Setting your health goals

Setting goals helps you prioritize what to work on and can help give you a sense of accomplishment at the end of the year. But setting goals is hard. The standard advice is to make them SMART: specific, measurable, attainable, realistic and timely.

In general I agree with this. (Though what's the difference between attainable and realistic? Just asking.)

I've been practicing goal setting for about five or six years now. And yes, I see it as a practice or skill. You're not that great at it the first couple of times, but you improve with repetition. You get better at figuring out what works for you — how many goals is realistic to shoot for in a year, how specific to be when you break down your big goals, how far in advance you can schedule little goals, what to do about changing your mind mid-year, etc, etc....

And, oh yea, the biggie: realizing that often what you want is intangible and hard to measure.

For example, "I want to be happier." A wise goal but not a SMART one.

You can break it down of course. What would make me happier? Going out dancing more often? So a measurable goal that helps me get to my immeasurable goal would be: Go out dancing once a month.

There are also things that technically could be measured but you don't have the expertise or tools to measure. For example: My shoulders are chronically rolled forward and I want to improve that. Now, I have no doubt that the degree of internal rotation and forward displacement of my humerus could be measured. But I can't do that. I can only look in the mirror or see pictures of myself and think, ugh, not the best posture.

What's the answer? Not sure. Maybe after another year of practice, I'll know. In the meantime, here's my list of health goals. Most are very posture-based, because I'm increasingly interested in that. And I plan on writing a blog post about each of these. (That's a SMART goal!)

1.Feet and Ankles
Regain/increase transverse arches
Increase ankle stability

2. Pelvis
Move head of femur back
Improve pelvic stability

3. Trunk
Get rid of tightness/knot in left thoracic
Move head of humerus back
Improve shoulder health

4. Face
Reduce jaw/ear tension
Reduce eye tension
Improve skin quality

5. Improve cardio health

6. Improve breathing

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Jill McGowan Pilates

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