I NEED YOU TO BE SPECIFIC

It’s the 4th day of 2021 and like many people you probably have set up some kind of resolutions or goals for yourself for the year ahead. If you have, take a minute to review them before you go on. 

In your resolutions do you see words like:

Better?

Stronger?

Harder?

Or even

Healthier?

We often make resolutions that include these words and phrases that are certainly where we want to get to but give us no direction or ways to measure progress. It is this lack of specificity that often betrays our best efforts. Like when we say, “I want to be better at tracking my food” or “I want to get stronger in the gym,” what do we really mean? If you’re not currently tracking your food and you track one meal is that better? Well by definition it is, but was that your intention with the resolution? Most likely it is not. So today I challenge you to take your resolutions and build specific detailed action plans around them.

Instead of “get better” or “be more consistent” specifically define what that looks like in the short term and the long term. Using the example of food tracking the long term desired outcome might be tracking all food, 7 days a week. The short term goal might be “Track a minimum of 4 days a week for the next month.” Getting detailed and clear about your outcomes gives you benchmarks to use to track your progress and your success. 

Next identify what tools you will use to check in on your progress and during what time frames. Using a journal, a spreadsheet, or even an app can help you have concrete data on your progress. You get to define what fits best for your goals and you also get to decide how often you want to conduct an assessment of your progress. If your desired outcome is building a new daily routine, this might mean checking in on your accomplishments at the end of each day. If you have set a monthly or quarterly check point remember to set up a notification so that you do so as needed. 

You will also need to consider how you will handle failure. Often we let not meeting a stated goal derail our efforts as a whole. Instead I want to encourage you to not only define consequences for yourself but also be willing to explore if maybe the goal itself was flawed, and needs re-working. Do not be afraid to admit that you did not clearly define the proper outcomes from the beginning and be willing to adapt them as you progress. 

This may sound simple and truly it is, but we often allow our non-specific resolutions and goals to be the wayward drivers of our path. Embracing the specific can help you see if you are truly moving forward.