Lindsee Mugford spent years helping clients get strong as a nutrition coach and trainer. She experimented with swimming, strongman, powerlifting, and even a little competitive arm wrestling over the years. While her focus may have changed to literature and writing, she still enjoys a competitive game of The Floor is Lava.
We talk a lot about goal setting in university, and usually, we overcomplicate the process. In my fitness coaching practice and tutoring, I have helped hundreds of people accomplish goals they never thought they could reach. It all comes down to one thing: tiny habits. Figure out the bare minimum you can do to reach your goal and do it. That’s it. Tiny habits done successfully will make the biggest goal doable with enough time. Don’t believe me? I once had a client lose their first thirty pounds by replacing their daily colas with water and tea. Sure, they could have lost weight faster if they did more at once, but why complicate things? Let me explain how this could work for you as well.
Goals are written down. This is what separates a goal from a dream. Goals are specific and measurable. For example, setting a goal to squat double your bodyweight for five repetitions is a clear objective, whereas aiming for an epic squat is not. Goals are realistic. While it might be realistic for someone to complete their PhD thesis in a year, it would be an unrealistic goal for a first-year Bachelor of Arts student. All goals have a timeline. Completing a PhD thesis could be a realistic goal for all students, but the timeline will be different depending on previous experience.
Your timeline will vary depending on a few factors. Is there already a deadline set for you, such as the due date your professor gave you for an assignment? Are there things you must learn first before you can work on your actual goal? Lastly, all successful goals have a fifth element: significance. If you can’t give yourself a solid reason for wanting to eat five servings of vegetables a day, you are never going to do it. Significance can be as powerful as “my mother died of diabetes complications, and I’m scared it will happen to me,” or as simple as “I know I feel better when I eat healthier.”
Once you’ve set your measurable goal and it meets the criteria above, what do you do? This is where many people get stuck. All the goals listed above are outcome-based goals. There is an intended result to reaching the goal, for example, being able to squat 300-pounds. You must decide on the behaviour-based goals (or habits) that will achieve your lofty outcome-based goal; this requires honesty.
The more honest you are about your limits when creating your habits, the more successful you will be at keeping them. Ask yourself, how much time a day, or what amount of mental focus, do you honestly have to put towards a new habit? Are you already struggling to finish your mountain of homework for the week, or are things open for you right now? Do you already possess the skills required to meet your goal? Does reaching your goal require financial investment? If so, how long will it take you to raise the money? None of these factors will prevent you from achieving greatness, but they will affect how you decide to create your habits. They need to be manageable enough that you are confident you will not fail to perform them.
A habit is any behaviour you repeat long-term without having to think about it, and it takes around two weeks to a month to solidify a new habit successfully. So, figure out the smallest thing you can do to help you reach your goal in your timeline and do it for two weeks. For example, if you want to lose five pounds and decide your first goal is to walk for 20 minutes a day, all that matters is those 20 minutes. Anything else you do that could help you lose weight is a bonus. If you get to the end of two weeks and manage your walks more than 80 per cent of the time, you can keep the walks and pick a new habit to add.
The trick is to make the habit so small that it’s virtually impossible to fail. Writing a novel feels impossible for most people, but writing for 30 minutes a day is probably manageable. Keep checking in on your progress, and if you find you went too big with your habit, scale back. It is important not to lie to yourself about what you are able to do. However, if you do find yourself struggling with a habit, make it smaller and move on without beating yourself up. Show yourself the same grace you would show your best friend if they were struggling. Shame is the antithesis of success.
Every goal is achievable if you break it down into manageable steps. This method is most helpful when there’s a fixed timeline, like assignment due dates. Determine what you need to do to complete the assignment, break it up based on how many days until it’s due, and do the minimum daily to complete it. Remember, the goals can be big, but the habits should always be the bare minimum you can get away with. Try it, and I believe that you will accomplish more than you thought possible.