Setting SMART Goals

Several years ago, I did a few projects with a corporate trainer named Maria, who taught me about SMART goals. She did not originate the concept, but she taught it well. SMART stands for criteria your goals should meet if you want them to work.

• Specific
• Measurable
• Action-oriented
• Realistic
• Time-bound

The more specific you can be in your goal, the better. Think of the GPS in your car—it wants to know exactly where you want to go, not just a general direction. "I want to be rich" is not a goal, but "I want to have $100,000 in my savings account" is a good start on one.

To know if you have met your goal, it has to be measurable. "Rich" is not measurable; specific dollar amounts are. "I want to lose weight" is not measurable; a specific weight to reach, or inches to lose, or a specific number of calories or carbs per day...all measurable so you know if you reached them or not.

SMART goals must be phrased in an action-oriented way. "I want to win the lottery" does not qualify, but "I want to win the lottery by buying two tickets a week until I win" does. "I want a new job" is a nice vision, but it needs more to become a goal. Better: "I will find a new job by looking at several sources daily and attending one networking event a week." This is the "how" of your goal, and sometimes the steps will need to be more detailed (outside the one sentence goal statement).

So far, a goal of "I want to have $100,000 in my savings, from buying winning lottery tickets" meets the first three criteria, but will fail on the fourth: realistic. Setting goals you can't possibly meet is setting yourself up for failure. There is no problem with some of your goals being a stretch, and not easy to achieve. In fact, some should be like that. Others are easier to reach and just need the other four criteria to make them effective and not just wishes. Wanting to look more proportioned in your figure by getting taller, not realistic; by getting more toned or slimmer, realistic.

Time-bound is the last criteria that separates a wish from a goal. That $100,000 in your savings, when do you want to have this? "I want to move to California." OK, when—next year, when you retire, before you die? Choose a time-frame that allows for the action-oriented stage to work effectively. Alternatively, if the time is set by outside events, adjust your action steps to better meet the deadline.

Putting all this together, last year I had a goal. I wanted to weigh 150 by my high school reunion in September, by burning more calories and eating more carefully. Given that I started at 183 in January, this was realistic, as well as specific, measurable, action-oriented, and time-bound. When the first four months of the year were not producing results at a rate that would meet the goal, I changed the action steps to "kick it up a notch" (as Emeril would say). When I have had SMART goals in the past, and stuck with them, they worked for me.

Good luck with your SMART goals in 2012!

Goals or Guilt Trips?

A couple weeks ago I wrote about the inspiration trap, based on my horoscope that day. Today I am seeing the same words from a different direction. Here's the horoscope (from January 2, 2012). 

One person's perceived perfection can inspire another person to feel flawed. It's a trap that can be avoided through honesty, modesty and a down-to-earth attitude.

Today's perspective shifts the pronouns — My own goal of perfection can inspire me to feel flawed. I have been beating myself up for several days for not getting my weekly blog update done "on time." Suddenly this morning I realized that I need to let go of meeting the perfect schedule (on this, anyway). After all, is my goal to get the blog done or to feel guilty?

It occurred to me this morning that sometimes we set our goals just barely out of reach. It's true that this makes us stretch and grow to reach them, and that's good. But what's up with consistently setting some of our goals high enough that we are almost guaranteed to miss them? Could it be our actual goal is a guilt trip? Do we feel "better" somehow because we feel guilty for missing a goal? Is guilt easier to live with than success (Ooh! I see a future blog in that!)? What if it's necessary to miss some goals to meet others?

Now we apply the "cure" my horoscope listed — honesty, modesty and a down-to-earth attitude. OK, being honest sometimes means waiting until I actually have something to say before I write anything. In all modesty, we're not talking about world peace here. And down-to-earth...why do I expect to be perfect when I don't expect anyone else to be?

I think I have just arrived home from this particular guilt trip. Not only was the guilt identified and faced, but the blog also got written. Not a bad start to the day, and the week. 

Opportunity Cost

Opportunity cost is what you give up to get something else you want. For example I wanted to lose a significant amount of weight in 2011. Some of the things I gave up to have this result were money, time, sleep, and a few things harder to categorize. I changed what and when I ate, but I definitely did not give up eating.

