Hello everyone and Happy New Year! As it goes year after year, many of us will be setting “resolutions” for the year 2023. However, experts say that over 80% of resolutions will fail by February. Let’s set ourselves up for success by instead setting a S.M.A.R.T. goal for the new
year. SMART goals are Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, and Time-Sensitive.
SPECIFIC: Ambiguous goals will produce ambiguous results. You have to really narrow down what you are looking to achieve. A popular goal for the new year is to “be more fit” or “lose weight.” Those are not specific enough, you need to lay out exactly what you want!
MEASURABLE: A goal should be able to be tracked so as to measure your progress. Celebrate the victories along the way, and make adjustments if necessary to make sure that you stay on the path to success. This will also help you to stay motivated once you start seeing where you are now in the moment compared to where you started when you set the goal.
ATTAINABLE and REALISTIC: I see it happen so often where people set goals that are just outside the realm of realistic possibility. It is based on great intention for sure, but goals need to be able to fit into what is actually possible in your life. Start off small and take baby steps, so we can make a habit of what we are trying to accomplish. It should push you to make changes, without being so far away that it eats at your motivation and discipline to stay on track.
TIME-SENSITIVE: One of my mentors once said “Someday is really no day.” Procrastination is a real challenge to the success of your goals. Without a time frame, we can tend to put off actions that are critical to making progress towards what we want. One could even chunk the progress down into short, mid, and longer term goals. Also, having a time frame helps to make you more accountable!
One last thing is this…there will be days where taking steps towards achieving your goals will be something you really want to do, and then other days where it will be the last thing you want to do. Try to always be moving forward! Sometimes those steps forward will feel like leaps, and sometimes like baby steps, but with persistence and patience, you will get there!
Best of luck this coming year! Until next time!
-Derek Field