Deserving

The close of January marks the end of the first two weeks of an eight week fitness and weight loss challenge I am participating in. I have been making healthy food choices, exercising every day and have even lost a few pounds. I was feeling pretty proud of myself, thinking I had this whole challenge thing under control, when I heard a little voice. It caught me off guard. "Why don't you have some cheese and crackers" it said..."maybe even a Cosmo"..."you deserve it".

My first thought was yes, I do deserve it. I have been good. I have been working hard. A little reward for my hard work seemed appropriate. Necessary even. I was deserving. But before I filled the cocktail shaker with ice I paused to think a moment about what I truly deserve.

Was it really a Cosmo, or do I deserve to feel strong and healthy? Was it really cheese and crackers, or do I deserve to fit comfortably into my clothes? I have always associated food with reward. As a child dessert was the reward for finishing all the overcooked vegetables on my plate. As an adult an evening drink was the reward for a long day at work, fighting traffic or dealing with cranky kids. I needed a new reward and a healthier relationship with food.

I decided that food would continue to serve several important roles in my life but reward would not be one of them. Of course food would continue in its obvious role of nutritional sustenance. The fuel to keep me going. Food would also continue as the centerpiece of family rituals and celebrations. I love to cook, and shared meals with family and friends bring back many happy memories. I look forward to creating many more. But I do not want to ever think about "deserving" food. Food is not something to deserve. Food is something for sharing and savoring.

So what then of my reward? I realized there were many ways to honor my hard work without undermining it at the same time. I haven't decided yet but a massage of those stronger but sore muscles may be in my future.

Bringing Resolutions into Action

Resolutions are great, but without a doable plan of action they are at best just great ideas or at worst a tattered wish list posted on the fridge. So what can we do to turn aspirations into actions? We need to be SMART.

The concept of SMART goals has been around for quite some time. The acronym stands for Specific, Measurable, Action, Realistic and Time sensitive. Smart goal setting can allow forward progress when a resolution is starting to look like just a great daydream.

One of my goals this year is to get all my digital stuff together. So how do I turn this resolution into an action plan?

Specific: First I need to decide what I exactly want to do. Since I have photos and music spread between multiple computers my resolution becomes "move all digital files onto one computer and one back up device".

Measurable: This is pretty clear. One computer and one portable hard drive. All music and photo files.

Action: I have broken my goal into smaller steps that will make it easier to get done including -buy a back up device, -spend one hour 2-3 times a week moving and sorting through files, -back final files up on portable hard drive.

Realistic: The usual criteria here is to set a goal that you feel has at least a 70% chance of successful completion. So, yeah, I can do this.

Time sensitive: This has two parts. The first is figuring out and setting aside the time needed to do the actions your goal entails and the second, if needed, is setting a time for completion. I plan to spend 1-2 hours a week on my digital organization project and will shoot for a finish date of the end of March. That may seem like a lot of time but we are talking about thousands of photos and songs. If the time involved becomes overwhelming I could always split my goal in half and just focus on organizing the photos or the music.

Now you maybe thinking "what does this have to do with me? My stuff is perfectly organized". Well SMART goals can be used to translate any goal or resolution into an action plan. Eat healthier can become eat a piece of fruit in the afternoon and snack on cut up vegetables while cooking dinner. Get more exercise can become walk on the treadmill for 30 minutes on Tuesday and Thursday and take an hour spin class on Sunday morning.

Studies have reported that 25% of New Year's resolutions are broken in the first week. So as we head into 2012's third week think back to those resolutions and turn them into action plans. What have you got to lose?