Goals 101

Hello and Happy New Year! Can you believe we are over half way through January 2021! For many of us, 2020 was a year with lots of twists and turns. We experienced numerous losses, loss of jobs, financial struggles, and loss of time with family and friends. Throughout 2020, we learned to adjust to work from home, virtual school, and social distancing. We adjusted to wearing our mask, rocking our COVID hair, and a much more casual attire (think PJs and fuzzy slippers). It took a while but we learned some sense of normalcy in this craziness.

As we moved into 2021, many began to set resolutions or goals to focus on. Some decided to lose the “COVID 15”. Some decided to learn a new skill. Some decided to start a (new) business. If you have been following me, you know that the goals I decided to work on in 2021 are increase my online presence, begin spreading my word about mental illness, and continue providing great counseling services. So far, I have created an Instagram account, signed up for a couple of trainings, signed up to be a speaker for two different engagements, and revised information for the website. In increasing the presence on social media, I asked what are your goals for 2020 and how can I help you be successful? I received some feedback, and I will be checking in throughout the year to see how you are doing on them, but I wanted to write some suggestions about how you can be successful in reaching those goals.

Often times when we set a goal, we think big. I will use weight loss as an example. We often say I want to lose weight. This is a great goal but is it S.M.A.R.T.? What do I mean by that? SMART simply means:

• is your goal Specific? Make it plain what that goal is? Is it a certain number of pounds? a percentage of body weight? Or do you want to get to a certain size?
• is your goal Measurable? How are you going to track your goal? How will you track your progress?
• is your goal Attainable? Is this goal something that you can actually do? Did you set a reason goal weight? In regards to weight, what is the average weight loss per week? How do you plan to lose the weight?
• is your goal Relevant? Is this meaningful and/or important to you?
• is your goals Timebased? Are you giving yourself a reasonable amount of time to work on your goal.

So, if my goal is to lose weight, my SMART goal my be: I plan to lose 20 pounds by June (specific). That is roughly 26 weeks and by researching, I know the average weight loss is 1–2 pounds a week (attainable). It is important to my health (relevant). June gives me 26weeks (time-based).

So, what is/are your SMART goal(s)? How can I help?? 😊

Feel free to reach out to me at brookslpc@yahoo.com. You can also find me on Instagram (erika.lpc) or Facebook (Erika Brooks, LPC, CSAC)