Here’s Why You Picked the Wrong Goal
I’m pretty certain that you picked the wrong goal. Whatever you chose this year (or have chosen, year after year) is probably not moving the needle in your life. It’s probably frustrating, and you might even see your lack of progress as a personal failing. I meet with clients all the time who also have goals and very little to show for them–at first.
My role as a health coach is to listen to my clients, zoom way out, and take an objective look at each person’s desired outcome. I can then zoom in and direct my clients’ attention to a sustainable action that will help them accomplish the results they want for a better life. Sometimes, those action steps are wildly different than you’d imagine.
You probably wouldn’t imagine that moving your alarm clock across the room could cause you to lose five pounds this month, but it did for one client. (And no, it wasn’t because she took extra steps). Here’s how her tiny adjustment resulted in big change:
This client had been wanting to lose weight for…ever. It was a goal that nagged at her constantly but felt impossible to attain in the day-to-day craze of her life. To regulate her blood sugar and work toward weight loss, my first suggestion was to change her breakfast to a protein-dense smoothie. Unfortunately, this client had a bad habit (like so many of us!) of snoozing her alarm and leaving herself only a few minutes to get ready and out the door. Even the speedy routine of making a smoothie often got tossed aside and she grabbed a granola bar or skipped breakfast altogether (which never ended up well).
Many of you might be able to relate to this. This client’s big goal was to lose weight. I shrank her goal by asking her to just focus on the actionable step of making a healthy breakfast, but by tracing her morning routine, it became apparent that she actually needed to focus on the tinier goal of getting up from bed on time. So, we strategized and made a plan. This client moved her alarm clock (her phone) from her nightstand to the dresser across the room and next to her bathroom. When her alarm went off, she was forced to get up and turn it off. This made it much more likely that she would stay up and get ready for work.
By waking up on time, she was able to make her smoothie almost every day. With this simple breakfast change, she lost five pounds in a month, and within three months, lowered her fasting glucose and halved her triglyceride numbers.
So often, our energies are misdirected or our goals are too vague to create real change. I love being a health coach because I can help clients objectively unpack their daily habits so they can identify the tiny changes that will really move the needle. They’re often simpler than you think.
Try identifying behavior links yourself by identifying a moment (or repeated moment) where you make a choice you wish you hadn’t. What occurs BEFORE that choice? Retrace your steps to identify the moment that started the spiral and direct your energy there. Then watch change happen effortlessly!
XO,
Kara
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