Night Shift Doctor Mom Greatness Series #5: Setting Goals

By: Charmaine Gregory, on March 30, 2017

Night Shift Doctor Mom Greatness Series

Setting goals provide direction and impetus for our greatness. New Year’s Eve is not the only time that we should set goals. There is a whole lot more that goal crushing than writing a bunch of resolutions down on paper once a year.

It is helpful to break down your goals into short term and long term goals. Your long term goals will keep the big picture in mind and drive the achievement of your short term goals. While your short term goals serve to give you the small wins necessary to stay in the game.

Goals can be broken down even further and categorized into personal, professional, and physical. By putting your goals into discreet categories, staying organized to achieve them becomes easier. So now that we have an idea of what goals are who do we go about setting them?

4 Tips For Goal Setting

Reflect and Evaluate. Take a little bit of time to think about where you are right now. Are you happy with your current situation, career, family life, health, and level of fitness? Reflecting on your current situation in all the categories in which you plan to set goals provides a baseline with which to work. Take a sober look at where you are and write down your thoughts. From this evaluation and reflection, will birth the excitement and inspiration for the goals you want to achieve. This process can take an hour or so if done insightfully. Take your time because this is a crucial step in the process.
Define Your Goals. Now that your evaluation and self reflection is complete, now comes the fun part. If you were to close your eyes and visualize yourself in one month, one year or even five years, where will you be? What will you be doing? What will you have accomplished? Take the time to think about what thrills you. Allow yourself to dream big and be faithful in your plans. If you don’t dream it, it will not be realized. Define your goals based on where you want to be not where you are currently. Now that your goals are defined, write them down.
S.M.A.R.T Goals. Break down your goals based on this pneumonic.
1. Specific – effective goal setting requires definitive language and thought. This is not the time to be ambiguous. If your goal is to be proficient at computer coding, your goal setting would be something like this: “I will take coding courses I through III at the local college to earn a certificate in coding in the next 12 months”. The more specific you make your goals, the better it will be and the more powerful they will be.
2. Measurable – Have something tangible that you can use to gauge attainment of your goals. So for example, if your goal is to train for your first 5K and you are not currently a runner then you would do a walk jog training program. The amount of time that you spend walking as the training persists will decrease and your ultimate measurable is being able to complete the full distance.
3. Attainable – I know I said to dream big but in doing so we have to be careful not to set goals that we cannot attain. Your should have some goals that push you outside of your comfort zone but in essence you set yourself up to fail if you set goals that are absolutely unattainable.
4. Realistic – This goes hand in hand with attainability. It doesn’t make sense to have a goal of painting an elaborate mural when the extent of your artistic ability is drawing stick figures. Even if you were to take art classes, the reality of you being able to paint a mural like an artist is just not possible. Keep your goals realistic.
5. Timely – I alluded to this point in the example I gave previously about taking classes to be more proficient in coding within 18 months. Setting a time frame for accomplishing your goals is a crucial element for goal crushing. If it is too daunting to set a long time frame goal, then break it down in incremental steps and put a time on those.
Accountability – This is by far the best way to ensure that you crush the goals that you set. You can have daily, monthly or quarterly accountability. Having frequent checkins will help to keep you on the path toward crushing your goals. You get your accountability from an individual or a group. I use accountability groups and have several accountability partners to help me to stay on track with my personal, professional and business goals. This piece has helped me tremendously in goal setting and goal crushing!

So these are just some tips to get you started on effective powerful goal setting. Now go out there and set some goals to crush!

Be strong. Be brave. Unleash your greatness!

Thanks for taking the time to read this blog post. If you found it helpful, share it and comment below.

Bio
Latest Posts

Charmaine Gregory

CEO at Fervently Fit with Charmaine LLC

I am a nocturnist Emergency Physician, wife, mom to three vivacious cherubs as well as a greatness and virtual fitness coach. I help busy women like myself reclaim their fitness and wellness mojo and unleash their greatness! Watch my story and get a complimentary health assessment here: My Story If you are like me and have picky eaters in your fold, join my Facebook group, Picky Eaters Strong Mom here: Picky Eater Strong Mom Facebook Group

Night Shift Doctor Mom Greatness Series #5: Setting Goals