Why New Year Goal-Setting is Important

Goals are vital to enable guidance toward what you’re striving for this year. It can give you a bit of purpose, some drive, and allows you to celebrate when you reach your goals. Mentally, it can help show you that you’re capable of hard things as well as change, and it gives you a growth mindset, allowing you to give your all when working towards self-improvement. Physically, having goals set can help show you the ways you can improve your physical health—it’s not out of reach. It can also help you see what is possible with your body. And generally, in life, creating goals also creates a shift in habits and can inspire you to do even more!

Take Inspiration from Your Aspirations

What inspires you? What have you been missing out on healthwise? Wellness wise? And in life? Do you wish you could play with your grandkids—at their level, down on the ground? Do you want to go for completely painless walks or runs? Do you want to enjoy your old sport again? Do you just want to spend time getting outside? Do you want to have a positive outlook on life?

It’s important to live a life that has some meaning—living it to the fullest with less pain or complications from any conditions you may have. To make a set of goals, start thinking of the things you may wish you could do but haven’t yet or can’t do yet. And then, think of the steps it may take to achieve those new goals.

Get Organized with Your Goals

Ready to start getting organized? You can manage your goals and ideas in one place with a variety of methods. Here are a few of our favorites:

• making lists – a tried and true method, this one is something that helps us feel accomplished any time we check something off. Make a list with daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly things—big and small, you’d like to accomplish. If there is a goal that requires a few tasks to add up to completion, add those as sub-items to check off and note your progress there as well.
• mood boards – These are a fun visual way to collect your ideas and inspiration in one place. You can create one online using canva.com or you can start cutting up magazine articles and write down inspirational phrases or fun facts to get you going on your next goal. Whatever seems to stick—put it around your big goal and see what comes next. Place the mood board in a place you’ll see regularly and you’ll be reminded of what you’re working towards and why it became a goal in the first place.
• Journaling – Writing down your thoughts and feelings is a classic way to reflect. You’ll also be able to see what kind of progress you’ve made and how determined you were to get there. You can include facts and figures in your journaling, but this may be more of a tool for the less-tangible aspects of your goals, such as mental wellness or being more present.

On top of these, another tool we recommend for goal-setting is to make a SMART goal. That is, a Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Timely goal. Each of these helps get you focused on what needs to get done, and there’s a much better chance that you’ll actually accomplish your goal.

Specific – Don’t be generic!
Measurable – Quantifiable change is more than a feeling. Imagine it’s a graph.
Achievable – Don’t immediately set yourself up for failure.
Realistic – Don’t get too pie-in-the-sky with your ideas. And finally,
Timely – Don’t give yourself too little or too much time.

All of this is just guidance, and you can adjust to your liking to see what works best for you. But stay SMART with your goals! You can read up on additional goal-setting tips here.

Taking Care of Yourself Is The #1 Goal

Think about it: If you’re not well, the rest of your goals aren’t going to do much good—after all, who are you doing it for? It’s great to take care of yourself (since no one else really will) so that the remainder of your goals can be fully appreciated—by you. Take advantage of each opportunity to care for yourself: your body, your mind, and especially your spine. Being proactive in each aspect won’t be an obvious reward, but the benefits will be far-reaching as you advance in age.

Progress over Perfection

If you feel overwhelmed, you’re not alone. Making, setting, and achieving new goals is a big step in and of itself. You can do it—one small step at a time. It’s also a great idea to add chiropractic into your wellness routine if you haven’t already. Shephard Chiropractic Clinic in Portland can help you make some goals, as well. Focusing on one area of your wellness can often spill over into other areas. Physical activity is beneficial, acting like a lubricant for your joints, and taking time to be present works wonders for your mental wellness, too. We encourage you to do it all and enjoy the journey.