I’m sooooooo excited for today’s post, because I’m about to unleash a new goal-setting challenge on you wonderful people. Well, actually, I’m unleashing the new goal-setting challenge on myself and hoping that you’ll join along on this fresh new journey with me. YOU KNOW I’M ALL ABOUT THE JOURNEYING PROCESS AT DEGREES OF MATERNITY. And I’m of the frame of mind that the journey is more enjoyable when you have someone travelling along with you.
Furthermore, I must admit to being a teeny-bit selfish in asking you to come along on this voyage with me, as I tend to do so much better at accomplishing goals when I make my intentions public. It’s much harder to let others down than it is to let myself down. So accountability partners out there, I need you to stand on your virtual posts and keep me honest throughout this new goal-setting and achieving journey. And if you’ll let me, I’d be glad to do the same for you.
Okay, now that that’s out of the way, let’s get into the meat of today’s discussion. Last week’s post, Back to Natural Basics: 10 Healthy Habits to Carry Out Daily, has inspired me to set some daily goals for healthy habits and to achieve them. As I mentioned in the post, I’m a work-in-progress when it comes to healthy living and I strive to be and do better each day I’m given. So, I decided to be really serious about what I communicated to you last week and to really be consistent in implementing “The Daily 10” into my daily routine.
And to refresh your memories, here’s what I noted as my top 10 daily healthy habits:
So, let me start out by stating the obvious. The healthy habits above are those I’d like to work toward successfully carrying out on a daily basis, but these may not be the actual goals you’d like to focus on during this particular journey. And, that’s okay. But do me a favor, will you? Please list out “The Daily 10” healthy objectives you’d like to tackle and make up some kind of visual reminder of these healthy habits to display in various high traffic areas throughout your home. Reminders are great tools to keep your important to-dos up front and center in your schedule of events for the day.
Last week, I noted that making a checklist of your top 10 healthy habits would be in order. And, it still is. However, I personally decided to start with a poster as the type of reminder I’ll place throughout my house. The poster will show the image provided above. I thought it would be more eye-catching and welcoming of attention than the old checklist/to-do list document posted throughout the house. So, go ahead and make your own visually-appealing reminder to display. And then, create a separate checklist to check off your progress each day. (I’ve already decided that I’ll be keeping my checklist in one central location — my journal.)
I’ll be creating this checklist of my 10 healthy habits, after I develop each general “healthy habit” statement (above) into an actual SMART goal. Then, the 10 healthy habits will morph into 10 healthy goals to accomplish daily. These goals will become the 10 items on my checklist.
Here’s a brief summary of what goes into making a basic goal, such as the ones listed above, SMART.
- S (Specific) – the goal has a clearly defined expectation that is communicated.
- M (Measurable) – the goal can be observed or compared and therefore assigned a number, value, amount, or estimation.
- A (Achievable) – the goal is challenging yet attainable, where the necessary resources are accessible.
- R (Realistic) – the goal has a relatable purpose and meaning to the desired outcome.
- T (Timely) – the goal has a certain timeframe for completion or a deadline attached to it.
On this same checklist, I’ll include the days of the week for the whole month of October, even though some days will have already elapsed by the time I seriously start this journey on Monday the 12th. Then, I’ll place checkboxes next to each habit for that day. The goal will be to get to a point where I’m successfully able to check off each habit as completed each day. And, I’ll only be tracking my progress on Mondays through Fridays, since I already know the weekends are going to carry somewhat of a different schedule for me. However, I still should be able to complete the majority of the healthy habits on Saturdays and Sundays as well.
In essence, I suppose my checklist will be somewhat of a monthly tracking sheet of daily progress. And, I intend to do a checklist for November and December in order to finish out the year. In last week’s post referenced above, I believe I mentioned taking things day by day for a month and seeing where you end up. And, that’s precisely how I want to handle this journey. Chunking tasks down to daily endeavors seems more manageable and not as overwhelming as focusing on a broader timeframe for goal completion. So, I’ll start implementing my healthy habits in my daily schedule with the remaining days of October, starting on the 12th and going to the end of the month. Then, I’ll start promptly on November’s checklist and so on.
In conclusion, I just want to assure you that these healthy habits goal-setting and achieving updates that you’ll be receiving from time to time (not sure of the frequency just yet) will appear here on Fridays. Reason being: this whole health initiative was inspired by a “Back to Natural Basics” mindset. So, you’ll be seeing the “Back to Natural Basics” posts as well as these “Goal Set With Me” posts on Fridays.
And let me leave you with this little piece of encouragement before I go. Remember: make goals that are doable and meaningful. The 10 healthy habits listed above are doable and meaningful for me; but not all of them may be doable and meaningful for you. So, please choose “The Daily 10” that are going to move you forward to your best-feeling self and goal set for those. Create realistic goals for yourself starting out. You can always go back later and tweak them to be more of a stretch (more difficult) goal as you start to master the initial versions of your goals.
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