05/16/2011 20:01
Incremental Success
There is an art to setting goals, and I fear we often ignore them when setting goals for our weight loss journey. We focus on the big picture; that is, the end goal. We take the total amount of pounds, or the number we want to see on the scale as the end of it all. This might work OK in the short term, like if we have 5-10 pounds to lose. It's another story when we're looking at 40 pounds or more.
When viewed as a whole, it can get to be overwhelming thinking about actually getting there by losing one or two pounds per week. The future can seem like it is stretching out in front of us as months of deprivation, and we can't imagine wanting to live like that for such a long time. We focus on what the scale says every week, wanting it to go faster so we can end the burden as soon as possible. We focus on the pounds and not on changing our lifestyle, because we are resistant to the concept of living like this one minute longer than we have to. We want it to be quick. We want it to be effortless. We want it done yesterday. We dwell on how long the future success will take to get here, rather than the achievable successes we can accomplish today.
That train of thought sidelined me many times, before I learned the art of goal-setting.
First, I defined the long-term goal: Lose 50 pounds.
Then, I divided that goal up into achievable chunks; that is, ten pounds at a time.
Next, I took a look at setting mini goals that would contribute to making the effort successful: These were lifestyle changes. I would set weekly goals to produce those changes. They were easily accomplished on a daily or weekly basis. One week it might be to increase my exercise sessions by ten minutes each time. If I was struggling with negative thoughts, I would set a goal to meditate or journal my feelings daily for a week. When I found myself foraging every time I went through the kitchen to let the dogs out, I set a goal to go around the kitchen instead of through it. Each of these incremental goals were specific, measurable, and achievable.
Every time I followed through on one of those behaviors, I gave myself a star sticker on my calendar. That way, I could see at a glance how successful I was being that week.
The successful little goals all contributed to being successful getting to the big picture goal.