Have you ever promised yourself, “I’m going to eat healthier,” “I’m going to exercise more,” or “I’m going to lose weight,” but constantly found yourself falling back into your old habits?
But what does it look like to work towards a goal of “living healthier” or “losing weight”? Can you clearly envision the steps you need to take to get there?
When setting a goal like this, it is essential to think about the “what,” “why,” and “how.” Focusing on an aspect of your life that you want to improve (i.e. exercise, nutrition) forms the basis for what your goal is. Reflecting on your deeply-held values and the purpose connected to this goal creates the “why” behind it (i.e. more self-confidence, increased energy levels). When it comes to how you will go about working towards your goal, it’s important to have a plan in place that will guide you through actionable steps to get there (i.e. walking every day, eliminating sugar).
How to Set and Achieve Your Goal
What does it mean to lead a more balanced lifestyle? More specifically, what does it mean to “eat healthier,” “exercise more,” or “manage stress better”? Overarching goals like these are often vague and need to be connected to a more concrete action. Otherwise, how do you know if you actually ate healthier, exercised more, or lowered your stress? Any time you set a goal or resolution, it should come with an objective that is specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, and time-bound. These criteria break down the actions related to your goal and help you avoid the trap of vagueness. So, what are the steps you can take to make sure you are setting a smart goal?
Similarly, if you want to be more grateful in your life, your specific goal could be to express gratitude outwardly to others more. This could mean telling people face-to-face, writing notes or letters to them, or calling them on the phone to express your gratitude.
If your specific objective is to express gratitude outwardly to your loved ones, perhaps set out to do this once a week. So, once a week, you will express your gratitude to someone you love by calling them, telling them in-person, writing to them, or texting them.
When it comes to expressing gratitude to someone once a week, the attainability piece may refer to whom you will express it. There may be people in your life whom you could call and express your gratitude, but it would be extremely uncomfortable. Logistically, it may be more attainable for you to choose people to whom you feel very close and with whom you are comfortable being vulnerable.
If your actionable objective is attainable, that’s great. If you realize that it isn’t attainable, think about how you can adjust the action or its measure to better suit what you can commit to.
Likewise, it probably would not be realistic to write a note of gratitude to someone you love every single day. However, aiming to do so once a week would be a more reasonable objective. When you’re deciding on a specific action and setting its measurability, it’s important to make it realistic.
For example, your action may be to eat five servings of vegetables every day for a month, if that feels realistic and attainable for you. It may be to attend a fitness class once a week for two months, or meditate every morning for three weeks. Setting a timeline allows you to pause at the end of it, reinforce to yourself that you accomplished your actionable goal, and reevaluate. Did it make you feel different? Did you notice a change? How can you adjust your goal to continue in the future?
These goal-setting steps can be applied to any objective, whether it’s to lose weight, change your diet, lower your stress, or even to be a better friend or express more gratitude in your life. Once you have established your overarching goal (your “what”) and you’ve thought about why this is a deeply important goal to you, you can break down how you will get there, and then you’ll be on your way to accomplishing it.
Starting this process can feel a bit overwhelming, which is why the Balanced Living Program at PALM Health gives you the opportunity to work closely with a team that will assist you and help you create sustainable changes to your lifestyle so you can reach and maintain a healthy weight. These changes address your diet, exercise, and stress level in order to encourage overall well-being of the mind, body, and spirit. You’ll have the chance to assign an actionable objective to your overarching goal under the guidance of an expert. This way, you can lay out the steps you need to take and accomplish what you’re setting out to do without falling back into your old habits.
PALM Health is an innovative, whole-person medical and wellness company that helps people reach and maintain well-being. Our experts in medicine and wellness empower people to transform their health, become more resilient, and feel their personal best in mind and body.
