With 2023 now well underway, we probably all know too well that ‘new year resolutions’ often ends up wobbling early on and by February we can find ourselves back in our old habits. In the article this month we look at how to create achievable goals and make sure you stick to them keeping yourself motivated to keep moving toward your goal.

Goals are good for motivation and vice versa, as we feel more and more successful and notice this success it makes us feel more able to succeed again in the future. Think of it as slowly learning a new skill. When you first begin you will not know what to do and make mistakes but as time passes it gets easier and easier and the skill becomes a habit. Visualising success can be powerful.  Here are some top tips to increase motivation: https://www.verywellmind.com/surprising-ways-to-get-motivated-2795388

You may want to move on to something more advanced as well as looking back and reflecting on the progress you have made. Below are five simple steps to making a goal and sticking with it to the end!

1.Make your goal SMART

You may have heard of setting a SMART target before in school or work setting but this acronym is also important for goals in personal life as well. SMART stands for specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and time frame. Making sure you set a specific goal means you will know when you have reached it. Keep focus on the what, why and how of the goal. Measurable means that you can track your progress and keep an eye on what is going well. Achievable is important to make sure you are not asking too much of yourself and you can meet your goal. Realistic means you have the ability and resources to meet your goal. It may be a certain amount of time or even money is needed before meeting a goal. Time frames mean that you are always keeping track and noticing when you move toward success. Make sure you give yourself enough time but still hold yourself to the deadline set.

2.SMART and SMARTER

Often we set a target that is too vague such as lose weight before the end of the month. This would be specific in a way, is measurable at the end of the month, is certainly achievable, realistic and has a time frame set. The issue with a target like this is that it does not have anything in between the middle and the end. There is no way to know if you have done it until the end of the month. A Smarter target perhaps would be to set a goal to do something that will lead to weight loss that you can measure every day. I will exercise twice a week may be more effective as it is more specific and measurable. This means that you can start to feel good about meeting your goals much sooner even before losing any weight. It is important at the planning stage to examine if your goal is taking positive steps to move toward something not negative steps to avoid. For example “I am going to eat more vegetables” is moving in a more positive direction vs “I am not going to eat pizza” is punishing yourself and avoiding something that you know you enjoy. Make sure to be fair to yourself and plan to have as much positivity and success on the way to your final goal.

3.Keep track of the successes and don’t punish yourself for failures

We all get tempted to be critical of ourselves when we feel like we are not meeting a goal. The important thing to make sure of is that we are also noticing our successes. If we have planned to exercise twice a week and we only go once we can either tell ourselves off for not going or give ourselves praise for going the one time, increasing activity and working toward our overall goal. This is not about letting yourself be lazy but simply recognising you are human and cannot be perfect. Don’t let the idea of being perfect be the enemy of being better than you were before. Making your goals positive will keep you more interested in working toward them as they bring positivity into life rather than feeling like a punishment or a mountain you have to climb every week.

4.Make it meaningful – https://www.getselfhelp.co.uk/docs/IncreasingMotivation.pdf

While looking at goals and aims in this way can certainly increase motivation to work toward change we still need to be dedicated toward the things we want. This is where a lot of people trip up as we mentioned previously being disciplined can often lead to being critical. One way to overcome this is to look at the reason why you have set yourself this goal in the first place. Finding meaning in goals is a way to push yourself in those times when you are really feeling de-motivated. This needs to be something that is important to you not to anyone else, being able to fit into a certain outfit or look like someone you admire may feel important when setting the goal but these things are perhaps superficial long term. Reflect and explore what it is that makes the goal interesting to you and keep hold of this meaning to keep you going when motivation is low. Again, this is important to think about at the planning stage of your goal so you are sure what you are doing is something you authentically want.  Really understanding your values and what drives you is essential to maintaining motivation.

The most important thing that you must have in mind when working toward a goal is that you are already taking positive action even before you set out on your journey. The task of setting and working toward a new goal is a marathon and not a sprint so make sure to most of all treat yourself with kindness and compassion while you try to change in the direction you wish. You may even find that in time it is the working toward change becomes the habit and its own reward as you feel better about becoming the authentic version of you.

You may find the link below useful as a free resource to start planning your SMART goals.

https://positive.b-cdn.net/wp-content/uploads/SMART-Goals-Worksheet.pdf

Matt Anderton  

Counsellor

Further information:

Take a look on our website https://thewellnessconsultancy.org for helpful guidance or contact us for support and advice – email: wellness-consultancy@outlook.com.

https://www.verywellmind.com/surprising-ways-to-get-motivated-2795388

https://www.getselfhelp.co.uk/docs/IncreasingMotivation.pdf