Schmoozins

There’s nothing wrong with having hopes and dreams. In fact, having something to work toward makes life more interesting and makes you want to work toward seeing them come to be. If you do have a goal you’d like to achieve, you may want to set one large goal for the year rather than trying to accomplish more than one at a time.

What is the one large goal you’d like to scratch off your “to do” list next year? Do you want to learn a new language? Lose a large amount of weight? Learn a new skill such as dancing? Start eating better? No matter what your goal is, there are certain steps you can take to help you be successful.

Consider why you have this particular goal. If you have a good deal of weight you’d like to lose, is it because you’re concerned about your health or do you want to impress someone (a person you’re interested in or your high school friends at a reunion)? Your reasons for wanting to lose weight are important because they may determine how seriously you work toward achieving your goal.

Are you willing to make lifelong changes to become healthy and lose weight if you’re concerned about your blood pressure, developing heart problems, or developing diabetes? Your commitment level to stick with the changes you want to make will be very different if you only want to lose a certain amount of weight to look good for your high school reunion.

Start with smaller goals that are associated with the one large goal you have for the year. For instance, your goal is to lose fifty pounds by December 31 of next year. Instead of focusing on losing the whole amount of weight, you could make smaller goals where you’d begin eating healthier, eating less, and exercising more, trying to lose five pounds per month. If you were able to achieve that goal, you would lose fifty pounds in around ten months rather than waiting until the twelfth month.

The smaller goals might look like:

* I will not eat past 7 p.m. because eating later in the day isn’t healthy and makes it harder to lose weight
* I will lose five pounds this month
* I will drink six eight ounce glasses of water per day
* I will eat dessert only once a week rather than every day

Each of those smaller goals is specific, attainable, and measurable. Write down the specific smaller goals and post them where you’ll see them. This will help you to see how well you’re doing and give you the encouragement to keep on going when you’ve accomplished the smaller goals.

After you’ve accomplished the first smaller goal you would then develop another goal that will move you closer to finishing your one large goal for the year. The important thing to remember is that in setting one large goal, you also want to have smaller goals to let you know how well you’re progressing toward that goal. Break it down into smaller, measurable, and attainable goals that will lead to the culmination of your main goal in the future.