Tomorrow is New Year's Eve

and we will say goodbye to 2017. I don't know many who would describe 2017 as a particulary good year, but maybe I just know the wrong people. Tomorrow evening we will go out for Chinese food, a New Year's tradition of ours, with Sissy & John E. Last few days I've been thinking and wondering how many people still make up New Year's Resolutions and how successful they have been. Too often the ones I've heard and ones I've written too were doomed to failure. Many were hasty reactions to the questions of others, What's your New Year's Resolution? Or else well intended but not well thought out. I think one of the problems is that we sometimes think in terms of the whole year and feel like whatever we write down or vocalize should be something big, something major, befitting a span of 365 days. I've learned that to have a chance at success, resolutions should be framed as goals and must be: specific, measurable, realistic. We need to prioritize goals, have a plan to reach them, and evaluate our progress from time to time. Adding in some small rewards for reaching set points along the way can be helpful too.

For instance, two of the top resolutions you will hear is to lose weight in the new year and stop smoking. What's wrong with that? It's vague. How much do you want to lose? 100 pounds?? in 12 months? Not realistic. 40 pounds over 6 months - possible. Which is more important? Giving up smoking or losing weight? Let's say you decide losing weight is the top priority. Okay, how will you do it? Have a plan, like learning about proper meal proportions and sticking to them, exercising 3 times a week for 30 minutes, and drinking more water to help you feel full. Tell a close friend or family member your goal to help you feel more responsible to it and also to have someone support your efforts. How will you evaluate your progress? Have set points and weigh yourself once a week. It's not unreasonable to lose 8-10 pounds the first month, so make 8 pounds your set point. If you reach that goal by end of the month or before, how will you reward yourself so you will be enthusiastic about the next month? Maybe your reward will be a new CD you can listen to while you work out? But let's say you fall short of your set point, what then? Experts suggest making your set point a little higher next time. Not a lot, just a little. So perhaps you lost 7 pounds the first month and had planned to lose 7 next month. Change the second month's set point to 8.

You could, of course, be trying to reach the goal of non-smoking at the same time as you work on the top priority, but be realistic as both goals tend to be tough ones. Maybe put off the smoking for a month or two and work on an easier secondary goal, something you have a good chance of succeeding with, because that feeling of success will spill over to your work on weight reduction. This idea of combining a tough goal with a lesser goal is part of my thought that it's more efficient to set monthly goals rather than over arching yearly goals. With monthly goals you might choose 3 goals, a top priority goal, or piece thereof, and two lesser, but still important goals with better projected success. For instance, for January, your top priority is to lose weight. You'd like to lose 40 pounds by year's end, so you write you will lose 8-10 pounds in January, towards an ultimate goal of 40 pounds less. You make a plan to do that, then you note that you want to clean out your bedroom closet. What does that mean in terms of a plan? Take everything out, decide what to keep, what to donate, what to discard. Sweep the closet out and organize clothing you are keeping by type. Rule of thumb - if you haven't worn it in over a year, out it goes. Once you've got the closet in shape, have delivered the donations, and put out the discards, It is time for a small reward. Maybe throw a bath bomb in the tub and settle in for a long soak. And so on.

Of course, all of this is easier said than done as we all know. Still, I know people who have had success with the monthly goal setting - myself included. And it is sweet to be able to look back over the goal sheets and see what you have accomplished. Since I was making some sheets for myself this year, I decided I would share them with you. I realized last year's sets were too colorful and took too much ink (I like to print mine). Also the colored backgrounds made it more difficult to read text. And a larger size might be better. This time, pages are 8.5" x 11" with primarily white backgrounds. I've also included a New Year's Resolution sheet for those who want to do that. If you are hosting a New Year's Eve party, you could print out copies for your guests to fill in and maybe, you could later discuss how those resolutions are working out?

Link: https://www.dropbox.com/s/gbquirtyef333n5/ws_goalsets2018.zip?dl=0