Fighting For A Life Worth Living

Day 36 - Experts Don't Know What They Are Talking About PT1

In this day in age, it seems like everywhere you go experts are telling you how to live your life. Have they themselves tried any of the things they are suggesting us to do? Lets take a minute and discuss goals, what the experts say, and what I am starting to believe.

It appears to me that as a society we are constantly being reminded to make goals and the consequences if you do not set goals are grave. Experts and teachers give the impression that the only way to be successful is to have goals. When setting goals experts suggest you use the acronym SMART. Which stands for:
Specific
Measurable
Achievable
Reward
Time

Experts say that if your goal contains all of these elements you are more likely to be successful. A good goal may look like this:
I am going to eat a serving of vegetables with every meal by the end of June 2017 and if I succeed I will reward myself by seeing Tom Cruise in The Mummy. An expert might be happy with this goal, but I am not.

I used to believe that goals must fit the SMART acronym and that in order to have success in anything it had to start with a goal. After years of practice I have a new conclusion. I still believe goals are important. They act as a final destination, but how you get to that final destination is where I disagree. If you have ever used a GPS navigator you are aware there are multipal routes to get to a location. One route is the SMART way. I have tried to use the this formula for weight loss and here are two separate instances it failed me. The first time was a few years ago. A doctor had given me the goal to consume under 1500 calories, wanting to achieve this I made a goal. My goal was to consume under 1500 calories for ten days in a row. Once I achieved this goal I would be rewarded by purchasing a shirt I had picked out purposely for this goal. This goal was everything it needed to be. The 1500 calories is what made it specific and measurable. I felt ten days was a short amount of time making it achievable and giving it a timetable. While the shirt was the reward. During the ten days I put all my energy into making this goal and it added stress. At the end of my challenge I had achieved my goal and it felt really good. My reward backfired because online the only size they had left was a size larger than what I wore and when I went to the physical store hoping to find it in my size, I found it had been moved to clearance and the only one they had left was two sizes too small. I bought it hoping it would keep me motivated to lose the weight. To this day I still can not wear the shirt I worked so hard to get. The other downfall is that once I met my goal I went back to life before the goal and ended up gaining all the weight I had previously lost and then some. After this my husband suggested a different way to have goals. He made a spread sheet and it consisted of three columns: weight loss goal, date achieved, and reward. This too was SMART other than the time frame part of the acronym. My first goal was to lose 5 LBS and we would get to go on a picnic with my new picnic basket. I was determined to get this goal and it took me a while to achieve it because somewhere in the course of trying to lose the weight I actually gained three pounds resulting in me having to lose eight pounds instead of five. Once Again I put all my effort into losing these pounds and was burnout by the time I finished. My ten pound reward didn't excite me and I was not willing to work towards meeting it. In both of these examples I met my goal but was not able to move on to other goals for various reasons. It was very stressful trying to achieve these goals. I have found a better avenue that I like much more, tune in tomorrow to hear my solution.