There’s no need to wait for a new year for a refresh of goals. You can easily use the mindset ‘new month, new goals’ to continue your strive towards your goals.
A New Month of Opportunity
A new year isn’t the only time you can reset and implement new goals and changes. Although, you can make changes any day, doing it at the change of the month feels as though you are officially turning a page.
Sometimes all it takes is the turn of the calendar month to feel the renewed energy towards setting and accomplishing goals. Use this energy to reassess your goals or to set new goals!
Revisit Previous Goals
Prior to creating your ‘new month, new goals’, you need to look back! Compare where you stand with previous goals you may have had.
Did you achieve them?
Did you decide to change them?
Is there a reason for a new goals?
How do you feel about them?
By asking yourself some questions you can better develop your new goals.
Consider Your New Goals
If you feel like you are setting the same goals over and over again, maybe it is time to change it up. I mean it is ‘new month, new goal’ time!
Start by deciding if you are going to work on a goal for a small or large amount of time. Do you want to accomplish something in the short term (about 3 months) or long term (6 or more months out)?
Next, decide what you want to focus on. Do you want to lower your cholesterol? Run further? Lose weight?
Then, decide how much. How much do you want to lower your cholesterol? How far do you want to run? How much weight do you want to lose?
The last step is to create a deadline. Take into account what events are occuring in your life, how far you are from your goal, how much time you can commit towards working towards it, and any other factors that may be a concern for you. Once you set an appropriate deadline, work towards it like you can’t change it.
Use Prompts for New Month, New Goals
There are endless prompts to help you discover different aspects about yourself and what your goals are. You can simply use Google or Pinterest! Type in the search bar, ‘goal prompts’ and TONS will appear.
Try going through these 50 Journal Prompts for Self Discovery from Haylie at themorningbuzzblog.com. After, you mind mind you want to accomplish something different than what you previous were thinking!
Prioritize!
For some setting a goal is hard because you have so many goals you want to achieve right now. On the other hand, setting a goal can be hard because you may not have any clue what you want to spend your time working towards.
No matter where you stand you need to prioritize. Decide on the main focus you are aiming to achieve and set that as your target. Attempt to let other potential goals not crowd out what you are prioritizing.
By working on too many things at once you will never achieve the main goal!
Create a SMART Goal
A SMART goal is the best way to set a goal. SMART stands for Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, Time-bound. By developing a goal using the SMART frameworks sets you up to successfully reach your goal!
Specific
It is important to be specific when making a goal. By being as specific as possible there is no confusion on what your exact end goal is.
Instead of having a goal of ‘walking more’ you may want to change it to ‘taking 10,000 steps a day’. This may be what you meant by walking more but by specifically saying you want to take a certain amount of steps gives you a goal to strive for.
Measurable
Creating a goal that is measurable means you can use different points to measure your outcome. Basically, this means there is a way to see progress as you work towards your goal.
If your goal is to lose 5 pounds, you can see your weight decrease by one pound, then two pounds, then three pounds and so on… You are able to measure the progress!
Side note: if your goal is to lose weight, it may decrease, then increase… Don’t be concerned if the scale isn’t always going down!
Attainable
To create an attainable goal is to be realistic. When curating a goal you want it to be something that does require some changes and effort, but not be impossible.
If you are someone who doesn’t tend to run, but have a goal to run a marathon at a 5 minute pace, it may be a bit far-fetched. You may be able to do so eventually, but is it currently attainable?
The same person may choose an attainable goal such as running two consecutive miles at a 7 minute pace or running a 5k. These are goals that will require effort, but are able for the person where they currently stand.
Relevant
Decide on a goal that makes sense for you. If you have no interest in running, why would you make your goal to run a marathon?
Choose a goal that works towards what you want to do.
Do you have an interest in consuming a healthier diet? Choose goals such as learning to read a nutrition label, making a grocery list based on what meals you plan to make, or trying a new healthy recipe!
It just. makes. sense.
p.s. check out may article on 12 Healthy Diet Tips to Start Today! for more ideas if your goal is to eat healthier.
Time-bound
You need a deadline! Without a deadline it is too easy to push off what you are working towards. There are always going to be excuses to push a task off without a deadline. The same is true for a goal!
Set a deadline for yourself that makes sense. If your goal is to gain weight, his may look like giving yourself 3 months to gain 6 pounds. Of course this will look different for everyone, just set a goal that makes sense for you!
Putting Together Your SMART Goal
Now, it is time to put together all 5 aspects of this goal! Try it for yourself- come up with a goal that is specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-bound.
If you need some help getting going i’ll give you some examples:
- I will reduce my total cholesterol level to 190 by August by taking 4 walks a week and replacing 2 meals a week of animal-based protein with plant-based protein.
- If you are actually attempting to lower your cholesterol, check out my article, Simple Changes to Lower Your Cholesterol
- Run a mile in less than 8 minutes by March by increasing my speed by .1 mph every run.
- Eat 5 servings of fruit and veggies for 30 straight days starting today.
New Month, New Goals Takeaways
Before you go and forget everything you just read, here a couple of the main points to take with you:
- You don’t need to wait for the new year to set goals
- Use different questions and prompts to create self-discovery
- Set a SMART goal
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