Not so long ago, I got paid to help people make goals and objectives, and fulfill those goals each year. I am a special education teacher (former, I get to stay home with my kiddos for the moment!), and my favorite part of the job was helping students create realistic goals for themselves and help them fulfill those goals throughout the year. I have made A LOT of goals and objectives throughout the years, and thought I would give you some suggestions to help you make and keep your new year resolutions in 11!
- Keep it SIMPLE! Do not overwhelm yourselves with so many goals, you can not keep track of your progress! Maybe choose a couple areas in your life in which you hope to improve, maybe a spiritual goal, a physical goal, a mental goal, etc. I would say five goals is the absolute maximum!
- Keep it SPECIFIC! If you really want to see results, you have to know what those results mean. Here is an example.
I want to be more healthy in 2011. What does that mean? How can you tell if you are in fact more healthy when 2011 is through? A specific goal might be, I want to have a BMI (Body Mass Index) of 26 by the end of 2011. Or I want to drink 8 glasses of water everyday. - Keep it MEASURABLE! Your goals should be based on daily, weekly, monthly, or yearly goals. That way you can measure if you have been in fact progressing. Here are some examples.
DAILY: Drink 8 glasses of water each day.
WEEKLY: Make a new healthy recipe each week.
YEARLY: Read the Old Testament from cover to cover in 2011. - In some instances you will need a BASELINE. A baseline is simply where you are at now. For example, if your goal is to have a BMI of 26 in the new year, it would be beneficial to know where your BMI is right now so you can see how much you have improved, and to make sure your goal is realistic, and achievable. You do not need to conquer the world in one year, your resolutions should cause you to stretch and grow, but they should be achievable!
- Keep a RECORD! I know many people, my self included make great resolutions in January, and by March, completely forget about them. The key is to 1) Write your goals some place you will see them often. Hang them on the fridge door, the mirror, your computer screen. Somewhere that they will be fresh on your mind. 2) Record your progress. Have a system in place to record your progress. I plan on having a place in my daily planner to record my progress in my daily planner. It is so important to find an EASY way to record your progress. For instance, everyday that I exercise I put a red dot on the calendar, this works well for me, and it is very easy.
I hope this post has helped you! And happy Resoluting. These are my goals for 2011.
- Make at least one blog post a week.
- Exercise 90 minutes a week, with the ultimate goal of completing a 10k running race.
- Read the Old Testament, in 2011. This is a little over 3 pages each day.
- Practice the piano 20 minutes a day.
- Make a monthly meal plan.
