Goal Setting

Setting goals is something I do at work on a regular basis.  Every Monday morning I head to work an hour early to meet with my team.  We sit around the table and discuss what happened over the last week.  We share ideas.  What went well. What didn't go so well.  How we can improve for next time.  And we set goals for the upcoming week.  We have been using an acronym to help us set these goals and since my boss and I implemented this goal setting strategy the goals have more often than not been achieved.

So with this in mind, I am going to set my goals for 2012 by using the SMART technique

Specific

Measurable

Attainable

Realistic

Timely

Specific - what you want to accomplish and how you are going to do it.  Example one of my goals for 2012 is to reach my goal weight so instead of simply saying “reach my goal weight” I put some action behind it,  “Reach my goal weight by meal planning, staying within my calorie limit and doing 30 minutes of physical activity at least 3 times a week.”

Measurable – How will I know that I am on track to reach my goal?  Going along with my weight loss goal above I will obviously know that I am losing weight by the number on the scale and the way my clothes fit.  But to be more specific I am going to set small goals along the way.  My first measure is that I want to reach the weight that I was before I was pregnant with Lauren and I want to do this by the end of the month.  This means I need to lose about 7 pounds.  Small goal but it is in the direction that I am heading.   After that I want to be the weight I was when Brian and I got married and then so on and so on.  Small goals along the way that will in the end get me to my overall goal. 

Attainable – Planning accordingly and setting a reasonable amount of time to set myself up for success.  I can’t say that I want to reach my goal weight in a couple of weeks because that isn’t ideal.  Instead I am giving myself a good 6 months to reach my goal weight.  With hard work and determination I know that it is possible.  If I were to say that I want to lose that much weight in a short amount of time I would get discouraged and probably lose focus and not reach my goal at all. 

Realistic – This goes right along with the point before.  I must set a reasonable amount of time for me to reach my goal in.  Set the goal as high as you are willing and able to achieve it!

Timely – You should always have a timeframe for your goal, a deadline to work towards.  With no timeframe in mind you won’t be as motivated to accomplish your goal. 

One other thing is to make sure that you write your goals down.  I usually just post them on my blog and refer to them from time to time when I think about them or have done something that I remember being one of my goals.  Sonya - from A Day In The Life posted how she sets her goals and she said that she always prints them and keeps them with her.  I am going to do this as well this year along with posting them on the refrigerator or somewhere else where Brian can see them. 

Tomorrow I will post all my 2012 goals!