Be "SMART" With Your Goals!

Let's talk about goals. Setting goals and working towards achieving those goals can give us a sense of direction in life. It can give us purpose and showcase what's really important to us. Priorities become front and center. Goals give us clarity in a world full of distractions. Goal setting can be a great way to work towards a healthier life. However setting goals and the work involved in accomplishing them doesn't always feel simple or even attainable at times. When you're in chronic pain it can be very difficult to think of achieving anything beyond getting out of bed! Start small. It's been my experience that by working towards my goals I have the added benefit of being distracted a bit. Goals have also given me the hope that things can be different but and here's the important part, they have to be "SMART" goals. We learned all about SMART goals at Constance Lethbridge and by learning a different way of making goals, I have in turn gotten much better at sticking to them!

"SMART" goals stand for:

S= Specific (what, why, how)

M= Measurable

A= Attainable (realistic)

R= Relevant

T= Timely (time-bound)

When goals are vague it's easy to lose sight of what you actually want to accomplish but by having a specific goal you can remain focused. It's not just about the end but all of those wins along the way. I'll give you two examples of goals that I wrote for myself when I was doing the Chronic Pain Self-Management Program.

"I will stretch Saturdays and Sundays for five minutes each time. I want to increase my flexibility and do something to help with pain when I'm not actively exercising (on the weekends). I want to complete this goal before the program ends (9 weeks)."

"I will do a ten minute meditation twice a week on my Balance app. I will do this every Monday and Wednesday after I eat lunch. I want to complete this goal before the program ends (9 weeks)."

Let's talk about my first goal. The good news is that I did complete this goal! The goal was specific in that I wanted to stretch to help with the pain on days (Saturday and Sunday) that I wasn't doing my weight lifting routine. It was measurable (5 minutes each day). I felt that it was more than attainable since realistically I could find the time and energy to stretch five minutes for two days a week. It was relevant to my overall goal which was to be in less pain and I felt like I was actively working towards that with smaller goals like this one. Also nine weeks was enough time for me to incorporate this as a regular part of my life. My second goal was a bit different and came with some insight into my personality! So my goal was to meditate twice a week, specifically on Monday and Wednesdays after lunch. The goal was specific (meditating on Balance app), measurable (10 minutes/Mondays and Wednesdays), attainable (only ten minutes a day and I had been meditating for months already but not consistently), relevant (helps with stress reduction which in turn helps with pain) and finally timely (again the nine weeks until completion). I will be honest and say that I did not fully succeed at this. So why? If I checked off all of the SMART goal criteria then what was the problem? I think the problem was twofold. First I don't think that the goal was as attainable as I thought it was. I mean is meditating for a total of twenty minutes a week too much or completely unrealistic? No. However for me during that time of my life is was too much. I had gone from being at home all week to getting myself to Constance Lethbridge twice a week. I had been walking for years but hadn't weight trained since I was a young adult. On top of doing the new weight training and stretching program at the center I was also doing it twice a week on my own as well. All this was combined with my usual responsibilities at home and I didn't realize that I couldn't wrap my head around adding in another component. The good news is THAT'S OKAY! One of the best things that I took away from the chronic pain self-management program was to bestow kindness on myself. Treat myself as I would treat my best friend. Look at how far I had come! I was regularly walking, weight training, being better aware of and managing my thoughts more effectively and I had made all these social connections! I had gone from a place of seclusion to inclusion almost overnight. These were reasons to celebrate! The other roadblock I had was that I almost made my goals too specific! In trying to set aside fixed times that I thought would be convenient for me to meditate, in this case after lunch on Mondays and Wednesdays I kind of felt trapped in the rigidity of it. I have never loved being told what to do and here I was bristling at my own instructions! It sounds crazy but that's the truth of it. I did go back to meditating on occasion like I had been doing before and truthfully it worked much better for me.

Goals should follow the SMART criteria so they're more likely to be attained but it's also okay to change them along the way. Life is not a straight path. People's perception of what may be important in the moment can be modified as circumstances change. I'll give you an example. I had been walking for a couple of years and I started developing really bad foot pain. I had made a goal to walk every day for a minimum of 10,000 steps. I was hitting that goal and I was proud of it! At first when the pain started I made a resolution that nothing would stop me from my goal but I would go to see a podiatrist to get some help for the pain. It was then that I was prescribed orthotics. I told the podiatrist about my daily walking and she recommended I temporarily slow down as my feet adjusted to my new orthotics. She also wanted to give my feet a little time to benefit from the physiotherapy exercises. My goal in that moment no longer seemed realistic. Circumstances had changed. My long-term goal was and still is to be able to walk regularly well into my eighties and nineties. Should I really let a magical number (10,000) of steps that I had made for myself interfere with bigger goals that were more important to me in the long-run? For me that answer was no. It wasn't worth it and although it could have still been attainable, at what price would it have come? Pain. I never regretted changing that goal to suit my needs at the time. Here I am a year and a half later and I do meet my 10,000 steps ALMOST daily. I need to add that almost because I'm not perfect, no one is and I have given myself the grace I deserve to not always have to achieve my goal. I meet that goal 95% of the time and I am honestly more than happy with that.

Use goals to help you achieve small steps towards a more pain-free life. Your goals can be physical, social or life habits that you'd like to work on and the good news is you get to decide what works for you! Here are some examples to get you started:

- Walk three times a week for a set amount of time (20 minutes) or steps (4,000)

- Swim laps or do other exercises in the water twice a week for 30 minutes.

- Stretch every day after getting out of bed in the morning or before you go to sleep at night.

- Drink eight glasses of water a day.

- Don't skip any meals, instead eat five smaller meals a day.

- Meditate twice a week (feel free to set specific times ;) )

- Go out for coffee once a week with your best friend.

- Go on a date with your husband alone once a month.

- Attend some sort of meeting or event that makes you happy once a month (a pottery class, a festival, a trip to the library with a friend, etc.)

Remember the SMART acronym when planning your goals and don't be shy to write them down or even to share them with someone else for accountability or encouragement. Also be kind to yourself if you don't meet those goals and focus on celebrating the steps that you did make in order to try to reach them. Failing is a part of learning and a part of life. Changing your goals is okay too because life is not straight-forward and priorities change. Yet another reminder to treat yourself as you would your best friend!