It’s a strange and exciting part of the year. The hustle and bustle of Christmas gatherings with family and friends are now over. Those mounds of wrapping paper splattered all over your living room mimicking the festive chaos in your house just a few days ago are now picked up and things are almost back to normal.

It’s a quieter time – right before the New Year when you begin to think back about all the things that went right in 2018… and what went wrong. What can I do better to make 2019 awesome? What am I missing that I want to change?

Perhaps your goals are similar to mine… I need to lose a few more pounds, I need to save more and spend less. And I want to make significant progress towards being able to retire sooner. To be honest, these aren’t much different from last years goals. So why am I still working on them? Where did I do wrong?

Why Why Why?

It’s all fine and dandy that I want to lose 30 pounds, but that’s really just a bunch of words. How can I change this to make it stick? Why do I think 30 pounds is the goal? Why not 20? Why not 40? We have to continually ask ourselves why to get down to the real reason that will motivate us.

This is a technique called the 5 Why’s. Think of yourself as a 3 year old again pestering your parents in the morning – it works great! So, for “fun”, let’s go through the though process of one of my original goals.

I want to lose 30 pounds.

Why? So I can look less like a stuffed turkey in my jeans, duh!

Why? Because it’s uncomfortable and not pretty to look at. And… turkey!

Why does that matter? Because it makes me realize I’m not as healthy as I could be.

Why? Because I’m not watching what I eat and regularly exercising.

Why does that matter? Because I feel that I can’t do the things I want to today, like being more active when traveling and not looking like a drowned rat when I hike up a hill.

So my goal went from “I want to lose 30 pounds” to “I want to lose weight to feel healthier so I can be more active when traveling”. That’s a lot easier have a stake in the game with that goal.

Pictures are worth 1000 cookies

Mmmm cookies. I bet you can picture your favorite Christmas/holiday cookie right now in your head (you can also sing C is for cookie, if you’re like me). Take a moment – can you remember what the cookie felt like in your hands – was it a little rough because of the sugar crystals that were on top? Was it a soft cookie with flowing icing that looked almost like glass? How did it make the house smell when they were baking? How did it taste? Did you have moist raisins and oatmeal that complemented the spices? Or did you get a huge sugar rush after shoving one of those peanut butter Hershey’s kisses cookies in your mouth all at once?

It’s amazing how your senses can help ingrain a moment even with something as simple as eating a cookie. Can we use this to help make our goals more solid as well? I think so!

Take the goal that you’ve massaged already using the 5 Whys. Close your eyes (after you read this paragraph silly) and picture yourself meeting that goal. How did you look? Were you happy, proud? Less sweaty on that climb? Could you see yourself at the top of that mountain (hill) you climbed? Can you imagine the crisp air and the sun shining brightly on you? How can you visualize your goal in a similar way?

And… Action!

Now that you can see yourself meeting your goal, let’s make it possible to get there! Having a goal of losing weight, a solid reason why you want it, and a way to mentally picture your success is a great start. Now let’s add something that you can work on now.

Remember, not everything has to come at once. I’m the WORST at jumping in 110% and then burning out quickly. This is not a sprint, but part of the long goal.

So, how can you break down your goal into actionable pieces? I’ll continue with my goal example to show you a few suggestions:

• Now: Start writing down what I eat every day to better understand where I’m at right now
• This week: Research options for ways to improve what I’m eating (I’ll be focusing on low-carb / keto-ish methods for my goal)
• Next 2 weeks: make a grocery list that will keep me on track
• Next 2 weeks: park a little farther away from the front door at work, adding a few more steps every day
• Next 2 weeks: take 15 minutes from lunch and go for a walk (helps your brain too!)
• February: Can I pick up those arm weights and use them while watching a show on TV?
• February: Get on that treadmill every time I want to watch my favorite show (might as well lose some calories instead of just sitting on my behind!)

I’m feeling motivated, and I hope you are too! So where do YOU want to be?