3 Simple Steps To Setting And Keeping Goals

It's been a month or so since we set our New Years Resolutions...How are you doing?  Last night our oldest son and his wife were over visiting and he started talking about how he has learned to set and keep goals.  He's got some pretty good ideas (must get his smarts from his MOM)!

1. Set reasonable goals.  Make them so easy that it's not even hardly a challenge.

          EXAMPLE #1:  Your goal is to get up 1 hour earlier every day.  That's a pretty hard goal, especially for someone that is not an early riser. 

          SOLUTION: Make it simple and build on it.  

Start out by setting your alarm 5 minutes earlier than normal.  

Anyone can get up just 5 minutes earlier!  

Do this for 1 week.  The following week set your alarm another 5 minutes earlier. Now your getting up 10 minutes earlier than when you started. Do this for 1 week.  Keep adding 5 minutes each week until you've reached your 1 hour goal.

          EXAMPLE #2: Your goal is to NEVER eat sugar again. Now, some people can do this in one fell swoop, but most of us will start out great until we're offered a piece of candy.

          SOLUTION: Make it so simple that you can do it and then build on that.  

Today I will not eat anything made with sugar.  Just today! 

After you've succeeded, set the same goal for tomorrow and so on.  Once you've done this for 1 week, treat yourself to a small bowl of ice cream or something you really enjoy.  The following week, do the same thing.  Greet each day with the goal to not eat sugar...just one day at a time. After 1 week, treat yourself to a sweet treat. Do this for a month or so and then expand your commitment to 2 weeks and so on.  As your body begins to adjust to not having sugar, you'll begin to notice that those sweet treats don't taste as good and they won't be such a temptation.

     2.  Fill the void. Once a person decides to stop doing something, a void is created.  Take the above Example #2.  You've created a void by taking something you like to eat out of your diet.  In order to succeed at your goal, NOT to eat sugar, you will need to fill that void with something else.  Something equally satisfying.  Maybe you love strawberries but don't buy them very often....buy yourself some strawberries and save them for a treat when temptation is sneaking in!

     3.  Remove temptation.  If your goal is to get up earlier, make sure to go to bed on time.  Remove the temptation to sleep in by getting a good nights rest.  If your goal is to not eat sugar, remove all those sugar laiden treats from the house.  That way, when you do treat yourself, you have to go to the store to buy it!  But...make sure you've had a good healthy meal before buying your treat, or the temptation to buy several treats  might be to strong...


Do you have any tips about what works for you?  I'd enjoy hearing about them!