In January 2011, I started tracking what I weighed every day, because a spreadsheet made it easy and because you pay attention to what you measure. It's also easy to stand on a scale and harder to haul out a tape measure and measure body parts. Having had little success in prior years, I had the modest goal of losing 10 pounds by May 1. I got on the treadmill a few times a week, more walking than running. By the end of April I had lost 8 pounds. Some friends invited me to the Zumba fitness class they attend (Chakaboom Fitness in Franconia, VA  www.chakaboomfitness.com), and I went on May 2. I loved it, and was hooked immediately, even before I realized how effective it was. Digression for statistics here: I lost 8 pounds January-April, and another 25 pounds from May-August, in time for my 40-year high school reunion. September-December I lost (and gained back some of) 10 pounds (Thanksgiving and Christmas are high calorie, but predictable and recoverable). OK, that is the context for the discussion of opportunity cost that comes next.

The "opportunity" to lose weight and get more fit cost money, both spent and not earned. Not only was I paying for Zumba dancing classes — and Kangoo jumps, and toning once they were offered — I was also losing income by taking time off work to attend classes. At the beginning I went three hours a week, outside of work hours; by August I was attending every class they offered. They added more classes and in early November I attended 13 classes in one week.  (The instructors gave me a gift certificate for more classes to mark the accomplishment.) To do this, I rescheduled my part-time work around my fitness schedule, going in as early as 6 AM some days, and staying late others. I was giving up some sleep to keep the income from getting too low.

In addition to sleep, there are other uses of time that became opportunity cost for choosing the fitness first. What each person chooses to give up depends on how they spend their time otherwise. I gave up reading for pleasure almost entirely, reading fewer than five fiction books in 2011, and reading had been my best escape in 2010. I cut down on the number of dinners eaten with my family, because evening classes are at the time we usually eat. We had family dinner two nights a week (no classes offered those nights), and that worked for us. Missing dinner was also a great way to eat less, because I had a snack before class instead and nothing after class. Another activity I gave up was trying to keep up with my new blog. I am choosing not to give that up in 2012, so here I am, writing.

Time and money are not the only considerations in evaluating opportunity cost. The phrase "guilty pleasure" comes to mind here. I absolutely love my fitness classes, and occasionally do feel guilty for what I am skipping to attend them. I sent my daughter to pick up the neighbors at the airport so I would not have to miss class. I sent my husband to retrieve the same daughter at college so I could attend classes. I stalled on decorating for Christmas to attend classes. There's more, but you don't need the whole list to get the point. There's a way to decrease this guilt. You need to "own" your choice. You need to consciously acknowledge that you've looked over the trade-offs and actively made your choice, accepting both the upside and the downside as your choice.

Owning my choice has also helped with food choices. It's easier to pass up cookies and pastries at work when I remember my goal. It's easier to stop at a smaller portion and not take second helpings. Timing is involved too, when I choose to take more than one fitness class a day and still work part-time and still keep my household functional. A smaller meal about an hour and a half before Zumba dancing works best for me, and slightly longer before a Kangoo jumps class. I'm sure I'll have more to say about food choices in a later blog, but I don't want my readers sitting still too long reading this, so I'll stop here for now.

In short, think this week about what you want and what you are willing to give up to have it. That's your opportunity cost. Then choose to live with your choice, or modify it and try again. Have a great week!

Avoiding the "Inspirational" Trap

Strange coincidences often look like serendipity to me instead. Here's my horoscope from the Washington Post (Holiday Mathis) for today.

One person's perceived perfection can inspire another person to feel flawed. It's a trap that can be avoided through honesty, modesty and a down-to-earth attitude.

That's what I will be about for a few weeks here, trying to reconcile being "inspirational" with honesty and modesty. And I want my children to notice that this quote from a major newspaper did not use the "Oxford comma" -- same as I usually don't. (Yes, we do discuss things like that at home.)

Until next time, keep your eyes open for coincidences that are really the universe trying to tell you something.

Welcome to 2012

First, congratulations on making it into 2012! I hope to have a great year myself, and wish anyone reading this the same. For me, this will take good luck and planning. Luck I can't arrange, but planning is something I do pretty well.

Every plan has a starting point, a goal, and action steps along the way. My starting point in 2012 is this: I lost over 40 pounds in 2011 (picked a few back up in the last week, but Christmas cookies only happen once a year so I'll be OK). I got in better shape than I've been in since before I had children (25 years). I met a lot of very supportive (and interesting!) people at one of my fitness classes. I still work part-time for the local school system doing much less than I am capable of, for less money than I would like to make. I am learning Portuguese. (Why? Because I can.)

