Bad Goal: No Cookie

Yes, I know I just wrote the other day about how I don’t like resolutions.  It would be slightly more accurate to say that I don’t like BAD resolutions.  I believe in goals.

Different kinds of goals work for different people.  It is always useful to experiment to figure out what kind works best in the current situation.  That said, good goals share some similar characteristics.  Because it is more fun, I will illustrate with examples of bad goals.

Bad Goal #1:  I am going to get fit.  There is nothing wrong with this as a sentiment; as a goal, it leaves a lot to be desired.  What do we mean by fit?  How will we know when we have achieved it?  This goal is way too vague.

Bad Goal #2:  I am going to lose 100 pounds by June.  This one is, at least, more specific.  The problem is that it’s also unrealistic.  Weight loss goals, in general, should allow for about a pound a week to be healthy and sustainable.  A goal of losing a reasonable amount of weight in a reasonable timeframe would be a good goal, say 20 to 25 pounds by June.  Interim goals could help keep this goal on track:  I am going to lose 4 pounds this month.

Bad Goal #3:  I am going to go to the gym for three hours every day.  For someone just now getting off the couch, this kind of goal is crazy talk, unless a lot of those gym hours are spent hanging out in the hot tub.  We want to start with goals we can actually achieve, like going to that class we really like at the gym every week and building from there.  Most of us, even fresh off the couch, can manage 30 minutes of walking over the course of most days.

Bad Goal #4:  I am never eating cake again.  This goal just makes cake all that more appealing.  We don’t want to live life as if we are constantly being punished.  A better version of this goal would be to decide that cake is only for special occasions, maybe once a month, and only if it is really good cake.

By now, it should be noticeable that the best goals have both some specificity and some wiggle room.  We need to know what we want, what is possible, and some of what we need to get where we are going (the rest will emerge on the way).  For someone just getting started on a fitness journey, a good goal might be something like this:

Pretty Good Goal:  I want to lose 20 pounds by June.  To do this, I am going to exercise most days a week for 30 minutes and I am going to track my calorie intake.  I will check in with my progress at the end of each month and make adjustments as needed to keep myself on track.

That pretty good goal could still use some refinements, of course.  We might want to pay attention to what kind of exercise we are getting, what foods we are choosing, and how things change as we get used to moving more and eating less.  It’s a lot more complicated than just declaring that we’re going to lose 100 pounds by June, but we’re a lot more likely to have success.