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Tag Archive for: Goal Planning

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O-Tip of the Week: Get in the Habit

Our O-Tip of the week series delivers valuable “OT-Approved Life Hacks” to provide you with simple and helpful solutions for living. 

For the month of January, our O-Tip series will provide you with ways to kick bad habits and establish good ones.  This week we discuss how to create lasting lifestyle changes by forming healthy habits. 

Did you know it can take three weeks or more to develop a new routine or habit?  And following the formation of habits, it can take up to four months to fully change your lifestyle.  Making positive change is a commitment, and with commitment comes accountability.  We recommend using a daily habit tracker, like our free printable below, to help you stay accountable to yourself and your goals.  Ensure you tick the box each and every day and you will be well on your way to creating lasting change!

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How to Achieve Your Goals — The Secret Sauce

Julie Entwistle, MBA, BHSc (OT), BSc (Health / Gerontology)

What if I told you that there was one easy way to achieve the goals you have set for yourself?  Could it be that simple?  People are complicated creatures, true.  But if you have taken the time to set goals, are you measuring these and achieving them?  Are you working on your goals every day?

Here is the secret sauce…with every fork in the road, and there are tons of them, ask yourself: which decision aligns with my goals?

Let’s take health as an example.  Your goal is to lose weight, be more active, or be less breathless at the top of the stairs.  So you get to work and the first decision is: should I take the elevator or the stairs?  Then it is lunch and you have the option to work at your desk or go out for a short walk.  Or you don’t bring a lunch and need to decide if you should buy pop or water.  The salad or burger.  With each of these examples, one decision aligns with your goals and one does not. Yet if you continuously choose the option that aligns with your goals, results will follow.  This is true even if you make a small decision in the right direction – like taking the stairs for one flight then catching the elevator for the rest of the ride.  Or instead of ordering the salad, you just choose to not order the fries.

Using my life as an example, I have five key goal areas:  health, family, career, finances and personal growth.  Every evening I have the option of bringing my computer home to continue working into the night.  To do so may align with a financial goal of earning a suitable income, and a career goal to run a successful business, but it negates two other important goals of health (working means I will not exercise), and family (working means I won’t be spending time with my children).  So, I have a conundrum.  But in these cases, the reality is that my day at work has already been spent on my career and financial goals, while my other goals have taken a backburner to work time.  So, considering this, aligning my evening time with two different goals helps me to make the important decision to leave the computer at the office, minus the guilt that comes from leaving some work unfinished.

Yes, achieving goals takes discipline, but it is far easier to make small consistent choices, then to make a drastic change that might not be sustainable.  So, on the path to awesomeness that involves you setting goals and blowing these out of the water, just ask yourself daily, as you need to make decisions around your behavior and time, “which option here will help me to achieve my goal(s)?” Then, as you align your decisions with your top priorities, results will follow.

 

It is the New Year — a great time to set goals for the year ahead.  Take a look at our Goal Planning Guide to help you set and achieve your goals in 2019!

 

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The A to Z of OT: G is For… Goal Planning

“A goal without a plan is just a wish.”  One of the main ways occupational therapists assist clients is by helping them set and achieve goals.  In order for a goal to be achievable, it must be a SMART goal.

Learn more about SMART goals and how an occupational therapist can help you achieve these in our previous post, An OT Knows How to Help You Achieve Your Goals.

 

October is Occupational Therapy Month and to celebrate we will be sharing a new series called the A to Z of OT.  In our attempts to further educate the public about what Occupational Therapists do we will be highlighting twenty-six of the awesome ways OTs provide Solutions for Living.  

We encourage you to follow along and to add to the discussion by highlighting other awesome things OTs help with for each corresponding letter!

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O-Tip of the Week: Identify What is Helping and What is Hindering Your Success

Our O-Tip of the week series we will be providing valuable “OT-Approved Life Hacks” to provide you with simple and helpful solutions for living. 

For the month of January our O-Tip series will concentrate on creating achievable resolutions and goals for the new year.

When working to achieve any goal there will be things that both help you and hinder you.  We refer to these as facilitators and barriers respectively.  When planning goals identify the facilitators and barriers you expect and have available to you.  This step will help you to create an achievable plan.  It is also helpful, when you regularly monitor your progress, to identify unanticipated barriers and facilitators you have found while trying to achieve your goal.

Try using our FREE printable Barrier and Facilitator Goal Planning Worksheets (below) to get you closer to success today!

 

 

 

 

 

 

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O-Tip of the Week: Get into the Habit…

Our O-Tip of the week series we will be providing valuable “OT-Approved Life Hacks” to provide you with simple and helpful solutions for living. 

For the month of January our O-Tip series will concentrate on creating achievable resolutions and goals for the new year.

If you’re wanting your resolutions to stick long-term you need to turn the healthy behaviours into healthy habits.  Learn how to create lasting habits that will help you reach your goals in the following post from our blog, featuring a free printable habit tracker!

Solutions for Living:  Forming Healthy Habits

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O-Tip of the Week: When Creating Goals Use Proactive and Positive Language

Our O-Tip of the week series we will be providing valuable “OT-Approved Life Hacks” to provide you with simple and helpful solutions for living. 

For the month of January our O-Tip series will concentrate on creating achievable resolutions and goals for the new year.

When creating your goals try changing the phrases “I hope to” or “I want to” to “I WILL.”   Let the power of a proactive and positive mind guide you to success this year!

Learn more about how the phrases you use can help you achieve success this year in the following article from our blog.

Solutions for Living:  Say “I Will…” this New Year

 

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O-Tip of the Week: When Setting Goals Think “SMART”

Our O-Tip of the week series we will be providing valuable “OT-Approved Life Hacks” to provide you with simple and helpful solutions for living. 

For the month of January our O-Tip series will concentrate on creating achievable resolutions and goals for the new year.

Make sure when setting your goals they are SMART goals.  Learn all about SMART goals in our goal planning guide, complete with a free printable to help you on your way!

Solutions for Living:  Goal Planning Guide

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O-Tip of the Week: When it Comes to Goals Don’t Just “Set It and Forget It”

Our O-Tip of the week series we will be providing valuable “OT-Approved Life Hacks” to provide you with simple and helpful solutions for living. 

For the month of January our O-Tip series will concentrate on creating achievable resolutions and goals for the new year.

We encourage you to set goals and resolutions not just at New Year’s, but throughout the year.

Follow our guide to help you create resolutions you can achieve and start you on your best year yet!

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Goal Planning Barriers and Facilitators

Now that you’ve set goals for the year ahead using our SMART Goal Planning worksheet, let’s delve deeper into how to achieve these goals by looking at barriers and facilitators towards success.  While a barrier is something that may stand in the way of you achieving your goal, such as time or budget constraints, a facilitator is something that can help you, such as a helpful friend or professional.

Considering the goals you’ve set take time to look at the barriers and how you will overcome these and the facilitators you can utilized to help you reach your goal using our printable worksheets.

barriers-goal-planning

 

facilitators-goal-planning

 

If you’re looking for more helpful tools, be sure to visit our Printable Resources page. 

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Goal Planning Guide

To assist you with your goal and resolution planning for the year ahead we present the SMART Goal Planner.  In our previous post, The Complete Guide to New Year’s Resolution Success, we discussed the need to create a SMART goal.  Which means a goal should be:

SMART (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, Time-bound) goal setting concept presented on blackboard with colorful crumpled sticky notes and white chalk handwriting

Use this printable worksheet to help you create and achieve your SMART goals in 2017!

smart-goal-planning

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

For more helpful tools for both Children and Adults visit our Printable Resources Page.