GOALS!

Hi there, dear reader! Happy Monday to you, and I actually mean that this week! If you remember, I had a rough start to last week (and really, they were all minor things that only slightly inconvenienced me, but in the moment their cumulative impact left me feeling quite defeated).
This week I switched things up, and instead of setting my weekly goals and intentions on Monday, I did it last night! Whoa! I’m an adult and I can do things like that. So last night I reflected on what I want to accomplish this week and how I can focus my energy and efforts towards those goals.

Goal 1: Eat veggies at breakfast. I’ve given you the nitty gritty of my husband’s famous breakfast bowls. They’re delicious and I love them. Deep down though, I know I need to eat more veggies (per my 21 Day Fix plan) and breakfast is the only meal where I don’t already incorporate veggies. I think adding veggies now will be easy because it’s been SO stinking hot here (high of 93* here today which isn’t bad in some places but in upstate NY, it’s a hot box) so cold veggies will be yummy. In the winter time though, I like warm food. That will be a struggle, but I’m focusing on the here and now!
Goal 2: Think outside the box for protein. I was a vegetarian for 6.5 years during my early to mid-20s, so meat replacements are nothing new to me. When I was pregnant with my daughter I craved meat and as you may know, the baby gets what the baby wants, so I started eating meat again and never went back to vegetarianism. Every now and then I become more conscious of how much meat our family eats and I’ll get spurts of inspiration to have one meatless meal a week for dinner, and while no one complains, it just doesn’t last super long. I dunno why. But this week I’d like to really branch out and try getting some of my protein allotment from things other than animals. My friend suggested tempeh so I’ll give that a go. If you have any tips or suggestions for meat-free protein sources (but not beans!), I’d love to hear them!
Goal 3: Mindfully set aside time for personal growth (of some kind). I would not say I’m a selfless person by any means, nor would I say I’m selfish; I take time every day to move my body and I do that for myself, but the rest of my day is largely spent in service for others. I don’t mind that, but I also know that I really should be taking more time for myself as a way to develop myself in some way. Does that make sense? For example, I LOVE reading, but I haven’t spent a lot of time doing it lately…why not? And I love writing, but aside from my weekly blog posts, I don’t do much of that either. Last week I bought myself a very cute little journal that I really want to start scrawling away in, I just need to set aside the time to do it. I love making lists to plan out my day, and I just need to mindfully include “write in journal” or “read for pleasure” every now and then.

And that’s it. Pretty basic stuff. I’m not striving to teach myself Italian this week or cook my way through Julia Child’s cookbook, I’m just setting some goals that will make me a better and healthier person if I achieve them. I think all too often we think of goals being very far-off, long-term things like buying a house, saving for retirement, or going on that dream vacation. While I definitely have some of those as well, I think setting short-term goals is really helpful in motivating you to continue working towards other, bigger goals. While it may take you a while to get through that sign language course you’re taking online now, drinking 64 ounces of water every day for a week literally only takes a week. And you’ll be super hydrated by the end.
And the really nice thing about these smaller goals is that if I don’t achieve them, or if I miss out on a day or two, that’s ok. It takes roughly 3 weeks to really develop a habit, and so most of my goals can easily roll over to the next week.
With that being said, I think being held accountable is really important for any type of goal setting. Rolling small goals from week to week can quickly become a slippery slope so sharing your intentions is really important for accountability. Some weeks I share my goals with different groups on social media; other people in that group sometimes feel inspired to also set goals, and then we can all check in with each other and hold ourselves accountable. Other times I just share my goals with Dan and that’s enough.

I want to take a minute to differentiate between goals and to-do lists. Like I said, I love a to-do list, but I always think of that more as my day-to-day tasks: laundry, work out (yes I put working out on my to-do list!), vacuuming, grocery shopping, etc. You know what a to-do list looks like 😉
In my mind, goals are different because they generally surpass one day, but I don’t think there’s anything wrong with a daily goal. Or maybe one of your goals could be to accomplish everything on your to-do list! Whoa!

Lately I’ve been doing a lot of Beachbody workouts and most of the trainers talk about having goals and how important that can be; if you approach a work out with no goal, what’s the purpose? Even if your goal is to just complete it, or to modify 5 of the movements instead of 6, or to increase the weight on part of it, that’s something that you’re working towards and that’s showing growth and determination. Personally I lean very heavily into health and fitness related goals because that’s a huge part of my life, but these analogies could easily apply to other aspects of your life including your career, your family, and your overall happiness.

Take a minute right now and think of a goal you want to set for the coming week. What’s important to you, what makes you happy, where can you improve to work towards your best self? Leave me a comment and let me know! Let me help you by keeping you accountable 🙂