Goals vs. Intentions

MaryTheIceCube

I read a Psychology Today article yesterday that really got me to rethink my goal-setting strategy where it concerns weight loss and fitness. So much so that I wrote a blog regarding this shift in perspective.

Here is the link to my blog, which includes a link to the article: http://todefyego.blogspot.com/2011/04/goals-versus-intentions.html

Please let me know your thoughts on goals versus intentions. Thank you!

MacMadame

My thoughts are that you aren't going to get anywhere with intentions. Intentions are vague and have no calls to action. Goals are a way to make your intentions concrete and actionable.

So, basically, I completely disagree with the article. :laugh:

I think the problem is that most people don't know how to set goals so they think their intentions are goals. I set goals and meet them all the time so that's not my problem. My problems arise when I set too broad a goal, rather than setting smaller goals that lead to the bigger goal, or when I am in the temporary state of having made a bunch of them and not set adequate new ones.

One thing I don't disagree with is that change is scary and people fight it. But setting goals can actually help with that IME.

My best weight loss efforts have come when I've had clear and compelling goals. Not "should" goals... as in "I should lose weight because it's good for me." But goals such as "I want to lose as much weight as possible before my wedding" or "I want to drop 50 pounds before I get pregnant again because I don't want to be this heavy and then gain more." I think the "should" goals don't work because we aren't really committed to them. But concrete goals tied to something we really want work quite well.

hwilliams519

I read your blog (but not the article). That's very interesting. I think you are exactly right about the mindset we should have with weight loss and fitness. By giving ourselves certain deadlines or magic numbers, we put too much pressure on ourselves. We obsess and freak out. Then that puts us on self-sabotage mode, where we make everything worse. I think the idea is just to keep making those right decisions and relax.

MaryTheIceCube

My thoughts are that you aren't going to get anywhere with intentions. Intentions are vague and have no calls to action. Goals are a way to make your intentions concrete and actionable.

So, basically, I completely disagree with the article. :laugh:

I think the problem is that most people don't know how to set goals so they think their intentions are goals. I set goals and meet them all the time so that's not my problem. My problems arise when I set too broad a goal, rather than setting smaller goals that lead to the bigger goal, or when I am in the temporary state of having made a bunch of them and not set adequate new ones.

One thing I don't disagree with is that change is scary and people fight it. But setting goals can actually help with that IME.

My best weight loss efforts have come when I've had clear and compelling goals. Not "should" goals... as in "I should lose weight because it's good for me." But goals such as "I want to lose as much weight as possible before my wedding" or "I want to drop 50 pounds before I get pregnant again because I don't want to be this heavy and then gain more." I think the "should" goals don't work because we aren't really committed to them. But concrete goals tied to something we really want work quite well.

The thing with me and where I'm at currently though, I put all this pressure on myself to lose X amount of pounds by X date. Well, we all know how many variables go into that "magic number" on the scale, and when I don't reach that number by that arbitrary date, well then, that's where I feel like a failure and I generally begin to backpeddle and sabotage, no matter how rationally I may present the variable facts to myself.

However, now that eating more healthily in general and exercising almost daily have both become habit (after nearly a year here on MFP!), I feel I MUST drop all the number-on-the-scale "goals", even though I'm not quite at my "healthy weight range" just yet. I've been freaking out far too much lately to continue that type of pressure on myself. The number on the scale and forcing myself to log my daily food intake every day, without a break, has added up to a major round of self-sabotage that I wasn't sure how to get out of, until reading this article. I mean, I'd been weighing in weekly up until almost three weeks ago. I've been avoiding the scale while on "overeat/rebellion" mode.

I have a feeling I'll still be setting some sort of goals for myself, but it'll be less pressure, and more along the lines of workouts, exercising, etc. Just finishing up my second round of 30 Day Shred, I'm going to HAVE to have another plan in place as far as strength training, to go along with my running. So, it won't be so much a goal as a workout PLAN, but you get the idea. I don't do well under certain types of pressure, I've learned. Lesson learned, on to the next, I say!

Thank you for your insights and input. I appreciate it!

MaryTheIceCube

I read your blog (but not the article). That's very interesting. I think you are exactly right about the mindset we should have with weight loss and fitness. By giving ourselves certain deadlines or magic numbers, we put too much pressure on ourselves. We obsess and freak out. Then that puts us on self-sabotage mode, where we make everything worse. I think the idea is just to keep making those right decisions and relax.

Thank you for reading my blog. I've just been going through some major "freak outs" and this article was very timely in that it really opened my eyes to what I was doing to myself by setting up these perhaps overly ambitious goals, and then failing to achieve them. It gave me the perspective shift to realize that since I've been at this fitness lifestyle for nearly a year, I don't perhaps need to put so much pressure on myself anymore, and I can just relax and go with the flow of the process. Especially since there's NO WAY at this point that I'm ever going to backslide enough to be back to where I started, at over 200 pounds! What a relief to take that amount of pressure, guilt and shame off my shoulders!