You’ve set a goal, you’ve broken it down into intermediate steps with timelines and due dates, and you failed to achieve the target. What happened? James Clear, the author of Atomic Habits would say you did not create the habits to get there with granular specificity.
Here is an example we all struggle with. We say we are going to get fit and lean. Maybe, lose 15 pounds by New Year’s Day. (A reverse New Year’s Resolution). And, we say we are going to lose 5 pounds each month. Maybe, we say we will cut out bread, rice and alcohol. Then, we go one month and we have lost 3 pounds. What is next? Now, we need a strategy to lose 6 pounds/month for the next 2 months.
In my KEY group this week, we picked one thing we wanted more or less of and laid out daily steps to get there. In small groups, we discussed our goals and helped each other to get really granular about what and when and put it in our calendar. One person was going to get on the spin cycle 3 times/week. Which days? What time of the day? How long? If life got in the way, when would a make up session happen? Who was the accountability partner for this? How was success being tracked?
If this sounds really awful, tell me how else you will be successful in reaching your goal?
I love setting goals. I’m excited about that future I envision. But, I don’t achieve many of them. I’m glad I forgive myself, and don’t create a life of shame, but now I know what I can fix in my strategies. So, I created a goal of getting up off the floor without using a hand to help me up. One of my small group mates, suggested I use Chatgpt to give me the exercises and then pull up Youtube videos to show me the exercises if I wasn’t sure of the proper form. Magic! 5 minutes 2x day before lunch and dinner should get me there. What is one goal you would like to achieve and what are the habits you will create to achieve it?
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