5 Steps to Effective Goal Setting

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Well, it has been nearly 2 years since I blogged.  Life.  Life is busy, unpredictable, and in the age of COVID… down right crazy.

I am seeing lots of posts on social media about goals for 2022.  I am not an expert at goal setting, but it is something that I find extremely helpful and I feel like each year I am developing my goal setting skills more and more.

As a personal trainer, I can easily pick apart all the fitness goals that I see people posting.  I LOVE seeing that people are making their health a priority but the goal itself matters for success.  Goals also don’t stop at health/fitness.  You can set a goal for any area of your life.   I thought I might share a few thoughts about how to effectively set goals.

1. Goals should be measurable.  “Lose weight.” “Eat right.”  “Read more.”  “Stay organized.” These are statements and not goals.  A goal should be something that you can look at in several weeks or months and know that you accomplished it or are at least on track to accomplish it.  They need to be specific.  Instead of the statement “read more”, a goal would be “Read 12 books this year.”

2. Goals should be process driven and not progress based. “Lose 20 pounds.” “Drop a dress size.” “Sleep 8 hours a night.”  These are measurable, but they are all about an end result that may or may not happen.  These types of goals set a person up for disappointment and failure because they are 100% about a specific end result instead of about a specific habit.  Goals should be rooted in developing healthy habits and not results.  Results will come over time with consistency so the goal needs to be about the process and not the progress. Instead of “lose 20 pounds”, a better goal would be “Exercise 30 minutes a day 4 days a week.”  

3. Goals should be regularly evaluated.  It is important to keep your goals in mind and be willing to adjust those goals throughout the year.  Each month, I look at my yearly goals and evaluate where I am on achieving those goals.  I often find that I need to adjust something.  One goal that I have each year is “Exercise for 30 minutes 5 days a week.”  Each month, I set a specific goal for what that exercise time looks like.  There are some months that I might be working toward a program or a goal that is more like an hour a day.  Other months, I realize that due to my schedule I need to pull back to 20 minutes a day on exercise instead.  Evaluating the goals on a monthly basis allows me to adjust my goals to fit that season of life and makes me less likely to give up on something completely because I wasn’t adapting my plans based on my life situations.

4. Goals are more likely to be successful with accountability.  Once your goals are set for the year have a person in on the action with you.  This could be an exercise partner, someone who texts you and asks you weekly how something is going, or a partner in crime that evaluates their goals monthly with you.  My husband and I do a monthly “Pray and Plan”.  We look over the goals, check off what we are accomplishing, acknowledge what we let slip, and adjust for the next month.  Then we spend some time praying over the next month, our family, friends, ministry and more.  I sometimes dread this when I know that I have been slacking off.  However, I also love the fresh start and renewed energy to jump back on the wagon.  I also love the transparency of seeing that my husband is having successes and failures too.  It is a reminder that goal setting doesn’t mean achieving perfection but working toward a process of discipline and healthy habits.  

5. Goals should be motivating and not used to punish yourself.  I have seen so many people beat themselves up over “failure” to meet a goal.  Goals should offer an opportunity to grow in an area of your life, but that doesn’t mean that setbacks aren’t ok.  Growth doesn’t happen overnight, outside forces sometimes interrupt us, illness/injury can cause us to pause, and sometimes we just don’t do something because we didn’t want to.  None of these are things to punish yourself for.  Instead, you just start anew and move forward.  

Below are a few goals that I have for 2022… feel free to ask me how they are going.  Some of these are on the EVERY YEAR list, but they are habits that are foundational to my life so they never get taken off. 

• Read my Bible daily.
• Prayer journal/prayer cards 3x/week.
• Exercise 30 minutes 5x/week.
• Have a consistent bedtime/wake time. 
• Meal plan with Jason 2x/week.
• 15 minute afternoon tidy/room-a-day cleaning plan.
• Intentionally encourage someone 2x/week.
• Spend 30 minutes a day on continuing ed in January/February.
• Set screen time limits for myself and don’t add time. (Still working on what that limit should be.)
• Blog 1x/week

I would love to see some of your goals!  Feel free to email me fitnessbylilli@gmail.com with questions or help in adjusting your goals to make them measurable and/or processed driven over progress driven. 

Anyone else feeling overtaken?!

I started reworking this blog a few months ago, but life…

Well, life has changed. A lot. It seems as if most of life has come to a screeching halt or maybe it is a screaming halt. Things are so much slower but they certainly don’t seem quieter. The news and social media are screaming COVID-19. Cornonavirus is the talk of the times and boy are people talking or typing or both, I guess it depends on how seriously they are taking social distancing. Many parents are teleworking and kids are adding to the noise because they are all home… all of them… all four in my case. The noise of this strange life that we are living can leave you feeling overtaken.

