I want to save $1 million and lose 1000 pounds Resolutions–Part 1 SMART Goals

So, it's the new year.  Happy 2025!  And what do we do first?  Well, my memaw used to make us eat black eyed beans on New Year's Day for good luck.  I don’t know if it worked or not because we had good luck and bad luck all year, just like everyone else.  You may not eat the beans but I bet you made some resolutions, right?  Nearly 39% of people make at least one resolution, so that means not everyone makes or admits to making a resolution. But I think secretly most people make a resolution, maybe in their head, and just don’t admit it.  But why not?  Why not admit you made a resolution?

Because most people don’t keep their resolutions.

But we are getting ahead of ourselves.  First, let’s talk about what resolutions are, are they a good idea to make (especially if we don’t keep them),  and why do we make them.

When I was growing up, we made resolutions in Memaw’s house.  Some of them were serious and some of them were fun.  My resolutions were always to do better in school and Memaw’s resolutions were to read more or have more patience.  And like most resolutions, after a week or two in January, our resolutions tended to fall to the wayside and we forgot all about them.  As an adult with a family now, we make resolutions if the members of my family want to make those resolutions.  One year, my husband suggested we make each other’s resolutions.  He would say what he thought I needed as a goal and I would do the same for him.  As you might imagine, this did NOT go well.  I kept telling him “I dare you to make MY resolution!”.  My husband is not stupid and abandoned the idea after that one year.

So what are resolutions?  A resolution is a fancy word we use on New Year’s Eve to say we are making a goal.  We generally make the resolution at the beginning of something, like a new year.  That is why so many of us make New Year’s resolutions.  This is our year.  This is the year we will make those changes we need to make our life better.  I even see it in students at the beginning of the new school year or the new semester.  They make goals (we call them goals unless it is made at NYE–then it is a resolution) so that they will do well in school--keep up with the homework, read ahead, always study for the test, start that project early.  Does it work for them?  Sometimes.  

That brings me to the next question.  Are resolutions a good idea to make?  Especially since generally we will abandon our resolution by the second Friday in January.  Actually, they call this “Quitters Day”!!  Statistically, 80% give up their resolutions by February.  If most of us give up, then why make the resolution in the first place?  Aren’t we just going to feel bad when we abandon it?

Psychologically speaking, we really don’t have a choice.  It is part of who we are to make ourselves better.  According to Abraham Maslow, a Humanistic psychologist, we have resolutions or goals because we are always trying to improve ourselves.  Even if we have a really good job, we want to be better at our job.  Maybe we have a marriage or relationship that is okay.  Intrinsically we want to make it better.  Physically, we may feel we are 10 pounds overweight.  Then we want to lose those 10 pounds.  We are always trying to be better.  Maslow went on with his theory and made the Hierarchy of Needs pyramid.  This may sound familiar to you because most of us learned about this pyramid in high school, specifically in health class.  This pyramid has different levels and we are always trying to go to the next level until we get to what he called the Self Actualization level.  That is the very top of the pyramid.  Very few people obtain the very tip of the pyramid.  We are talking about people like Ghandi, Mother Theresa, Nelson Mandela.  These are the people that reach the top of the pyramid but even then, they don’t always stay at that level.  They, like everyone, go up and down the levels because of what we call life.  We will discuss Maslow and his pyramid in another blog but Maslow believed that is why we are always trying to set goals, to improve, to be better.  Internally, we are trying to get to the next level and be a better person.  Because of this, we just don’t have a choice.  We set the goals.  However, it is not our fault that we abandon them, so we shouldn’t feel bad when it happens.  

Wait!!  How can it not be our fault?  Don’t we make the choice to make the goal?  And isn’t it our choice to “abandon” the goal–usually because it is too hard to try to achieve?  

Yes, but it is not our fault because we create the “wrong” resolutions or goals.  We abandon these goals because we created them wrong AND we give motivation too much credit.

