What happens when you add more fun to your goals?

You’d have to be living under a rock to avoid the talk about resolutions, goals, and weight loss this week. 

As a life coach, I love talking about and teaching goal setting, but even I’ve been wanting to turn away from the barrage of you-only-better messages. 

So, let me start with this…if you’re thinking of setting a goal this year, there’s a smart way to do it to ensure you’ll succeed. 

And, no, I’m talking about setting those pesky SMART goals. 

SMART stands for specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, and time-based. 

They sound good – but they don’t involve a lot of fun.

In his book FINISH, Jon Acuff writes about why many of us are great at setting goals, and why so many of us give up on our goals.

Sounds pretty much like every resolution I’d try to set in the past. 

Acuff argues that one reason we quit is that we expect ourselves to be able to flip a switch and do a 180-degree turn on our behaviors. 

So, we’re eating all the things until Dec. 31 and on Jan. 1, we vow to eat better. 

Or, we promise that we’ll get on our Peloton fives times a week–starting in January. 

Then the moment that we don’t stick to our plan, we give up. 

Acuff calls this the day after perfect. 

Perfect is the first day we spend on our new goal.

We hit that gym class.

We stick to what we planned to eat.

We cook a healthy meal for ourselves.

The day after perfect is the day we don't do what we said we would -- and we let our inner perfectionist judge ourselves for it.

So, how do we keep going? 

Acuff’s book discusses three ways to tame all-or-nothing thinking and reach our goals: 

1. Cut the goal in half – want to lose 10 pounds in two months? What would it feel like to give yourself four months? Sure…you might get there faster than four months. But often, giving ourselves more time eases the pressure of being perfect on a plan – what if you gave yourself room to be human? 

2. Choose what to bomb – if you’re prioritizing your health, choose ahead of time what you’ll do of or what you’ll choose to bomb. If you want to make healthier choices, maybe you suggest more walks with friends instead of happy hours.

3. Add more fun – having more fun on the way to our goals makes it more likely we’ll keep going? Working on a fitness goal? How about putting some fun stickers on a calendar to see visually when you complete a workout? How about trying forms of movement that bring you joy? Belly dancing? A hike in nature? How fun do these Bollywood dance classes look? 

I don’t know about you, but his list just makes me take a deep exhale. 

As I work with clients on sustainable weight loss, enjoying the process is key and these steps help get us there. 

I’d love to know if you try them out! 

And if you want some help reaching your goals this year – I’d love to help.