February is the month of love, a time for Valentine’s Day, the infamous “Hallmark Holiday,” featuring flowers, chocolates, and cards. To me, February is not only about valentines and romance, but it’s also a time to reflect on self-love and self-care. And what is a better way to keep the body, mind, and spirit healthy than goal-setting? Self-care and making time to achieve goals may be perceived as being selfish, but it is critical to living a balanced, healthy, and fulfilling life. It does mean, however, being a little bit selfish with our time, setting clear boundaries at work and in your relationships. If you’ve been in the habit of focusing on others, it can be challenging to shift gears and make enough time to care for yourself in order to reach and maintain wellness. Setting goals is a self-care practice to keep yourself accountable to be most aligned with your best self. Goal-setting isn’t really about conquest-type achievements. It’s about deciding that you are worth it. And it is a continuous journey to create a life you enjoy living.
Creating goals for yourself will allow you to push yourself out of your comfort zone to explore your own curiosity and capabilities. Moving beyond the familiar is essential for rejuvenation and growth. Not all paths are the same. As I set goals and plan and map my own self-care journey, I focus on the reason to accomplish a goal. It’s the purpose that mobilizes my focus toward actionable behavior even during the bad times when I feel discouraged or unmotivated. Have you seen palm trees on the coast in a storm? They are whipped back and forth, yet they remain rooted. When you are grounded in your purpose, you will keep pursuing your goals with confidence. As human beings, we have an abundance of potential just waiting to be unlocked. The key to tap into your power is setting and pursuing goals. A lot has been said about the impact of SMART goals.
Specific: what do you want to achieve?
Measurable: how will you know you’ve reached your goal?
Actionable: What do you need to start/stop/continue to do?
Relevant: Why is achieving the goal important?
Timely: what is your timeline?
Unfortunately, SMART doesn’t capture the importance of identifying meaningful outcomes, nor doing the right things. SMART goals are great for run-of-the-mill objectives. However, they are not as powerful when it comes to impactful goals.
At the core, impactful goals allow us to push through mental boundaries, go beyond our comfort zone, and rise above our limits. It’s a deep-dive into our creative process in an inspiring journey of self-discovery. It propels us forward toward growth by offering us new experiences and perspective. Impactful goals create lasting behavior change by focusing on a holistic approach that accounts for one’s life’s vision, beyond the accomplishment of short-term objectives. To clarify the difference, think about going on a diet versus seeking a lifestyle change. A diet gives you restrictions and rules in order to lose the weight you want within a specific time frame. In contrast, making a lifestyle change gives you the tools to create and maintain good habits for life. Lifestyle changes require an internal transformation to align daily choices with life and career direction. Thus, success of an impactful goal does not have to be measured by whether or not you achieve the BHAG (Big, Hairy, Audacious Goal) but rather all that you learn along the way.
Impactful goals are emotionally-compelling conveying courage, meaning, energy, and growth. They support a life’s vision in a meaningful way. They cut right to the core and answer 5 existential questions:
What is not working in my life right now? What would need to change?
What is working in my life? How can I have more of it?
What secret yearnings do I want to fulfill in the coming years?
What actions to I need to take to make it happen?
Why am I pursuing this goal? How does it fit with the person I want to grow up to be?
When you seek to make a meaningful change in your life, think IMPACT goals:
Innovative, Meaningful, Purposeful, Actionable, Consistent, and transformational.
Innovative: set out to do something you’ve never done before.
Meaningful: find a reason beyond yourself.
Purposeful: be clear about your long-term destination.
Actionable: define outputs within your reach today.
Consistent: take consistent action to make your goal happen.
Transformational: make a significant change.
Meaning and purpose work in conjunction. Meaning is having clarity about the reason to go there, your “why.” Purpose is having clarity about your destination, where you are heading. On your life’s journey purpose is your map. You can have an accurate map to a far-away destination. But if you have no intention of going there, it is meaningless. First, define your vision, your direction. This will give meaning to everything you encounter on your journey. Keep focus on your aspiration to achieve something that is actually meaningful to you. Remember: you are never too old to dream a new dream or set a new goal. In fact, prioritize it as your self-love and self-care practice on the lifelong journey to maximize your mental, physical, spiritual, and social well-being.
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