But let’s back up.  First, let’s clear up the language.  From now on, we are going to call them “goals”, not resolutions.  

What do I mean we create the “wrong” goal?  Most of us, we set a goal (or make a NYE resolution), say things like “I want to lose weight.”  Or “I want to be healthier this year.”  The biggest problem with these goal are that they are too vague!  How much weight do you want to lose?  Is it realistic (unlike my title of this blog:)?  Why do you want to lose weight?  What do you mean you want to be “healthier”?  How?

Vagueness is the enemy in goals.  We need to do the opposite and be specific.  How?  By making SMART goals.  Again, you may have heard of SMART goals in school or come across it in your readings.  SMART  is an acronym for:

Specific

Measurable

Attainable

Relevant (and realistic)

Time bound

As you can see, you need to be very specific in every area of the goal.  If you can’t be specific in all the areas, then it is not a good goal to have.  For example, as you can see from my title, it is specific and it is measurable, but it is NOT attainable.  A good goal 

must meet all 5 areas of a SMART goal.  

Here is a good example.  Let’s say you want to lose weight.   If you say you want to lose 30 pounds in a month, that is not very realistic or attainable.  I don’t care what all the advertisers say, losing 30 pounds in 30 days is just setting you up to fail.  Our bodies are just not made to shed that much weight in that short amount of time.  The motivation (relevant) is not there either.  You would literally have to stop eating and that just goes against our biology.  Also, even if you obtain part of that weight loss, to keep it off would be very difficult. If you starved yourself to lose that weight, you are not going to continue to starve yourself month after month after month.  That is not realistic. So, with a SMART goal, you do have to be specific.  But it also has to be realistic.  

So how do we make “losing weight” into a SMART goal?

Let’s say our goal is to lose 30 pounds.  That is a lot of weight to lose, so we need to start small.  That is called the steps.  We have to do steps to help us achieve our SMART goal.  We will talk more about steps next week (in the blog about achieving your goals and not giving up on them).

For example, your SMART goal could be “I want to lose 5 pounds in 8 weeks.”  Yes, I really want to lose 30 pounds in 4 weeks but hopefully you can see that is not going to work.  Losing 5 pounds in 8 weeks actually fits perfectly into our SMART goal.

First, it is specific--5 pounds, not just “some weight”.  

It is measurable--get your ass on that scale every day and keep track of your daily weight.  

It is attainable.  Research shows losing ½ to 2 pounds per week is healthy.  

It is relevant and realistic.  If you change your eating habits and exercise more, then you can lose that weight each week.  Actually, this is more realistic than relevant.  We will talk more about relevant next week.  

Finally, it is time-bound.  You want to lose that weight in a specific time frame--8 weeks.  

For your goals, start off small.  Yes, 8 weeks is a long time to lose 5 pounds, and you may even lose those first 5 pounds in 4 weeks but put 8 weeks as your goal.  That way you are always setting yourself up to succeed!  

After you achieve the 5-pound weight loss, then make your next SMART goal (another 5 pounds in 8 weeks).  Keep making small step SMART goals until you reach your ultimate goal.

If you set a SMART goal like the one above, the chances of you obtaining that goal have gone up drastically.  You have a goal that you can look at, measure it, and see if you are on the right path of obtaining that goal.  

If you make resolutions and really want to obtain them, then set them up as SMART goals.  If you do that, chances of you reaching that goal are huge and it does not become just another “resolution” that is forgotten in February.

Next week, we will talk about what you need to do to “achieve” that SMART goal.  Motivation will not be enough.  We need 4 other things–”why”, small steps, discipline, and routine.

Until then, turn your resolutions into SMART goals, write them down, and we will discuss how to avoid Quitter’s Day next week.

Happy New Year.

If you have a resolution and are having a difficult time making it into a SMART goal, leave your resolution in the comments and I can help make it into an attainable SMART goal.