micro goals

I saw one of my Facebook friends remark that all the new year’s resolution people had cleared out of the gym that he goes to.

Natural I suppose as most of those resolutions are half-hearted at best and only made to fulfill peer expectations.  The new year’s resolution is now looked upon by most as a joke.  Most people see it not as something that they will do but rather as something that they will definitely NOT do.

Part of the problem is that people who make these resolutions have no one to keep them honest.  A person to lean on when you feel like backsliding and who will without goading come by and check on your progress.

The other part of why these resolutions fail is that the expectations are set too high.  Rather than breaking this up into manageable chunks, people choose to tackle it all at once.  Anyone can see that approach is doomed to failure.

Setting smaller micro goals can be an aide to this.  Limiting the problem to something that you can reasonably manage can help your state of mind and get you mentally prepared to tackle everything.

Instead of saying “I will lose 60 pounds by the end of the year” you can say “5 pounds this month, that’s not too bad is it?”  Suddenly the whole task isn’t so daunting.

Further to this, when you do reach a micro goal it can really boost morale and self-esteem making you believe that you can indeed manage the rest.