The past couple of years have been a slap in the face to goal setting.
How can anyone plan travel when borders are closed? When can you focus on a new challenge or hobby if the kids are home all the time? What is the point of trying to buy a house / run a marathon / take up the guitar in the middle of an apocalypse?
But as I say in my book, Super Sexy Goal Setting, writing down a goal that doesn’t end up as the success you wanted is hard. Not writing down any goals and living a mediocre life is hard. Choose your hard.
When I talk about ‘super sexy’ goal setting I mean writing down irresistibly exciting goals for the next 12 months and having unwavering dedication and a surefire action plan to achieve them. (It is not the erotic definition of sexy so keep your mind out of the gutter please).
And of course, as a mega-fan of goal setting, I have written out my super sexy goals for the year. But even though I am motivated to achieve them, in these tough times I need all the help I can get. So I am putting myself out there and telling YOU about them so you can keep me accountable.
Here are my three super sexy goals for 2022…
1) Super Sexy Goal 1: Drop a Dress Size
I know, I know, I absolutely support the body positivity movement and realize this is not exactly the most politically correct goal. Please note that I am not making any suggestion about what is a ‘good’ weight for others. I have adopted British comedian Miranda’s take on this and instead of saying I am overweight I will state that I am over MY weight.
Further, and this is extraordinarily difficult to admit from a champion of goal-setting, but I have had this goal on my list (in various forms) for at least the past five years and my weight has stubbornly not budged. Now, after a 100-day lockdown in the second half of 2021 where I ate chocolate and watched the latest binge-watch sensation every night, plus an overly indulgent festive and summer holiday season, I am heftier than I have ever been.
In order to be successful this time around, I need to delve into why I haven’t succeeded in the past. There are of course many reasons (I love chocolate etc.) but this quote from James Clear in his magnificent book, Atomic Habits, really struck a chord: “The greatest threat to success is not failure but boredom.”
Losing weight is NOT a super sexy goal in the conventional sense! It means plodding along every day, doing all the right things — exercising, sleeping, healthy eating. So I need to focus on the outcome — being fit and healthy is the best thing I can do to share my gifts with the world. Now that is irresistibly exciting.
And I need YOU. Keep me accountable to the things I am committed to start and stop doing to get to my super sexy goal to drop a dress size:
START: walk or exercise every day, drink at least 2 liters of water and sleep 8+ hours per night (in bed by 10pm).
STOP: cut out alcohol for the next 6 months (drastic but necessary) and severely reduce sugar consumption (no more chocolate every evening for me).
2) Super Sexy Goal 2: Reignite My Creativity
In 2020, despite everything (or maybe because of it) I still managed to write my 10th book, Embrace Your Awesomeness. But in 2021 due to a combination of reasons (excuses?!), it was the first year since 2015 that I did not write a new book.
I could blame the pandemic fatigue, the lockdowns and the on and off homeschooling. I could pinpoint the lack of creative output to going down a research rabbit hole on a topic and then deciding not to write a book on it (sorry ladies, even though it still fascinates me I have decided not to write the book on menopause after all). And I am fairly sure starting a full-time job did not help matters.
The truth is that I am creatively stuck.
So I need YOU. Keep me accountable to the things I am committed to start and stop doing to get to my super sexy goal to reignite my creativity:
START: write at least one blog post per month (this keeps up the writing habit), dabble in creating a children’s picture book (pure fun) and write a novel in a month in November during National Novel Writing Month (for the fourth time).
STOP: limit time on the socials to one hour per week max and stop doom scrolling pandemic news.
3) Super Sexy Goal 3: Learn Te Reo Māori
I was brought up in a time in New Zealand where learning the Māori language wasn’t particularly encouraged. As a result, not only do I know very few words of our beautiful native tongue but I have a major hang up about being able to pronounce it properly. And don’t even get me started on whether I am applying macrons correctly! I have no desire to become fluent and I am not even sure I will get to a conversational level, but I do want to challenge myself to pronounce and understand more te reo Māori this year.
I need YOU. Keep me accountable to the things I am committed to start and stop doing to get to my super sexy goal to learn te reo Māori:
START: do an introductory te reo Māori course, speak at least a few words of te reo Māori every day and look up the meanings of words when I don’t know them.
STOP: worrying about whether I am pronouncing or writing this beautiful language correctly.
Shoot for the Moon
In this era of extreme uncertainty there doesn’t seem to be much point in writing goals down and planning to achieve them. However, I’m committing to 3 super sexy goals this year anyway: drop a dress size, reignite my creativity and learn te reo Maori.
These are exciting but I am under no illusion they will be easy.
But as John F. Kennedy says in his famous speech (a fine example of public accountability): “We choose to go to the Moon in this decade and do other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard.”
