“Success doesn’t happen overnight. Keep an eye on the prize and don’t look back.” – Erin Andrews
It’s the last Monday in January! Can you believe it??
According to someone nearly 90% of us that set out to achieve something new in 2016 have already quit or given up.
Not you!
Today you opened your Motivational Monday because you know choosing to live healthy and happy does not happen overnight. Each day or week is another opportunity to set goals and see the change you want in your life.
I came across a great article that asked 5 challenging questions regarding business goal-setting. A lot of these easily apply to lifestyle goals as well but I was especially intrigued by this concept of goals versus intentions.
Below is an example to show the difference between a goal and an intention.
A good intention might be: “I’m going to start exercising this year.” Versus a good goal: “I’m going to walk for 30 minutes three days a week.”
Here are a few questions to ask yourself when determining if you have good intensions or great goals…
Ask yourself:
1. Is this the most specific I can get? Taking the example above, you can specify which 3 days you will walk each week.
2. How am I measuring my goal? I find writing it down or using a calendar to mark which days you succeeded to be more motivating because you can see the progress.
3. Is this goal attainable? If you are working 80 hours a week is it realistic to plan on cooking 5 nights/week?
4. Is this something I want to do? Is it realistic to [insert goal] in my life at this time? For example, will you actually wake up at 5am to make it to the gym?
5. Have I given myself enough time or too much time to start? Having a start date and maybe end date gives you the freedom to stop fretting over “forever” or giving into “next week.”
Food for thought:
We all have stuff to work on.
Setting out the big goals and then applying the questions above will allow us to turn big goals into bite-sized pieces.
That’s where a good intention becomes a new habit!
