It's still January - New Year's Resolution Month!

How are you doing with your 2011 new year's resolutions? As we approach the second half of January, have you been able to stick with your exercise, healthy eating, or maybe even life and relationship goals? Whatever situation you had last year, this year should bring you more reason and opportunity to make new goals and achieve them. There is no excuse not to. We all have at least one area in our life where we can improve ourselves and make more positive changes.

With that said, think about the goals you made for this year (or at least thought about to achieve this year). You have got to have a plan if you have a goal. What is your plan? How are you going to get there?

Through my experience, I have found a very effective way to set goals and achieve them. It is known as the "S.M.A.R.T." goal theory. This stands for:
(S)pecific - What exactly do you want to achieve? Just eating healthy? Specifically, how? Explain what healthy is, eating more organic fruits, veggies and less saturated fats and processed foods.
(M)easurable - Establish a criteria for measuring your progress. By measuring, you're able to keep on track, see your progress as you come along, and know if you are doing it right. Ie: How much, how often will you eat these items?
(A)ttainable - When you have a goal that is important to you, you find ways to make it come true. You develop a mindset, abilities and skills to achieve it. Be sure that when you set these goals however, that they are not so far out of reach that you most likely will not be able to achieve. You want to be able to have your goal in reach and visible. It must be one that you can succeed at by sticking to your game plan and knowing it is possible.
(R)ealistic - This means you must be willing and able to achieve this goal. Only you have the power to know if your goal is realistic or not. It may help you to know whether or not it is realistic if you have achieved something similar in the past, but this time your motivation and resources are much better.
(T)imely - Your goal should be grounded within a certain time frame. If you don't set a time frame, how will you know when you need to achieve it or if your success has been fast or slow? It is also much easier to track your progress and see the "end point" to your achievement. Set a date to attain your goal by, and then choose 2 or 3 "check points" to measure how much success you have made on your road to achievement.

It is one of the best feelings to achieve a goal, no matter how small or large. It shows we stuck with our plan and were determined to make a positive change in our life and accomplished that. From this, we are able to increase our self-esteem and motivation to set higher goals and achieve greater things. And who knows, maybe even teach a few others how they can achieve something great too.

Happy Health Year!