Smart Goals = Success and Personal Strength

As I move beyond Thanksgiving and much gratitude, I enter deeper into the holiday season. With that comes celebrations and temptations that can throw my life off track. This could consist of eating differently, spending too much money on gifts, less meaningful movement, and general chaos with an over-socialized life. I have learned that if I approach my holiday season with goals in mind, I travel through it smoothly and enter the new year feeling proud and strong.

Our society is wired to think about goals in the form of New Year’s resolutions. I encourage you to begin your goal setting now. I want to enter 2022 feeling better than I have ever felt in any new year.  I want to go to holiday celebrations and structure my weeks leading up to Christmas and New Year’s with my goals in mind.

I like to set S.M.A.R.T Goals. Each of my goals will be:

Specific – clearly defined and outlined

Measurable – can be valued

Attainable – possible to achieve

Realistic/Relevant – makes sense for you and your personal world

Timely – have a deadline

Some examples of my SMART goals for this holiday season are the following:

• I will set a budget amount for each person I want to buy gift(s) for and stick to it.

• I will find the real food on the party table and skip the junk. (If I know the host is known for junk food only, I will eat ahead of time.)

• I will drink a glass of water or bubbly water between party drinks.

• I will exercise and move every day for at least 60 minutes. No excuses!

• I will get at least 7 hours of sleep nightly.

These examples may not sound too crazy and, honestly, they do not need to be. My overall point is to stay focused on your health and well-being even during the holiday season. Setting SMART goals can help you stay focused and supportive of what is important to you the other 11 months of the year. Moving through December with a healthy-minded awareness supports entering 2022 with grace and dignity. I certainly do not want to be crawling out of a deep hole I created for myself during the previous month just because it was the holiday season.

I encourage you to make your SMART goals for 2022 with a mindset of moving forward, not making up for the past. Jim Rohn wisely said:  “Goal-setting is powerful because it provides focus. It shapes our dreams. It gives us the ability to hone in on the exact actions we need to perform to achieve everything we desire in life.”

Enjoy your holiday season with strength, and focus on your SMART goals for the month of December. Feel gratitude to have the freedom to set your SMART goals and embrace the power of personal strength and success you can attain from them.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!