Goal Setting

Setting clearly defined short term and long term goals will enable you to measure your progress and achieve personal satisfaction once you have successfully met your goals. Generally, short-term goals are those you can achieve in two- six months while it can take three to five years to reach long term ones. Attitude plays a very big role in setting and achieving your goals.

Most "impossible" goals can be met simply by breaking them down into bite size chunks, writing them down, believing them, and then going full speed ahead as if they were routine.

Goals are NOT wishes

We are all responsible for our own future. The decisions and actions we take today determine how we will live our lives from this point forward. Goals allow us to determine the direction in which our future will unfold. To be effective, goals need to:

1. Be realistic (don't dream) 
2. Have measurable outcomes  
3. Have a time limit to be accomplished

Without a time limit, goals are meaningless. Putting a deadline on a goal adds a sense of urgency. A deadline is your best motivator for success.

New Years Resolutions or Goals

Usually I don’t make New Years resolutions. They’ve always seemed so vague or unattainable to me. I do find it amusing that people show up to the gym through January and February and experience the noticeable dropoff of attendance around the beginning of March. Is that because the weather is getting warmer or because of failed resolutions? I do like goal-setting, though, and I think it may be helpful for me to set some goals for my training and fitness for the coming year. As one of the criteria is “timely,” I think that it will make more sense to have a few overarching year-long goals and many smaller monthly goals. So, my first goal for the year is to set monthly goals and check-in on them here on the last day of each month. I know a lot of you do this already, and it seems like a really great way to hold yourself accountable to keep up with your goals.

S – Specific
M – Measurable
A – Attainable
R – Realistic
T – Timely