How Do I Decide My Health Goals

Deciding what to focus on when you are looking to improve your health can feel a little overwhelming at first. Do I focus on getting fitter, losing weight, eating better, or meditating or..., etc.

I find the best place to start is with two things.

Where are you now?

This is a useful audit process. Nothing fancy needed. It's simply a case of grabbing some paper and a pen (or text document) and downloading a few thoughts on the following questions:

• What is prompting me now to think about my health? Often there's something that has prompted this. It might be an event, seeing a photograph of yourself, a doctors check-up or just a feeling of being uncomfortable with how you are.
• How is my health and weight generally? Be careful not to crush yourself when jotting down some thoughts on this, but do get down your honest thoughts.
• What am I frustrated about? When it comes to this area what are your day-to-day frustrations? How does your current health impact on your daily life and work?
• What are my fears around my health? Get off your mind your fears about your current state of health and what you worry will happen if things don't change. Be careful with this one as it can be a bit overwhelming. Remember this is simply to capture what you are thinking in order to help clarify a goal you can set yourself to work on.
• What are my hopes? If you were to make some changes, how would you like things to improve in your day-to-day life?
• What are my aspirations? This is bigger picture thinking. Give yourself permission to think a bit bigger and longer term. What if..., Just suppose... and allow yourself to think about where you would like your health to be in several years time if you could really make a significant difference in it.

The Longer Term Vision

As you complete the above exercise, you may start to identify an underlying desire or idea of your health over the longer term. if not, don't worry, but do give some consideration to what you would like that to look like. The idea of this is to create a longer term vision for your health, a container if you like. Something in which you will create your shorter term goals. Mine is to be fitter and healthier at 66 than I was at 45 (I talk about this in my podcast episode here ( now called the Restless Midlifer podcast). This is very much tied into your deeper 'why?' Why is this important. Having that strong 'why' in which to nestle your goals can be really helpful.

When you have a long-term vision, you might have strong emotions about it, but it’s not really tangible. It might be so far in the future, or so different to where you are now, that it’s hard to imagine it being real.

Scoring the Goal

Setting goals is talked about as if it is the be all and end all, however, it isn't. It is the means to an end.

Think about a football (soccer) game. The aim is to win the match. In fact even that is only part of a bigger vision, whether that's to win the league or a particular championship.

The scoring of a goal or goals in a match is the means by which the team aim to ensure they win the game and move them closer to the ultimate vision.

That's how we need to see our health goals.

In the context of moving us towards our vision. So setting a vision is the direction of travel and the goal needs to be capable of moving us towards that.

So effectively the goal needs to be tangible, finite in terms of time and clear. Some knock the idea of having a SMART goal as being boring or old hat or even playing small.

The reality is, a SMART goal (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Timed), is simply a way of framing the goal as a plan. The plan is not the goal. And the goal is simply a step towards the vision. We need each element.

So, having considered the vision for your health, revisit your daily frustrations and hopes and your reasons prompting you to think of your health in the first place and brain-storm some ideas for some smaller goals.

Don't hold back. Write down everything that comes to mind, including the small and the big goals. Get them out of your head and then weigh them agains the following:

• Will this goal move me towards my overall health vision? If yes, keep it in and answer the next question. If not, put it aside for now. By all means pick that as a goal but at this point be honest and true to your bigger vision for your health
• Is this something achievable in the next 6-18 months? Again be realistic given what you have going on in life. This is not about thinking small, this is about breaking the vision down into chunks of 6-18 months of time.
• Can this goal be broken down into smaller repeatable actions? The aim is to then break the goal into small actions, habits, rituals and routines that you can start to embed in your life. The biggest failing we have when it comes to embarking on our goals is setting a big goal and unrealistic action plans. If you are already busy with life, work, family and everything else, you need to get started in small sprout-sized steps and changes.

Get started

Then it's a case of getting started. Pick one thing and get going. The plan doesn't have to be perfect, the goal does not need to be perfectly clarified, nor does your vision. You can firm those all up on the move.

Your goal needs action. Consistent, daily action. Thats why I talk about the sprout. Keep your habits, rituals and routines sprout-sized and sweat those sprouts more often than not. And in so doing, you will raise your odds of achieving not only the goal but of getting closer to your vision.

And, if you would like to talk sprouts with me or learn more about how I support my clients in achieving their biggest health ambitions through sprout-sweating, drop me a message.

Dave

Dave Algeo is a coach working with busy professionals and business owners who struggle to find the time to prioritise themselves, their heath and personal goals. He specialises in working with those who seek to change deeply rooted behaviours whether emotional eating, perfectionism, imposter syndrome or others.

Drop Dave a DM to arrange a 15 minute chat and find out how he can support you in losing weight, achieving sustainable health and wellbeing and regaining energy and zest for midlife and beyond