Goals or Results?

The idea for this blog came as a ‘thought baby’ from a conversation that I was had with Dr. Jenna about goal setting.

The gold standard idea for writing good goals is that they are supposed to be SMART.

Specific

Measurable

Achievable

Realistic

Timely

The epiphany (moment of sudden and great realization) that came out of the conversation was this:

“The problem with goal setting is that most people do not set goals, they set results.”

“What is the difference?”

“Well, if it is a SMART goal, a real goal, you have control over it. You cannot control results.”

Boom!

This is huge folks. Think about it. Results are like symptoms. You cannot control how the things you do to your body will manifest as symptoms. Smokers do not always get lung cancer and people who eat grains do not always have stomach pain. Similarly, seeing your chiropractor may not make your back pain disappear, and eating healthy food does not always result in losing twenty pounds.

Let me use an example to illustrate the difference between goals and results.

If I am athlete and the result I am aiming at is to go to the Olympics, I need to set certain goals.

My goals could be:

Follow a certain training protocol to the letter for the next year.

Hire a coach who has trained other Olympic athletes sometime in the next six months.

Eat protein and vegetables at every meal during my training period.

Go to sleep every night at nine o’clock and wakeup every morning at six o’clock when training.

See how all of these things qualify as SMART goals.

If my goals are appropriately aligned with the result that I am trying to achieve, it will drastically increase the possibility that I will achieve the result (going to the Olympics) that I want to achieve.

The thing is, I could achieve all of these goals and still not qualify for the Olympics. There may be people who are better than me. I have no control as to whether or not I qualify for the Olympics. All I can do is continue to set and achieve goals that will stack the odds in my favor.

The beauty of having goals that are actionable and 100% within my control is that I have a way of analyzing my performance. Did I do everything that I could do? If not, I know how I can change my actions to bring me closer to producing a desired result.

That is better for your self-esteem! If you have achieved all of the things that were within your ability to achieve, that is a huge accomplishment, even if you fall short of your desired result.

Now lets apply this to eating By Design and health. We often hear that people’s goals are to lose weight, lower their cholesterol or lower their blood glucose levels.  These things are all results.

You do not have control over the exact number of points that your blood glucose will drop if you stop eating sugar.

You do not have control over exactly how many pounds of fat your body will metabolize if you start eating 100% By Design.

You do not have control over how many pounds you will be able to deadlift if you start training.

So if your blood glucose only improves by two points instead of three, you lose eighteen pounds instead of twenty-five, you deadlift 290 pounds instead of 305 pounds, does that mean you failed? Does that mean that since you did not get the result that you were looking for that it was a waste of time, energy and effort? Many people feel that way.

How often have you seen a kid play a great game and still cry because they lost? Sometimes the other team just plays better.

Sometimes your hormones do not tell your body to metabolize fat the way you hope it will.

Sometimes having a clear brain-body connection does not mean pain-free.

It is time that we all start looking at what we are capable of instead of the arbitrary number we want to see on the scale.

Consistently doing things that are healthy for your body is good for you, even if the look and feeling you want does not come to fruition.

Keep at it! Write SMART goals that are aligned with your desired results. It will feel great to tick off those boxes, even if you never hit the perfect result.