Setting personal goals for weight management is important. While this is a common practice, apparently less than 2% of us will stick with these newly established goals past the first few weeks of setting them. Why is it challenging for folks to keep focused on goals? One reason may be that goals are not revisited after they are created…or worse, maybe these goals were not written down to be revisited.
There are three easy ways to make certain that your goals are effective this year. Goals need to be written, visually represented and mentally rehearsed. These techniques are simple and easy to incorporate as new habits into your daily schedule. Commit to these three simple new habits to see amazing results this year.
Writing your goals on paper is the important first step to accomplish a desired change. Without identified written goals, there is no use for the remaining two techniques. Write out your goals in a journal that will be easy to keep track of throughout the year. The Life is Mental: Think Thin to Live Thin Goals Journal is a great option for a journal. Include both easy to reach short term goals as well as the larger long term goals. Long term goals represent a final destination. An example of this could be achieving your optimal weight. Long term goals may require a commitment for months or years to accomplish. Commitment and patience is required for reaching long term goals. Short term goals are crucial to the successful achievement of long term goals. These small goals support the big goals. Short term goals give you a sense of accomplishment and motivation as you work toward your long term goals. Think of short term goals as the individual steps in a staircase. As you achieve each short term goal, you step up one step at a time toward your long term goal of reaching the top of the staircase. You can get excited and celebrate your progress as you achieve each short term goal that propels you further up the staircase to your long term goal. Looking back at how many steps you have climbed will give you the motivation to keep going when you feel tired of climbing. Your journal is a tool. Use a highlighter to highlight each goal as you achieve it. Since you will make a lot of small easy to accomplish goals, you will be highlighting a lot in your journal. Make a habit of highlighting achieved goals weekly or monthly. This keeps you rereading and staying mindful of your goals. As you update your journal, you will feel continually motivated by the growing number of highlights. Thinking of the highlighted goals in your journal and staying mindful of the upcoming goals that you will be highlighting soon could very well help you decide the chocolate cake offered at lunch is not as good as it first looked and easily avoid eating it.
Write out your goals in a journal that will be easy to keep track of throughout the year. Include both easy to reach short term goals as well as the larger long term goals. Long term goals represent a final destination. An example of this could be achieving your optimal weight. Long term goals may require a commitment for months or years to accomplish. Commitment and patience is required for reaching long term goals. Short term goals are crucial to the successful achievement of long term goals. These small goals support the big goals. Short term goals give you a sense of accomplishment and motivation as you work toward your long term goals. Think of short term goals as the individual steps in a staircase. As you achieve each short term goal, you step up one step at a time toward your long term goal of reaching the top of the staircase. You can get excited and celebrate your progress as you achieve each short term goal that propels you further up the staircase to your long term goal. Looking back at how many steps you have climbed will give you the motivation to keep going when you feel tired of climbing. Your journal is a tool. Use a highlighter to highlight each goal as you achieve it. Since you will make a lot of small easy to accomplish goals, you will be highlighting a lot in your journal. Make a habit of highlighting achieved goals weekly or monthly. This keeps you rereading and staying mindful of your goals. As you update your journal, you will feel continually motivated by the growing number of highlights. Thinking of the highlighted goals in your journal and staying mindful of the upcoming goals that you will be highlighting soon could very well help you decide the chocolate cake offered at lunch is not as good as it first looked and easily avoid eating it.
Visual representations of goals maintain your constant awareness of these goals. You are more likely to act in ways that move you toward your goals if these goals stay in your awareness. Create a vision board with pictures, symbols and text that represent your goals. Use poster board or a cork board for your vision board. Hang this vision board in a private area that you will see daily. This may be an area of your closet or personal bathroom. It is important that you keep this private to avoid any opportunity for criticism or judgment by others that may affect your motivation or self confidence. Use pictures and text of all kinds representing your goals as achieved. Looking at your board should elicit positive thoughts and feelings of what your life will be like when these goals are achieved. You might include pictures of activities you will be enjoying at your goal weight or clothing with the size tag showing of the clothing size you will be at your goal weight. Be creative so that your board creates a detailed visual picture and elicits feelings you will feel at your goal weight. Look at your vision board each morning as you get dressed or brush your teeth and enjoy the feelings and thoughts these pictures elicit. This allows you to maintain daily awareness of your goals. Keeping in mind the picture of your thin self in your skinny bathing suit, could very well serve as motivation to avoid eating that donut at work or eating a late night snack.
Mental rehearsal is my personal favorite technique for achieving goals. I have seen mental rehearsal make a major difference in people’s lives. Mental rehearsal can keep you motivated toward your goal and boost your mood anywhere, anytime. I recommend that folks new to mental rehearsal and visualization practice this right before falling asleep in bed. This is a great way to relax your body for sleep and positive dreams. Make yourself comfortable in bed with your body straight and uncrossed arms/legs. Relax your body as you slow your breathing to a relaxing pace. Create a vivid picture or visualization in your mind of you at your goal weight. Create a visualization using all of your senses. See this picture including the environment or activity that you will be engaged, hear the sounds you will hear, smell the smells you will smell, and feel the textures you will feel in this picture. The more detailed and robust your visualization, the easier it is to think and behave in ways that create this visualization as your reality. This is an easy technique that offers a huge benefit. Elite athletes have used this technique for decades to improve their already elite skills. They repeatedly visualize and mentally rehearse perfect execution of their skill in vivid detail. This mental practice creates the same neural experience that physical practice creates which is why it is so effective. The famous pro golfer, Jack Nicklaus, has been quoted as stating that he never takes a shot at a golf ball without vividly visualizing the swing and perfect execution first. This technique is no longer reserved for the elite. Start visualizing your perfect body wearing the clothes you will wear and doing the activities you will be doing (like physical activity maybe) to start thinking and acting in ways necessary to make this visualization a reality. You will amaze yourself at how effective this practice is for goal achievement.
The simplicity of these techniques may be a reason that many people do not utilize these techniques for goal achievement. Many people are accustomed to thinking that weight loss is hard, so they proceed in fulfilling that prophecy. This year, decide that weight loss is easy. Write down your short and long term goals, post pictures representing your goals, and mentally rehearse being your goal weight. Use these easy techniques this month to create your health/weight goals and accomplish amazing weight loss results in 2009!