Why Goals Matter and How to Set Them

Why is goal setting such an important practice?

When we're young, we have parental figures and other adults telling us what to do (eat this, learn this, don't do that) but as adults these decisions are left up to us.

If we want to kick goals in life, we need to clarify what these goals are and get to work. These can be health goals, financial goals, even goals for things we want to accomplish around the house.

Before having children, I was content cruising through life with a good job, decent fitness regime, and average diet. Once family life became our (amazing) reality, we realized some things needed to change, and rapidly.

First, we quickly realized the need to make food plan charts for the week. As our lives became busier and more stressful, we started making poor food choices out of ease and exhaustion. And we felt the negative effects of this. We now take time every weekend to sort out the meals for the week so we don’t hit a motivation wall by the end of the week.

Second, Jane and I both noticed our fitness had dropped off; we “didn’t have time for exercise anymore”. This was not actually the case, we just needed to schedule it in. We set goals on weights, times, and distances, which gave us tangible goals to strive for. We continue to expand on these so we can stay on track with our fitness.

Third, we regularly spend time discussing our thoughts on the children and how we can work together to improve our parenting skills. What challenges we are facing? And how can we overcome them together?

Lastly, we set aside regular time to talk about our careers and where we see ourselves. We discuss and write down goals relating to where we want to be in 1, 3, 6 and 12 months. We are able to look back on these to keep focus. If we have fallen behind, we try and catch up as best we can or consider alternative ways to reach these goals.

When you build these plans they need to be SMART:

Specific- Precise and to the point.

Measurable- Have some way to measure your progress.

Achievable- All the goals should be within reach in the desired time frame.

Realistic- It is good to step outside your comfort zone, but keep them within reason.

Time- Make sure the time frame to reach the goals is clear and you can keep focused.

We write these down in a shared note between our phones so we can always keep focused and track our progress.

The challenge for you? Start with one simple goal and build from there.

-Dr. Brett