Making short-term goals-- and sticking to them!
Adapted from a wonderful book, Living a Healthy Life with Chronic Conditions. Side note: the information and tips in this blog post are relevant for you, your son, your sister, your preacher, and your mailman, not just people with chronic conditions.
Many well intending people fail to reach their health goals because they don’t start with one very important tool: an Action Plan.
Changing your lifestyle behaviors to lead a healthier life is essentially becoming a self-manager, and a successful self-manager needs to know how to Action Plan. An Action Plan is a small, yet specific, achievable goal.
In this case, the overarching goal may be to lose weight, or eat healthier, or be more active. However, these goals can seem overwhelming. The secret is in the sauce. Just kidding. The secret is to not to try to do everything at once. Instead, look at what you can realistically expect to accomplish within the next week. We call this an action plan: something that is short-term, doable, and sets you on the road toward your goal. It should be something YOU WANT to do or accomplish.
Actions plans help you break bigger goals in to smaller steps and helps you celebrate those small wins along the way. “Regardless of the behavior that’s altered, there’s evidence that the feelings of self-confidence and control over your life that come from making any successful change improve your health. By changing or improving one area of your life, whether it is boosting your physical fitness or learning a new skill, you regain a sense of optimism and vitality. By focusing on what you can do rather than what you can’t do, you’re more likely to lead a more positive and happier life.”
The first step is simple. Decide what you want to do! It should be specific. For example, if you want be more physically active with your family, an Action Plan would be to plan one family physical activity this week. Next, ask yourself: What are you going to do? How much will you do it (how long)? When will you do this? How often will you do it? So, the example from before might look like this:
“My family and I will go to the park either one night this week, or one day this weekend and ride bikes, walk, or skate around the trail for 30 minutes. We will do this once, as a baby step, and hopefully add more activity as the weeks go on.”
It’s a good idea to ask yourself how confident you are that you will complete this Action Plan on a scale from 1-10. If you give yourself anything less than a seven, you might want to consider making a different Action Plan, one that you are more likely to succeed at.
It’s also smart to write it down and share your Action Plan with a friend or family member. You’re more likely to hold yourself accountable if someone is holding you accountable too!
So, before you start your journey to healthier living, ask yourself right now, “What do I want to do?” and start breaking down your goals.
Good luck!
