Getting SMART About Your New Year's Resolutions

Here we are again - New Year’s resolutions time. What did you resolve last year? How did those resolutions work out for you? If you are like most people, you probably don’t even remember what you resolved, let alone can say “yes, I made those changes and stuck to them!”

Is this because we can’t change? No! It’s because we typically approach resolutions like this: on New Year’s day I review what I don’t like about myself and/or my life. I make a list of things I want to change. I stick the list on my fridge and hope for the best. Resolutions are goals without an actual plan. Born to fail.

How to make this year’s resolutions turn out differently? First, throw out the word. It is too loaded with years of collective failures. Instead, zero in on one to three personal goals or intentions that have meaning for you.  

Next, use the SMART goals system to help you create goals that actually work.  

Specific: “Ride my exercise bike 30 minutes three times a week, starting this week and continuing for 3 months. Then I will re-evaluate.” is specific. “Exercise more” is not.

Measurable: 30 minutes 3 times a week can be measured. “More” is vague. More than what? More than ever, last week, yesterday….?

Attainable: for me, the goal of “become an olympic figure skater” just isn’t going to happen. We often set up goals that are unrealistic for ourselves - due to our abilities and/or our basic nature. If you try to become someone other than yourself, you will fail. If you have always HATED to exercise, then 30 minutes three times a week is unlikely to be attainable, while “try one new form of movement a month, until I find something I enjoy enough to do once a week” could work. 

Relevant: Do you care about this goal, or is it something you feel you “should” do? Shoulds rarely motivate us to change. This is where you ask yourself “why?”, and find your motivator: feel stronger, have more energy, feel good about myself etc. And if you can’t find it, reevaluate the goal. 

Time: Beginning and end date, and how much time you’ll spend, as relevant to your goal.  

Here’s to a wonderful 2019!

In Good Health,
Kirstin Lindquist, L.Ac.
Owner