Setting Goals: 2 of 2

Yesterday I wrote about SMART goals.  They work great for some people.  Other people, not so much.  Here are some other ways to set goals.

I love process goals.  If SMART goals focus on the destination, process goals focus on the journey.  So rather than setting a goal of losing x pounds, I set a goal of doing three weight workouts a week and five cardio workouts.  Or maybe I set a goal to eat only one dessert a week, or to drink only water, or some other more healthful food choice.

 

I’m also a big fan of minimum goals.  They take a bit of experimentation to get right, but then they’re awesome.  We figure out the very least we can do to feel good and we set that as the minimum.  That might be as simple as 30 minutes of moving every day.  We might set a minimum goal for sleep, or for weight workouts, or for workouts outside.  Once we have done the minimum, we know we’ve taken care of business.  We may find that we want to do more, but we also know we don’t have to.  It’s a great way to unplug from the zeitgeist that we always have to be doing more faster better longer.

 

Finally, I am in favor of setting goals for good things.  We don’t just have to set goals for things that we know we should do but don’t really want to get done.  How about a goal for more massages?  More tasty ways to eat fruit?  More laughter?

 

Go get happy, y’all.