My goals for 2012 are not specific enough yet, but the general outline is to keep getting more healthy and fit, find a way to earn more money without cutting into fitness time too much, and try to keep up with this blog weekly to document what I can for the folks who keep calling me "inspirational." Another goal is to get more comfortable with being called "inspirational" because it still feels a bit fraudulent to me, and find a way to share the process because that's what inspirational people should do.

Lacking specific goals yet, I can't detail the whole plan. Here are a few small steps I expect to include.

• Go back to 2% milk in my morning coffee, instead of cream.
• Eat fish at least once a week (salmon is my favorite).
• Either ration all the shortbread cookies I got for Christmas, or invite friends over for coffee and shortbread and devour them all in one sitting.
• Keep in touch with people more, and not just on Facebook.

That's the short list for now. More will come as the Big Plan for 2012 develops. Hope to see you there!

Move over, Shakespeare; J. Lo and I gotta get "on the floor"

I've known since I was ten years old (at least that long) that I wanted to be a writer. I've even done that on and off over the years, writing newsletters, magazine articles, marketing materials, press releases, brief how-to booklets, and the rare short story thinly disguising autobiography as fiction (usually unfinished). How do I know that I have known this since I was ten? I apparently saved a paper I had to write for class that year, and in it I predicted I would grow up to be a writer.

This week has shown me that while writing may be woven in and out of my life, there is something much more essential for me. Dancing. OK, this should not have been a big surprise, but it was when I actually stepped back to think about it. I took lessons in dance before I even learned to read. I took lessons in dance that same year I said I would be a writer when I grew up. In  high school, I saved half my lunch money to pay to get into dances on weekends. In high school, I danced with a small crowd of friends at lunch almost daily (plenty of time for it, since I was only buying half a lunch). Air Force years, college years... still went out dancing with friends. The highlight of grad school was being friends with a great local band and going out to see them (and dance) several nights a week. Met the future husband, and got distracted for a few years, since we both think we can dance but apparently we can't do it together.

When my children were half my size, I used to put on headphones (the big ones that pre-date earbuds) and dance out on the deck behind the house, in the dark of early morning or late night. Over the years I tried Jazzercise (my feet couldn't take the strain, as I was getting heavier by then), and a lot of different exercise tapes to music. Then last winter, I took two dance classes at once: zumba with my oldest daughter and tap with my next-younger sister. It was fun, but still not quite the right fit. In May of this year, two friends suggested I try a different zumba setting, at a firehouse social hall near them.

OMG! This is what I have been missing, dancing in a crowd of women (and a few men) of all shapes and sizes, having the time of their life, with two world-class athletes on the platform leading and encouraging us. As they say in their marketing, "Ditch the workout and come to OUR party!" Ten weeks later, I have rebuilt my work schedule for the summer around this, and I come out to dance with the "boys from Brazil" four to seven times a week, giving it everything I've got. And I feel absolutely marvelous, energized and not tired, more resilient and less stressed, and (bonus) I've lost weight. It's a good thing they don't have class on Sundays, or I'd never get the grocery shopping and laundry done!

So, dancing is apparently an essential for me. Who would have guessed something so everyday and anyone-can-do-it would be one of those how-did-I-not-know-this moments? Oops, just noticed the time. I've got to get out the door to get a good space on the dance floor for today's class.

Waking up from an eight month nap

We're not talking the dark night of the soul, or the dark side of the moon, or anything like that, but I noticed I have not written here since just before the elections last November. Eight months ago. I need to fix that.

I realized this morning that if I live to be 80, I have 22 more years to fill between now and then. Even 70 gives me about 4300 days to fill with something interesting and worthwhile. When I was younger, I never expected to make it past 40 years old, since my own mother had died at 40. When that milestone came (and went), I had three children under the age of eight. I didn't have time to wonder how much longer I might live or how I would fill my time. My motto then was "the revolution will have to wait until the laundry is done."

The youngest child is in college now, and they can all pretty much take care of themselves. (They don't always do it, but they can.) My 40 year high school reunion is this fall, and some of my friends will be attending as retirees. I feel a pressing need to get back to being "me" again, instead of mother and wife, employee, and other roles I have occupied over the past years. Some days this feels like a real archeological dig! Other days a sudden insight will come when I do something that reminds me of something I once loved. "Yes! YES! This is part of the essential me!"

Stay tuned. I think this might get interesting.
Loraine