“Goal clout” is an important new concept I introduced a few posts ago. Now, I’d like to discuss how it can help you craft more effective New Year’s Resolutions – one that finally stick!
Goal clout gives self-care behaviors influence in our daily lives, so they trump the things that have tended to get in the way of taking good care of ourselves.
Want some of that?
I created the ‘goal clout’ concept to help women understand an essential aspect of sustaining self-care behavior, so that this year, your New Years’ resolutions will have more influence in your life and stick for good.
We rush around nonstop, scrambling to accomplish things – aiming to get the most urgent things done every day. Our hectic and overcommitted lives make it VERY DIFFICULT to take good care of ourselves.
The pressured pace of our society influences us all. Even self-care and exercise professionals, like me, are constantly challenged to keep up our own self-care behaviors. Why should anyone be immune to this challenge?
Everyone has repeatedly tried to make lifestyle changes to take better care of themselves. Yet, when life takes an unexpected turn or our kids get sick most of us don’t maintain self-care behaviors.
So, what differentiates women who successfully stay active, eat well, and/or meditate regularly and those who do not?
It’s goal clout.
Goal clout is about a behavioral goal being so crucial to our daily effectiveness and functioning that we keep it as one of our top daily priorities.
Goal clout is directly connected to our main reason(s) for participating in a self-care behavior.
If you know that eating well during the midday gives you increased energy during the afternoon and helps you enjoy work more, that’s a pretty compelling reason to make sure you regularly meet that goal. Thus, eating well in order to “have energy all afternoon” has goal clout.
When a behavioral goal has “clout” it feels deeply compelling to fit in, even when it competes with other important items on our “to do” lists.
While a self-care behavior might replace something else “important” on a given day, the full return on the self-care behavior (happiness, energy, focus, patience, pride, self-worth) usually far outweighs the benefits from checking off one more item on our “to do” list.
Here’s an example of why Sandy’s physical activity behavior has goal clout. Sandy moves regularly because she knows that movement immediately reduces stress and improves her mood. These enhancements, in turn, make her more effective at work and she feels that she is more patient and loving to her family.
So, when Sandy moves, she knows she is going to enjoy living her life more. She also knows that when she lets other responsibilities replace her planned movement, she feels worse, has less energy, and doesn’t function as well in any of her roles and responsibilities.
Can you see why daily movement has goal clout for Sandy? The purpose for movement is tied to her living more happily and effectively!
Our self-care goals WILL ALWAYS compete with many other goals, priorities, and responsibilities.
So, unless the purpose for our self-care behavior is specifically tied to helping us be more effective in our daily roles and responsibilities and lead to experiences that fuel energy, well-being, joy, and self-worth it won’t have goal clout. It also won’t be very compelling to maintain when life gets complicated – as it always does.
In preparation for your 2012 New Years’ resolutions, as you consider the way in which you want to take better care of yourself, consider whether your behavioral goals or planned lifestyle changes actually achieve goal clout. (Please remember, I recommend only changing one behavior at a time because research shows our resources for willpower and self-control are limited.)
Purposefully creating behavioral goals that will have clout in the New Year is simply a smarter strategy.
It’s also simple to do. Make sure the reason/purpose for your lifestyle change reflect enhancing the quality of your life in very real, noticeable ways. (This means your New Years’ resolutions will reflect the concrete ways lifestyle changes will improve your daily life instead of focusing on changing numbers on a scale.)
By the way, these ideas are in line with the prevention message our Surgeon General, Dr. Regina Benjamin, is actively promoting to Americans. She proposes that we view health and health behaviors as a way to joy. See her TEDMED talk.
I’m honored to be featured in two places this month: on WebMD and the American Association of University Women.
Please tell any friend, family, colleagues, or health care professionals that you think would be interested in these insights on crafting lasting motivation and self-care behavior through the social media and email icons below.