Have you ever made a really big health goal or resolution? New Year’s Day and birthdays are big times to proclaim our desires for BIG change!
If you are anything like me, you jump right in. The newness and excitement of your goal pulls you forward for a week, maybe even two or three. But then, you lose steam, or a child gets sick, or school has a snow day. Once you take a break, it is hard to find your way back.
A few years back (6 to be exact), I set out to accomplish a really big goal. I needed to lose 65 lbs. I had tried to lose weight before, but this time turned out a bit different. I started, persisted, and one day, not too far after I started, I realized I had reached my goal. I felt very satisfied and ready to move onto my next goal.
What changed? Why did I lose the weight this time around? The key thing was how I set my goals.
I knew I wanted to lose the weight, but I was also quite aware that I had three small kids and my own business and life was busy — I had a literal limit to what I could get done.
So I set really doable micro-goals.
First, I needed to change what I ate. So I literally ate the same thing every day for a few weeks and figured out how to do that really well.
A part of my day was green juice and smoothies, so having mastered that, my next change was to play with different juice and smoothie recipes within my new ingredient list. It was so fun!
Next, I signed up for cooking classes to learn more about gluten-free and vegan cooking, and learned all sorts of ways to create food that also made me feel awesome.
Everything I did led me towards my bigger goal in a doable and fun way. Each step was building on the last. Each new practice was building a new lifestyle vs. a fleeting change.
I always have a new goal, but now I have a formula for getting closer to that goal and really enjoying the process — even with sick kids and snow days!
So what is your big goal?
Name it, write it and look at it often. But put your daily practices on the little things that might bring you closer to that goal — one doable change at a time.
