This is the second article on setting goals.\u00a0 I am spending a little extra time on this subject because it will be important in later posts.\u00a0 The last article started with deciding that you have a choice in your behaviour, thus there is a point to setting goals.\u00a0 The second point of the article was to instruct how to set a goal in the first place.\u00a0 \u201cI want to write.\u201d\u00a0 That\u2019s my goal.\u00a0 It isn\u2019t very specific or measureable.\u00a0 I want to write grocery lists?\u00a0 No, I want to write a book.\u00a0 That\u2019s almost specific.\u00a0 I want to write a book about counselling psychology.\u00a0 That\u2019s even more specific.\u00a0 It is certainly attainable and realistic, but without having timelines in place, it still is a wide open, daunting task.\u00a0 I\u2019ve never written a book before.\u00a0 How long does it take?\u00a0 What are the steps?<\/p>\n
In the same vein, setting a goal of quitting smoking (or conversely living a healthy lifestyle), or finding happiness in one\u2019s work setting may be too daunting to attack all at once.\u00a0 Any goal may appear too big to handle even after paring it down to its\u2019 most specific form.\u00a0 An effective counsellor will help their client break their goals down into much smaller steps; so small perhaps, that it would resemble grass growing.\u00a0 We can\u2019t always see it happening, but I\u2019ll be damned if I don\u2019t have to cut my grass a couple of times every week.<\/p>\n
The first step to my goal of writing a book on counselling psychology starts with writing in smaller chunks.\u00a0 Writing these blog entries is my first step to writing a book.\u00a0 In this series of entries, I have to be fairly succinct, clear, focused and timely (as there is a scheduled submission time).\u00a0 What are the smallest steps in attaining your goals?\u00a0 Living a healthy lifestyle might simply start with acceptance of where you are right now; being mindful of how your body feels in this very moment.\u00a0 Measuring your weight, body mass index, waistline, breathing depth\/rate, amount of daily sleep, observing your current habits all might be a place to start.\u00a0 The next step would be making one small change that you can maintain (as opposed to trying to do it all at once).\u00a0 If you are a fast food addict, continue to be so, but cut out the fries, or the pop.\u00a0 Just get the burger.\u00a0 One small change.\u00a0 Change how you take in your food.\u00a0 Be mindful of your eating.\u00a0 Put your fork down between bites.\u00a0 Chew each bite with full attention; notice what you are eating.\u00a0 Introduce one small bit of exercise into your day.\u00a0 One small sustainable change leads to the next.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
This is the second article on setting goals.\u00a0 I am spending a little extra time on this subject because it will be important in later posts.\u00a0 The last article started with deciding that you have a choice in your behaviour, thus there is a point to setting goals.\u00a0 The second point of the article was […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1001005,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[29,1],"tags":[32,73,74,75],"class_list":["post-143","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-counsellingandpsychotherapyincanada","category-uncategorized","tag-goals","tag-healthy-lifestyle","tag-mindful","tag-quitting-smoking"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n