5 Steps to Revising Health Goals
5 Steps to Revising Health Goals
Writing a health goal is an important step in making changes to personal behaviors. Thoughtfully crafting a goal can help maintain focus and direction, establish accountability and support the desired long-term behavior changes. However, like many other things in life, health goals are not meant to be static. Because of the many factors that affect our behaviors, health goals should be reviewed regularly to ensure they are optimal for that moment in time.
Some reasons to revise a health goal include: change in schedule, health status (injury, illness, pregnancy) and preference. Sustainable and fulfilling behaviors may evolve over time. Consider these steps for revising a health goal.
Review goals in writing or via video or audio recording. It is possible to think about goals often, but seeing or hearing them makes a difference.
Assess a current goal by asking if it is SMART (specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, time-bound). Using this framework provides a sense of direction.
Scale up or down, depending on the goal. For example, if the goal to meditate 20 minutes a day, three times a week, is not being reached, consider scaling down to 15 minutes a day, two times a week to start.
Reflect on the factors involved in not achieving health goals. Is the goal itself what needs to change, or are there other barriers in place? For example, let’s consider the goal to eat a serving of vegetables (1 cup raw or cooked vegetables) with a home-cooked dinner 4 times a week. In order for that goal to happen, vegetables need to be purchased and also prepared.
Incorporate an incentive to a health goal. Set up a reward system that does not involve food or drink when short-term goals are met.
Adjusting health goals is part of the process to achieve behavior change. No one’s health journey is a straight upward trajectory. Revising a goal is not a setback; rather, it’s a way to be set up for success. The sooner we can see revising health goals as part of the process, rather than a failure, the more supported we are in realizing long-term changes.
