top of page
Writer's pictureVictoria Scott

Set Healthy Goals - Tip 2

Updated: Sep 28, 2022

This tip is about designing action plans to meet your goal.

You probably already have actions in mind. Are they realistic with just a little bit of a challenging stretch or are they extreme, like a whole reach?


If you’ve picked a quick fix that’s probably not healthy and could even do you some harm, it's unlikely that you'll be able to stick with it. Even if you are successful how will you sustain it?


Even the smartest people choose approaches like this. We live in a world of instant gratification and love a quick fix. But you could be setting yourself up for failure and paying the price with your physical, emotional, and mental health.


Instead of looking at the next 30 days, look a year in the future. Where do you want to be?


Now working backwards, pick milestones at each three-month interval (3, 6, 9 months) that will lead you there.


Use the S.M.A.R.T. model (see video) to sanity-check your milestones and really pay attention to achievable and realistic. Is it achievable to go from zero exercise to running a marathon in three months? Probably not. Is it realistic? If it means going from seven hours of sleep to five and working every other waking hour, it's probably not realistic.


Achievable means that it's even possible in the first place and realistic means that it fits into your life now, and that any adjustments that you're planning to make are balanced and will actually work for you.


Look at the next 30 days. What actions do you need to take to achieve that milestone? The video has some examples actions to give you some ideas to inspire you. You'll notice a lot of planning steps and you might think those should have already been done. If you have, that’s great! If you haven’t, these types of steps absolutely count as action towards your goal. Making sure that you have the right advice, information, and resources before you start will just set you up that much more for success.


Once you have your actions for the 30-day period, go ahead and split those into the four weeks. Make sure that you have enough time so that's actually realistic for you to achieve them.


If this message resonated with you and you'd like to see more from me, please like, comment, share, and follow. Better yet, send me a private message to let me know or share a topic you’d like some quick tips on. I’d love to hear from you!

Comments


bottom of page