November Goals

Because earlier this month I said that I was going to start taking better care of myself, what better way than to post my November Goals?  Also because The Tiny Twig is doing a link-up. And link-ups are rad. 

One really popular (and effective!) method of goal setting is to use the SMART system. This is pretty widely used, and I am learning how to use this with clients in my counseling class. 

So what are SMART goals? Basically they are a set of criteria that helps you focus the goal in order to make it realistic to achieve. The criteria are: specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-based. If one of these five elements is missing in a goal, it can be difficult to actually make it happen. For example I tell myself ALL THE TIME that  'I'm going to learn new recipes' but if I don't parse out those goals with specifics and write the details in my calendar, it is unlikely it will happen.

So here is how this works:

Specific:
What exactly do you want to accomplish? (and why?)
              (ex: I want to learn new recipes to explore my culinary creativity/ impress my husband/ expand my palette)

Measurable:
How can you measure that it is being accomplished? 
               (ex: I will learn one new recipe per week) 

Attainable: 
How will this goal be accomplished?
                (ex: I will look up a new recipe on Sundays when I meal plan so I can add  the ingredients to my shopping list)

Relevant:
Is this the right time for this goal? Is it worthwhile?
                 (This is more of a reflection question. For example, from experience I can tell you that trying to become fluent in Spanish while being in grad school full time with a part time job just ain't happening. It is worthwhile, but just isn't the right time. Also If you just added a new baby to your family, backpacking through Europe for the summer is a great goal, but it probably just isn't the right time. Probably.).

Time-based. 
When am I doing it & how long? Does it have a finish date?
                   (ex: Re-evaluate recipe strategy one month from now. (Write this in your calendar) The point of this is to assess if one recipe /week is too much or if you can totally rock the challenge and want to up the ante to two recipes/ week. For other goals such as quitting smoking or weight loss this part of the SMART goals might look like: smoke one less cigarette until  down to one a day by November 30 or I will weigh in every Monday and will reach my goal weight by June 2014.)

One more thing! There is certainly something to be said about taking on too many new things at once. It is great to keep a long list of things you want to accomplish somewhere but just tackling two or three at a time is best and the most realistic. (This is assuming your Goal list and to-do list are not the same thing, but maybe they are, and that's cool too.) Habits are difficult to form as well as break. It is just how the brain works. Here is a interesting article on changing  habits. It is based on a book I highly highly recommend!

So Here are three I am working on this month:

Goal #2 and #3 are smaller parts of a larger goal I recently set based on losing weight and eating healthier. Baby steps. I have the specifics written down in my calendar (You'll note I don't list all my SMART steps here!) but made this little graphic to post on my desktop so I see it every time I open my computer.

I would love to hear from you!
What goals have you set this month?  How are you reminding yourself about your goals?