Apparently, the shelves are empty on most aisles in most stores in most towns. I don’t know this for a fact because I did a big grocery run on Thursday and Friday of last week when all this chaos began. What has me perplexed is the number of people who seem to also have empty shelves at home. I guess some are hoarding and others are left searching for food items and household goods. The emptiness of this strange life that we are living can leave you feeling overtaken.

Uncertainty. I think that word sums up so much. We are living in some uncertain times. We don’t know if/when schools will reopen. Many, like our family, don’t know if/when distance education may start. We have no idea what this will look like or if we have the technology and materials needed. We don’t know if there will be stricter social distancing rules or if some cities or states may have lock downs. We aren’t sure how fast the virus is going to spread or how many will be left grieving in its path. We don’t know if COVID-19 will strike our family or our friends. Some are sitting in their house with fevers and wondering if they have the virus. Others may anxiously be sitting in their house with no symptoms and wondering if they have the virus since the latest says many don’t even get symptoms. When there is uncertainty, there is often anxiety. The uncertainty and anxiety of this strange life that we are living can leave you feeling overtaken.

So far, it has been 5 days at home and 2 days of doing some lite homeschooling for my kids, I am feeling a bit overtaken. It has been a good 5 days. My kids have gotten along pretty well and we have had fun. They have done their chores and all the academic work that I have asked them to without complaint. We have toilet paper and cleaning products. We are good on food. I know…. I know… sounds like a dream. Even with things running smoothly, this strange life that we are living feels like it’s consuming and overtaking me. I am on year two of all my kids being in school and I am used to working part-time. I normally can accomplish tasks at home with little interruptions during the day. Therefore, even though things are going well… everything is going different. The different is feeling like it is overtaking me.

When Jason came in from work yesterday, I told him that I was a bit overwhelmed and that I can’t imagine how people who are trying to work from home full time are doing it. With four kids at home, someone always has a question, needs help, wants to talk, is hungry, etc. All day. Every day. I am finding it hard to do my normal stuff because of all the added stuff. It’s a new routine and I am not used to it anymore. I am not used to all of them being home with me all day anymore. The needs of everyone are overtaking me.

My sweet husband took the reigns and I went upstairs to do my Bible reading for the day. (Our church is reading together through the scriptures in 2020.) We are in Deuteronomy right now and I was just reading along and noting that there is some weird stuff in the reading again and then I get to Deuteronomy 28 and the words started jumping off the page.

“And if you faithfully obey the voice of the Lord your God, being careful to do all his commandments that I command you today, the Lord your God will set you high above all the nations of the earth. ² And all these blessings shall come upon you and overtake you, if you obey the voice of the Lord your God. ³ Blessed shall you be in the city, and blessed shall you be in the field. ⁴ Blessed shall be the fruit of your womb and the fruit of your ground and the fruit of your cattle, the increase of your herds and the young of your flock. ⁵ Blessed shall be your basket and your kneading bowl. ⁶ Blessed shall you be when you come in, and blessed shall you be when you go out.

Deuteronomy 28:1-6 ESV

Notice the word overtake in verse 2. Overtaken by blessings… yes please! The biggest thing that had me feeling overtaken the last few days was my kids. Then verse 4 says part of this overtaking blessing is the fruit of the womb. I stopped and I prayed and I thanked God for the overtaking blessing of my four crazy kids. They may overtake my day but that is a blessing and not a curse. It totally shifted my perspective on the take over of my life, my space, and my time. Though contextually this promise of blessing doesn’t mean health, wealth, and prosperity like some may think at first glance, it does mean that HE is with me. HE has given me this life.. these kids.. and HE is present with me to help me as I embark on mommying during this crazy season and all the other seasons of life. HE is the blessing. HIS presence is the blessing.

So here I am. It’s today. The world is still crazy. I still have an overtaking amount of kids. The noise, emptiness, uncertainty and anxiety of today are still going to try to overtake me. I have made a decision that each time those feelings creep up, I will stop and pray and thank God for a blessing in my life instead. Today, I will be overtaken by praise, by awe, and by gratefulness for the overtaking blessing of knowing Jesus. Today, I will do my best to walk faithfully obeying his voice and be careful to do what he has command of me.

I am praying that you too will feel, know, and experience His overtaking love, peace, joy and blessings. Let me know if you have any questions about that.