How Are You Doing with the Goals You Set for Yourself?

“I do not understand myself. I want to do what is right, but I do not do it. Instead, I do the very thing I hate.”  Romans 7:15 (NLV)

Are you struggling to meet the goals you set for yourself? Do your attempts at reaching those goals always seem to sputter out before they can come to fruition? First have you covered your goals in prayer? Are they the goals God has for your life? If yes and you still aren’t meeting your desired goals maybe you want to shift your focus away from simply striving for a particular goal and towards actively changing your behavior.

Behavior and Outcome Based Goals

Most goals we set are based on specific outcome. These are called outcome-based goals and they are involved in a change in our lives to achieve them. Some examples of outcome-based goals would be, a better job, lose weight, not using, not drinking, getting fines paid off, or getting a car.

Behavior-based goals do play into outcome-based goals, but they aren’t the same. Behavior-based goals require you to change your attitude; to change how you think and feel towards meeting a goal. Behavior based goals focuses on changing behaviors that make achieving the outcome-based goals easier and faster.

So How Do You Set Behavior-Based Goals?

Many times, when we set goals, we focus on the negative (i.e., what we don’t want rather than what we do want). Behavior-based goals focus more on the behaviors we want to strengthen rather than the negative actions we want to remove. Boosting healthy behaviors requires our willingness to change the way we act and react in many situations.

My brothers and sisters, be very happy when you are tested in different ways. James 1:2 GW

The result of it will be a ripple effect in other aspects of our lives. It will affect far more than what we may have had in mind when creating the goal.

Behavior-based goal setting aims to create a healthy change in your habits or behaviors. That way, it will increase your chances of achieving your outcome-based goals. You can think of behavior-based goals as a steppingstone, on your way to your ideal outcome.

By practicing healthy habits, the chance to achieve your end goals is getting higher. While you’re changing your behavior, you’ll also be adapting new healthy habits in other aspects of your life. Some have nothing to do with your end goal. This is the beauty of learning to use behavior-based goals alongside outcome-based goals.

Create a larger outcome-based goal first. Then ask yourself, “What healthy habits will I need to create to get this goal?” The answer to that question will be your new behavior-based goals!

To prove the technique here is an example.

Beebe wants to lose thirty pounds. Losing weight is her larger, outcome-based goal. She knows that she needs to change the habits that are preventing her from starting it. She needs to have new habits to keep her disciplined and motivated.

She does a bit of research into these three new habits. She incorporates drinking water before each meal, walking at least 3 days a week and cutting back on carbs. She finds that she feels better and a few months later, she lost thirty pounds. Along with this, she also created stronger healthy habits that will stay with her for the rest of her life.

Give Yourself Time

Know that, as you are working your goals, you may encounter a few roadblocks along the way. But experiencing detours does not mean you won’t meet your goal. It may take time; be patience and you will learn through the process and eventually reach your goal. So don’t be too hard on yourself if you aren’t seeing the behavioral changes you want overnight.

Give yourself a realistic amount of time to make changes. You’ll find it’s difficult to change behavior all at once. The most important thing is that you improve a little bit every day. Don’t give up on your goals. Don’t get upset with yourself if you feel it’s difficult to stick with it.

Measure Your Progress

For those in Recovery setting behavior-based recovery goals helps you to start reclaiming a sense of purpose and improving your quality of life. Behavior-based goals will help you replace unhealthy behaviors and attitude with healthy behaviors and attitude. Thinking about the benefits of behavior-based goals might get you excited to get it done. You might feel more energetic to increase your self-care routine and then you have more energy to “be there” for your loved ones.

The start of a new year is a perfect time to renew our commitment to living a sober and healthy lifestyle. The words of Proverbs 3:5-6 is true – ‘Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to Him, and He will make your paths straight.’ #substanceabusercovery #newyear #sober #trustinGod