Feeling pressured to PLAN your way to health this year? Throw the planner out and read more about health goals you can actually keep.
I’m sure you’ve heard before that 80% of people who make a resolution never achieve their resolution, or at least give up by February. You might even be one of them.
Maybe you’ve made resolutions before, and they died out a slow and torturous death, after much angst and heartache. Or, maybe you refuse to make a resolution at all!
No matter which way you slice it (or excuse it), it probably made you feel lazy, shiftless, or even like a failure.
When you set out to accomplish something and it doesn’t happen, that really kind of hits you hard. You might even have decided never to make another resolution.
Until December 31. And you can’t believe a whole year has passed without any changes in your eating or exercise. Maybe you completely stopped exercising, or the Christmas cookies proved more beguiling than the Turkey Trot.
So you jump into January 1st with fire under your butt, saying “Yes, I’ve got this!”
And then on January 2nd you’re like, “Yeah, I got this.”
January 3rd, you sigh”Maybe I got this.”
January 4th, you ask “Do I still got this?”
January 5th … Oh, did you have a resolution?
(Kudos to those of you who made it to day 9 and are still rocking it)
Either way, you have a choice now. To plan- or not to plan your way to health.
You may even be on Amazon with four different types of planners that will help you CRUSH your big, hairy, audacious goal (if you’d only click “buy”).
I believe in the power of writing goals down– whether it’s gratitude, number of days you exercise, or what you ate for dinner. In fact, my entire 100 pound weight loss began with the power of a pen!
There is scientific research that writing goals down does makes you more likely to achieve them. On Huffington Post here, or Forbes here, or Inc here. Interestingly enough, they disagree on how much more likely (anywhere from 40-90%).
There is also historical evidence that it’s not working for you.
Here’s why:
We tend to focus on the wrong things when we write things down.
And focusing on the wrong things leads to frustration, overwhelm, procrastination, and giving up that darn resolution by February 1.
Maybe your expectation of writing down your every move leads into your belief that THIS is the only way you can accomplish your health goals.
That’s complete and utter B.S.
I’m not saying don’t write anything down. After all, I have some to-do lists on my phone, dates that I track my business objectives, and a grocery list, but you have to think a little bit broader than that when it comes to your health resolutions.
You have a full year to accomplish whatever your goal is, and you absolutely can accomplish it. Yet, a lot can happen in a year.
And, in that space of “not knowing” is where the MAGIC happens for most health goals.
You see- it’s okay. It’s okay if you don’t know exactly how you’re going to get to your health goal. I literally had NO IDEA how I was going to lose 100 pounds. That is why I created a 4-step process that you can use for ANY goal you are looking to achieve. I have also helped many clients personalize this process to meet their unique needs.
If I had a written out, thoughtful plan with specific dates marked in bright colors in my planner- I probably would still be morbidly obese #truthbomb.
It’s important to start with a vision and then set specific goals, but not knowing how to get there is part of the fun! You may be wondering what fun there is in dieting or exercising.
- Well, you don’t have to diet to reach your weight goals.
- And, exercise can help you enjoy better sex.
- Plus, you might actually feel like a major goddess.
Sound like fun, yet?
The best part for me of being a health coach is the goal setting process. Because goal achievement is a process, and I am strangely addicted to making processes so air-tight that they work. 100% of the time, at any time (you can check out what clients think about it, too).
We’re not stupid, we know what we need to accomplish, we may even suspect we know how to accomplish it. The problem is those days when we’re just not motivated.
By the way, no one makes a resolution to brush their teeth every day. Because it’s already a habit that we have stopped thinking about doing. You don’t need to motivate yourself to do it.
That is where your health goals should be! So unquestionable that they don’t even NEED to be on a list, calendar or planner. They are automatic.
So, I would like to invite you to a different way of approaching your health goals in 2018.
Don’t write down the details.
Sometimes figuring it out as you go along will help you rather than hurt you. Your targets change, so you need to be flexible. You need to be adaptable in your approach.
How this tends to work for my clients is once they have their yearly goal, I support them with setting monthly milestones that they can measure progress towards. Want to share your monthly milestones with me, and be celebrated for it? Join my free Facebook group, Weight no More. Did I mention we also have daily accountability here as well as featured monthly guest experts? Come join us!
Planners are great for the daily details. Yet, they can fall short when it comes to making your health goals a success.
Take action by scheduling a no-risk phone call with me. Together, we can discover how to make goal setting work for you, whether that includes an expensive planner or not.