Be Goal-Oriented

Every year around this time, thousands upon thousands of people vow to change their behavior. “I am going to walk every day!”; “I am going to eat healthier.”; or “I will read more!”, while these goals are great, they either set the expectation too high or do not give a means of measurement.

In order to obtain a goal, it helps to have milestones to achieve. This is good not only for the measurement of your progress but also for the motivation to move forward: “I can achieve this.” The important thing to do, now, is to establish a means for evaluating your accomplishments.

An Example: Running a Marathon

If you are aiming to be a marathon runner, you should not wake up one morning and say: “I vow to run every day until I can run a marathon.” — That is just unrealistic. You need to be able to relax for some days. You don’t want to turn yourself into a cruel taskmaster. Perhaps, you would say that you should run/walk one mile a day for three days followed by two days off. That way, you can make progress toward a final goal without exhausting yourself.

Over time, I can set goals to reach, such as I want to see if I can run 2 miles today! Setting goals, whether achieved or not, can help you to stay motivated. You could say, “I want to see if, by day X, I am able to run Y miles.” Even if you can’t achieve it by that day, you still will continue to make progress towards your goal. You may underestimate how long it would take to reach your goal; however, you will be able to see the progress you’ve made and can use…