Raise your hand if you’ve set a New Year Resolution. Keep it up if you failed to keep your resolution. Ok, put your hand down and sit with confidence. If you’re like me you probably literally raised your hand regardless of being in public with others. Be proud-- We’re awesome. If your plan is to set a new resolution this year, at least make it SMART. By now you’ve probably heard of setting SMART goals (go here if you haven’t). Let’s dig in and create a New Year Resolution that is SMART.
First things first
What is your resolution? What do you want to achieve in the next year to bring more meaningful success into your life? The top 4 resolutions according to Statistia are:
Eat Healthier
Exercise
Save Money
None
Specific
If your resolution is to eat healthier, that could mean anything. It could mean drinking more water and less sugar drinks. It could mean tracking macros. Define your goal specifically. One goal I have is to eat five or more fruits and veggies a day.
Measurable
You might have caught on, the next step is to make your resolution measurable. A measurable resolution puts a number on it like in the case of eating five fruits and veggies.If your resolution is to exercise you can put a number like three on it-- three days.
Attainable
Can you exercise three times? It might be hard but are you able? If you are in a body cast or have a heart condition, that might not be attainable (always check with your doctor before beginning an exercise program, mmmkay?) Or if your goal is to save $10,000 it might be attainable with some strict budgeting.
Realistic
A savings goal of $10,000 is probably attainable but is it realistic? Can you really eat just peanut butter sandwiches for a whole year? That doesn’t seem realistic especially if you get bored of eating one thing over and over. Ask yourself if you could see that goal being a reality. Maybe it’s more realistic that you can commit to working out one day per week. Just be real with yourself.
Timely
Now let's put a time on it. You Specifically want to save $10,000 and you can Measure it by checking your bank account. You’ve decided that you can realistically eat PB sammies every day for a year if you put different jellies on them. And you know it’s attainable to save that amount. What’s the time element? Maybe it’s one year or a date like December 31st. Going back to the workout example-- one time element would be three days a week for 30 minutes For the fruits and veggies resolution you might say five servings per day on 6 out of 7 days.
SMART Resolution
When you put it all together, here are what the SMART resolutions look like:
Eat 5 or more servings of fruits and veggies per day on 6 days each week
Exercise 3 times a week for 30 minutes
Save $10,000 in a savings account by December 31st
What will your SMART resolution be this year? Put yours in the comments below.
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