Let's talk outcome based goals versus identity based goals. I will admit that it does take longer to solidify your identity based goals. BUT it is so worth it on many levels. For one thing you are making your goals and the decisions for your life based on what you truly desire in your heart. Based on what your purpose in life is. I see them as easier to stick to. Because it's you.
I believe it's so much easier to fail with an outcome based goal. If things don't go exactly right. Let's say my goal is to lose 25 pounds. And it's based on outcome based goals process. My plan is to lose 2 pounds a week. I stick to my diet and exercise program. But the scale doesn't move, and I didn't lose 2 pounds this week. And I don't lose 2 pounds next week either. Then does that mean “Oh well I failed. I might as well throw in the towel and go eat the cookies.” I don't believe we need goals that are outcome based as much as we need goals that are aligned with our true self. We call these are identity - based goals. This is who we are.
If you think about it, identity-based goals will change your life for the rest of your life. If you make a goal to lose weight you lose the weight and then what? You give yourself a high 5 and you say Ta-Daa, and then what? Then you go off the diet and go back to the way that you ate before and you gain back all the weight. You didn't spend time associating with the new identity. The new you the smaller version of yourself. You hit the goal, but you didn't become a thinner person.
Now, if you set your goal to change your identity, for example your goal is to live healthy. Your goal is to be in the best shape of your life. That goal never ends. It is ongoing. If your goal is to be a healthy person and live a healthy lifestyle, there's no stopping point. You have recreated your identity; you have rewritten your story; you have self -authored your life. Do you see the difference?
Here's an example of what I'm saying: I go to the gym in my community while I'm in Arizona. At the beginning of the season when I get here September or October there's hardly anybody in the gym. Granted a lot of people aren't here yet, we all come trickling in. But as people get here, I will tell you I see the same people over and over. Everybody has their routine. Hey Grant how's it been going haven't seen you since March? Hi Maggie! You look wonderful? Oh Peggy it's great to see you again...
Do you see what I'm saying? We know each other from the gym because we were all there last year and the year before. But when January 1st comes and everybody makes their resolution, that gym is packed. I have to figure out what time I'm going to workout so that machines are all available for me. And right now, it's mid-January and the gym is a bit busy still, I am very happy to say. But it is definitely trickling off. I go to the fitness center several times every day. I work out in the morning five days a week. And I also take yoga, Tai chi and some stretching classes. For the past several weeks, no matter what time I go, the machines were pumping. People are lifting weights doing the different circuits. But now the midmorning crowd is already sparse. Maybe these people have already quit. They many have set their plan with a certain expectation, a definite goal in mind. If you were there to get healthy, to live a healthy lifestyle, you wouldn't have been so discouraged.
I know that by going there, I'm a healthier person than I would be if I stayed home and sat around or read a book. So even when things aren't going the exact way that I have in mind, the way I want them to, I don’t give up. I am living a healthy life. So if the scale doesn't move when I think that it should, I don't give up, because my goal is to be a healthier person. No matter what the scale says I am a healthier person. I know that for sure. Of course, I am, I am moving. I'm riding my bike several miles a day and building muscle in the gym five days a week. For the longest time I was gaining 5 to 10 pounds a year. Really getting out of control. So for the past few years, I don't gain weight. As a matter of fact every year I weigh a little bit less than the year before.
My goal is to change my identity to a fit person. A person who lives a healthy lifestyle. Of course, I’ll continue to lose weight. That automatically comes with the new improved healthy version of me!
I hope this has helped you understand the importance of proper goal setting.
I pray for success in all you do!
Live every day on purpose,
Peggy Romero