Resolutions & Goals
Every new year, you're likely to see or hear people talking about their New Year's Resolutions.
In my experience, New Year's Resolutions appear to be inspired by recent holiday feelings generated from family member comparisons rather than an assessment of one's own situation, skills, behavior, desires, and aspirations. They also tend to be vague. Setting yourself vague goals almost ensures future disappointment.
Some common examples you'll see:
I want to lose weight
I want to eat healthier
I want to be happy (or I want to be more positive)
I want to be more creative
Whether these are "good" goal examples isn't the point here; the point is, how do you determine when you've achieved any of them? Most of us can't! And since we have a tendency to focus on the negative rather than the positive, one slip-up could spoil the entire thing.
For me, goals were always some mystifying thing other people did or something I worked towards for someone else (i.e., for an employer); I always just kind of flopped in the wind and did whatever caught my attention. I never truly learned the value of setting a goal based on what I wanted to achieve, working towards it, and overcoming any obstacles along the way. In the past few years this has started to change. I’ve realized that if I want to achieve certain things, change my situation, or just have a neat collection of accomplishments to look back on at the end of the month/year/decade/whatever I need to plan out some goals. This is where transforming those vague goals into SMART goals can be helpful.
SMART Goals
SMART is acronym that stands for Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, Time-based. There’s P L E N T Y of information to be found regarding the topic on the internets. What follows is a collection of words I’ve assembled for myself, but perhaps they can help you.
Specific
What do you want to accomplish?
Who is responsible for it? This may seem obvious, but often we can set “goals” that require participation from other parties, making it that much more difficult to achieve.
What steps will you take to achieve it?
Measurable
In most cases this means NUMBERS, but not always. The takeaway here is that you should have some way to verify (or measure) that progress is happening or that the goal was achieved.
Attainable (or achievable)
Goals you set for yourself should be empowering. They should be motivating. They’re the type of goal where the enjoyment is not just received from the end result, but the process as well. They should not be some pie-in-the-sky unrealistic wish that you only gain fulfillment out of once complete.
Relevant
Don’t set a goal just to say you did or even just to please someone else. The goals you set should be important and beneficial to YOU.
Time-based
Goals that stretch out forever aren’t goals! They’re never-ending things you just. keep. doing. And with no end, you’re likely to get burnt out or bored which then might end up leading you to believe you failed.
Some Misc. Comments
You DO NOT need a new year in order to set goals or make changes in your life.
You DO NOT need to stick to a goal; it’s OK to abandon one without feeling the need to justify why or find an excuse. Evaluate your progress regularly; if working towards the goal is no longer bringing you joy and starts to feel like a chore, DROP IT AND MOVE ON.
If you've set up measurable goals, you should be able to track your progress. One benefit of this is if you encounter one or more slip-ups, you’ll still be able to see that you’re making progress. It’s a means of silencing that inner critic with facts. In addition, I encourage you to celebrate each milestone! Share this progress with others, it might encourage them to work towards their goals and share their progress, which might provide a much needed dose of encouragement for yourself. If you happen to start feeling envious or jealous of others, remember: only compare yourself to who you were yesterday.
At this point last year, I had set myself a few goals I felt I could have achieved during the year. However, I did not expect COVID-19 (not many of us did) and how it would affect the world, my mental health, and the completion of said goals.
Thus far, I've only set one goal for the year and I am OK with that. As the year progresses, I'll set more; I know that I can decide to work towards something at any point, and I often come up with some awesome shit I want to achieve. I also know that my interests fluctuate throughout the year, so I need to be flexible and kind to myself. Some of my more common goals are likely to make a return (reading at least 1 book a month, hiking at least 100 miles).
So, go forth and set your future self up for success by setting SMART goals. It doesn't matter how big or small, or how long it'll take; if there's something you want to achieve, break it down into smaller tasks (if needed) and get started.
