Reality Check: Adjusting Goals & Expectations
Good health coaches work with you to identify outcomes that help you see your progress, feel good about your commitment, and rewarded by your results.
Frustrated that you’re not reaching some of your goals as quickly as you’d hoped?
It’s probably time to revisit one or more of your:
- Health objectives
- Expected outcomes
- Timetable
Tweaks like these are a good sign — they mean you’re seeing the situation clearly, and refining your next steps accordingly.
You’re keeping your actions and goals aligned, and that’s a healthy way to think!
Adjust your health objectives: Supplement an aspirational goal that’s far away, like running a marathon, with shorter-term smaller goals that move you consistently in that direction. Perhap you’ll start with a couch-to-5K plan, for example. Want to eat more meals at home? Instead of trying to make it all happen this week, pick the meal that would be easiest to fix at home, and start with that one. Your longer-term goal will still be there — and every day, you’ll be moving closer.
Our health coaches always encourage the SMART technique for goal setting, too. If you haven’t tried it, talk to our Wellness Ambassadors!
- Specific
- Measurable
- Achievable
- Results-focused
- Time-bound
Adjust your expected outcomes: Numerical goals — like pounds or sizes lost — feel solid and definite, like something you can really track. On the other hand “living healthy for the rest of my life” can feel vague and ill-defined. It can be hard to measure, and hard to see progress against that kind of goal.
That said — it’s possible to set definite goals that are still so ambitious you find yourself unable to meet them in a healthy way. Be ready to accept smaller steps if that’s what works best. Less than 100% success — is still amazing progress! Celebrate your achievements and avoid falling back into the cycle of self-criticism.
Adjust your timetable: Are you able to spend the time necessary to see the progress you want to see? Most new habits take ongoing, active attention to become your new routine. Is it possible that you’re expecting to achieve too much in too little time? Cutting out sugar may be a worthy goal for your health, but completely eliminating it from your diet within a single week probably isn’t realistic.
The important thing to remember is that if you’re seeing any forward movement, that’s good, regardless of the timetable, and unlike the situation at work, the timetable for your health can always be moved – as long as it’s not set completely aside in favor of something “more important.”
Remember: health objectives, expected outcomes, and timetables are there to serve you. It’s smart to change them when they’re getting in the way of progress and contributing to feelings of failure or disappointment.