Just Say "NO" to Resolutions and Say "YES" to Daily Attainable Goals!

If you are reading this you are most likely a teacher and have either just finished your relaxing break or returned to work a few days ago. In my case, this is my last day off before returning to my normal schedule. I am a bit worried about how my body will respond to me getting up early and most especially, the lack of delicious adult beverages I consumed each day while off work! My pants are tighter than ever and I went to bed past midnight for 14 days straight. (I can thank Hulu and Netflix for that.) All of these factors mean that it is the perfect time for me to do some goal setting. 

Many people like to start the new year off by setting some realistic (or sometimes not) goals for the new year. This year I have decided to switch things up a bit and I am goal setting differently. I hope it will help you and your students too. Don't get me wrong, I still have long term goals that I would like to see happen. Those goals are important to me, and I keep them in the back of my mind each day. But let's be real here. Most people set a New Year's resolution only to be disappointed the following January because it never came to fruition.  So, I have something new I am going to try this year: Set Daily Attainable Goals.

So, what does this look like? For me, checklists are the easiest way to monitor myself and my goals.
If another format works for you, do it! I have created a spreadsheet for each day of the week for you here. You don't need to use this worksheet, but it can be used as an easy way to organize daily goals for yourself or for your students to write their goals each day.

When setting daily attainable goals for yourself try to set a variety of goals for each day. For example, on Monday, my checklist might look like this:

• Drink at least 4 bottles of water.
• Take at least 6,000 steps.
• Stay focussed and answer emails before I leave from work.
• Get new coaching appointment schedule created.

I will just jot these down on a post it and check them off as I complete them, or I will use the worksheet I created. The point is to see your actionable goals being accomplished each day. You won't believe how great you will feel at the end of the day and how focussed you will be on reaching your daily goals. If you want to take this further, you could create a weekly, monthly, or yearly checklist for your short term to long term goals. Make it work for you!

Goal setting isn't just for adults. Students who set goals for themselves and list out steps to achieving those goals will also make huge gains and have a great feeling of self-worth. Your students could do this first thing in the morning and set a personal kindness goal like "compliment someone on their hard work" and "work on my stamina during reading." They can have one goal or as many as they want. This is also a great time to re-cover class agreements that were made at the start of the year and make necessary changes. When setting goals as a class make sure it is measurable so students can get specific feedback on how they are doing with meeting the class goal. Visual thermometers are a great way to show students how they are progressing towards meeting their class goal as a team.

Are resolutions a bad thing? No way, but they are something that many people do. Do you know how much money has been spent on gym memberships of individuals that have only gone into the gym once or twice? I actually don't know the statistics on this, but I am guessing the gym owners are the ones with the huge smiles by the end of the year. At least in my case they were. So say "NO" to resolutions that are hard to keep  and say "YES" to setting daily attainable goals! What kind of goal setting do you do? How do you make sure you stick to those goals? I'd love to hear your thoughts!