I love this time of year! It’s not that I love cold weather (because I don’t), but rather this time of year represents a chance to reflect upon what has been accomplished throughout the year and what might be for the upcoming year.
I spoke with a patient just this morning that was setting some health-related goals for the coming year. “I’ve been working on them for a month. I don’t just have a goal, I have a plan.” It was great to hear that the goal wasn’t going to be something with no chance of success. I believe she will see success in her goals this year.
The biggest issue in accomplishing goals is in your motivation for attaining them.
If you have a goal that you think you should have (like “lose weight”), but you’re not excited about that goal, you won’t lose weight.
If you set an unrealistic goal (lose 100 pounds this year eating nothing but celery), then your brain will say, “That doesn’t sound like fun at all. Let’s just do something else.” What if your motivation changed? What could you accomplish then?
Anthony Robbins talks about walking across a board placed on the ground. Would you do it? Sure. Now raise that same board and put it across two tall buildings. Would you walk across that board? Most people would not. What if that same board was across two buildings, but the love of your life or your child desperately needed your help and they were on the other side?
Would you walk across then? Could anything stop you? Would you run across?
The problem was not in the challenge, but in the motivation. You just didn’t want it bad enough. I know, that’s easier said than done.
Too many times our goals are just preferences. “I would prefer to weigh less. I would consider it an accomplishment if I ran a marathon.” These are just not strong enough motivators to get us to change.
Before you come up with a list of 100 things you’d like to accomplish in 2015, first think about your “why.” Why do you want it? What do you really want?
I keep hitting on weight loss because it’s such a common goal and one that most people know how to do (eat right and exercise more), but we can get stuck in the day to day decisions that negatively affect our ability to hit that goal.
If your “why” was strong enough, nothing could make you overeat. Nothing would stop you from exercising daily. Nothing would stop you from accomplishing all the goals on your list. My suggestion? Fewer goals, and more reasons why you want them.
This will help you stay laser-targeted on hitting your goals and make all the difference.
What’s your “why”?