Achieve Your Goals Now: Four Goal-Setting Tips for an Invincible Lifestyle by Lauren Minchen, MPH, RDN, CDN
As the year progresses, many people find themselves falling short of the goals they had been hopeful about just months before.
It is also around this time that those who felt hopeful about their vision for the year begin to feel disappointed, even disillusioned, about their lack of success in achieving their goals.
Does this describe you? Why does this happen? The reason is that your goals are too extreme. You may set them with high hopes in mind, but they often lack any connection to your starting line. After a couple of weeks, the changes become unsustainable, real-life challenges kick in, and you believe that the goal is simply unattainable. However, it doesn’t have to be.
Your goals can be invincible. Think of achieving a goal as a marathon. You are set on crossing the finish line, but you can’t take only one giant leap to that finish line. You’ll never make it. How do you actually cross that finish line? You must take clear, focused steps consistently over time. The same applies to our goals. Envisioning the finish line is a great first step.
The most important part to getting and staying there is planning the steps between where you are now and where you want to be. This is when you will begin to experience what it’s like to build an invincible lifestyle, one that has you prepared for any challenges ahead.
So, what should you focus on when setting goals for an invincible lifestyle? What makes an invincible goal?
Here are four tips to help you get started.
Break your goals down into bite-sized objectives. Want to lose 50 pounds? Start by aiming for ten. Breaking your goals down boosts your determination because your objectives simply feel more attainable. In addition, achieving smaller objectives gives you more opportunities to celebrate wins along the way, which helps to further inspire your commitment to your goals.
Identify barriers and challenges before they show up. This is one of the main reasons we fail at achieving our goals. When a challenge pops up, we have no strategy for overcoming or working with that challenge. Instead, we abandon the goal in order to get through the challenge. That leaves us back at square one. Challenges will always be a part of life. Make sure you plan for them by creating goals that specifically tackle and overcome them. This involves strategizing around the “how” in challenging circumstances (e.g. travel, holidays, illness, etc.). Working with a professional can help you with this strategy and planning.
Be open to modifying your goals. This step may be one of the most important things to remember. Often, goals are not met because we are so committed to our original goal that we don’t recognize when an adjustment needs to be made. In other words, we make the perfect the enemy of the good. And when this happens, we actually undermine ourselves and set ourselves up for failure. Recognize when an adjustment can help boost your outcome, and make appropriate changes that will empower you.
Make a plan for maintenance after you’ve achieved your goal(s). This step is essential to sustaining the results you have achieved. Creating a plan for this phase is just as important as creating a plan to achieve your goal(s). Having no plan for this phase gives you nothing to transition into, leaving opportunity for old habits to creep back in. Plan and strategize for what you may need during this time, and have your plan ready to go to help you focus on the next phase.
Don’t give up on your goals. Instead, take time to create clear and focused objectives that will ultimately help you craft an invincible lifestyle.
Lauren Minchen is a Registered Dietitian Nutritionist based in NYC and the author of Bariatric Slow Cooker Cookbook. With over a decade of experience in private practice, she prioritizes her clients’ individual needs to help them achieve their own invincible lifestyle. Her specialties include digestive health, autoimmune conditions, and PCOS. To work with Lauren, visit https://www.laurenminchen.com/.