I’ve been ranting and raving about goals and change and resolutions and all kinds of fun stuff for 2020. And you can’t blame me - new year, new decade, new rules and new excitement. So much excitement, in fact, that I just may pee my pants.

But I wanted to step back and go to the basics. Often times, when people get on their soapboxes like I’m wont to do, we jump over some fundamental basic items that we just take for granted. Kind of like the two things needed to make any type of goal or change.

Goals, accomplishment and motivation are my business. And I’m good at it. If there is an end state you are trying to reach - I am the person you want to chat about it with. And with all of the people I work with, and with all of the goals I’ve set for myself, I have found that there are two consistent requirements for hitting your goals: Intention and Consistency.

Simple, yet difficult. Those are just words. And in order for words to be effective, we have to give them context and detail. So let’s do that.

Intention For a goal to be accomplished, we need to be intentional in picking the right goal for us. In order to do that, we need to hit to go through a few steps:

Explain your why - this is fundamental. Understand why this is the goal for you. In explaining the why, you may find that there is a bigger or more specific goal that needs to be accomplished.

Be specific in your language - Positive psychology research dictates that using specific language that is positive focused vs. negative focused helps change our mindset to accomplishing a goal. So rather than say, “I want to lose weight,” we would say, “I will eat three servings of vegetables at each meal to improve my overall health.”

Pick a new behavior, don’t drop an old one - Old habits die hard - so stop trying to change them. Rather than “stopping” a bad behavior, replace it with a new one. Eventually, that new behavior will take over the old.

Align with your value set - We all value different things, and sometimes our goals don’t align with something we value. I mean, if you really valued fitness, you wouldn’t need to make fitness goals. But maybe you value something like family - can you take your family on a hike? When you intertwine a goal with your value set, you are more likely to be successful.

Consistency Now that you are intentional, it’s time to be consistent. No change or goal will happen overnight. Losing weight, getting a promotion, launching a business - all of these take an investment of time over a period of time. It’s a lot of work.

There is a model that some people use - I don’t know who invented it but it helps to showcase the consistency part of it. It’s called the 3-6-5 model. You pick 3 goals, do them for 6 weeks, for 5 days a week.

It may not solve everything - but it will put you on a pretty decent path towards your end. It’s a great reminder that change, and goals, require patience and realistic view of what’s accomplishable over a time period.

Recognize that change is hard. But it’s possible. Disrupting your routine is uncomfortable - both for you and potentially the people around you. But when we are intentional, and picking what’s best for us, we can reach any potential goal through a consistent investment and focus.

And with that - have a happy week!