A Challenge: Goals for March
Every Monday is Weekly Review on Zen Habits.
We’re a few days into March, and I’m reviewing my goals for the year. One thing I’m learning this year is that I took on too much at once. I’m closely examining my goals for this year and thinking that I want to focus on one at a time (more in line with my 12 Habits).
So, for this month, I’m going to be more focused, and I invite all of you to join me in a friendly challenge: set one goal for yourself this month, and we will support each other, motivate each other, track our goals and review them every Monday, and help each other achieve that goal.
So, if you’d like to join me in this March Challenge, in the comments, please list your goal or habit for this month. Some tips (as always):
* Set something achievable. Don’t try to run a marathon if you’ve never run before. Try to get in the habit of exercising three times a week instead. Work on one small habit, and you will get to your goal eventually (the Zen Habits philosophy).
* Make it measurable. Want to save money? Great! How much do you plan to save per week or paycheck. Want to run? Great! Set a goal of days per week, minutes per week, or miles per week. Want to wake up early? Set a goal of a certain number of days per week, at a certain time. If it’s measurable, you can track it over time and see if you’re successful.
* Set a deadline. It’s important to attach a timeline to your goal. Our timeline for the March Challenge will be one month — although you can certainly continue your goal beyond that, set a mini-goal to be achieved by the end of March — a certain number of days for a habit by March 31, for example.
My goal for the March Challenge will be to get back on track with my triathlon training (I was sidetracked due to illness and a death in the family). More specifically, here’s my goal for March: train five days a week (two rest days) each week until the end of March. The five days should include two swims, two bikes and two runs, but at the very least I should be doing one thing on each of the five days.
I need to get back in the habit of exercise. I actually started to get back into it last week, but I really want to focus on this goal this month. That means that I will postpone two other things I was planning this month: my 5th habit of patience (I’ll have to be patient about that goal!) and another challenge of trying to cut out sweets (except for a cheat day). I will save those for later months this year — a lesson that I’ve learned is that it’s important to evaluate and adjust your goals as you go along.
So, join me! What’s your March Challenge goal?
Tomorrow, we will work on a plan to meet our March Challenge goals!