my training schedule and just as I did in the past, make running my priority again.
- Run under 25 minute in a 5k. This could be tricky, last year I was happy to just finish my first 5k in 36 minutes and by the end of the year ran my fastest a little over 27. Why on earth do I think I can do this? Because I want to and I think with my distance training I always seem to increase speed as I get further in my training. My 27 minute PR was right after my knee injury so I was still hurting and managed to do that. I think now that I am all healed up and working on even further distances in my future I should be able to do it. Plus I live next to Kansas they have to have a totally flat course I can find...right!?!
- Read 12 classics- Last year I made a list of books I wanted to read check month and had a goal of reading one book a month. Thanks to having a blog to keep me accountable and goodreads I was able to smash this goal and read 41 books including the book I had picked for each month. I will share in a separate post the classics I plan to read! I am still putting that list together, so if you have a recommendation let me know! If it wasn't for my BlogKC friends getting me to read East of Eden I am not sure I would have ever challenged myself to read Classics.
- (superficial goal and I am okay with it!Ignore if you hate skinny people wanting to tone up more) Lose 2% in Bodyfat. Let me first say I am happy with my body in so many ways and I have come a very long way. So why do I want to lose body fat percentage? Because I would like to be able to wear a bikini again and this belly of a momma to three girls (who was also once overweight)needs some help and the thighs still have a little giggle. So I am not worried about my losing specific pounds (although that has to happen in order to get to the percent I would like). My main way to obtain this goal is going to keep up my workout routine and monitor my food intake. I do not plan on going crazy and adding more workouts other than increasing my mileage in running each week because in reality I think I work out enough and so does my family. If I add anymore to my schedule they might just disown me! The main thing I need to do is get back on track with my clean eating (as I much on a . I need to track what I am eating and thanks to my dietary issues I already have to do this with my doctor. I am also meeting with a friend who is personal training to get any advice and some more accurate measurements for me to see where I am at. So yes I am down to vanity pounds but I think its okay as long as I don't stress out over it too much.
- Do more family activities outside. Last year I had big plans for camping and going places with my family to start them early on a fun active outdoor lifestyle and I kind of fell flat. I never planned in advance and the weekends I thought would work ended up being rained out. So this year I am going to setup a schedule near the end of the school year and plan things. My husband is kind of a hot weather wuss, so it limits things but that doesn't mean I still don't drag him out anyway!
So check back over the next couple of weeks on details into each of these goals I have set out. I have given a brief plan but want to lay out more so that its fail proof!! Also I hope that we can all encourage each other to keep our goals realistic and work together on checking them off our list!!
Did you set up goals this year? If so post your link in the comments so I can follow along with you!
Do you have a classic book recommendation for my 2012 book list? (and if your on goodreads, let me know so we can be friends!)
If you are looking for a guide for your goals, head over to Mique's blog 30 Handmade Days to download this awesome print off! I always pick a goal word for the year and I will be posting about that soon! I love how she incorporated that into the print-off!
