I have not ever been someone to really work on any “New Year’s resolutions”. Have I had the thought at the beginning of a year that I should eat healthier, exercise more, focus more on sharpening the saw, or make better habits? Yes. Have I ever actually done those things through the intention of a resolution? No.
As of a couple of years ago, I have been setting goals for myself to complete within that year. I would set goals that were well defined and technically achievable. These goals used the SMART framework where the goal is specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound. So far I have not gone overboard on how many goals I set, but it would be easy to do.
Last year, I wanted to run a 10k race. At the time I set the goal, I was regularly going to the gym but running was very uncommon. This goal was great for me because there was a clear way that I needed to check it off by running the race, and it fit the rest of the SMART criteria. I did an excellent 8-week training program and crushed it at the race. In fact, I signed up and ran another 10k race a few months later.
This year, I upped the intensity. Since the 10k race goal went so great last year, I signed up for a half-marathon race. After doing a 14-week training program, I crushed the half-marathon race as well, checking off another SMART goal.
Accomplishing these goals is great and feels great because I love checking them off the list and seeing a list of other items that are checked off. It is also great to see the progress that I had made to achieve that goal. In the case of running, going from no running to a 10k to a half-marathon is progress that makes me proud of it.
But what about goals that are not reached?
One of my goals last year was to be able to plank for 3 minutes. When I set the goal, it did not feel like it was overly ambitious. However, I did not reach this goal by the end of the year. This was a bummer not being able to achieve it and the real bummer was that I was so close with a max duration of 2 minutes and 30 seconds.
Going from barely 30 seconds at the beginning of the year to being able to plank for an additional 2 minutes by the end of the year is an achievement but at the time I did not treat it as such. This was seen as a miss because I did not make it to the full 3 minutes so I was unable to check it off the box.
So the question became, how do I set a goal that has a similar vibe as a SMART goal, but be able to celebrate all of the achievements, even the ones that might have fallen short? Certainly I do not want to make all of the completion criteria to be really easy because it should still be challenging.
This is a question that I am still working on answering, and will continue with discussing in next month’s post.
See you around,
Sam