We’ve all heard it before. 80% of New Year’s resolutions fail by the second week of February. I don’t know about you, but … Frankly, I’ve given up on New Year's resolutions. Admittedly, I used to set them every year… and I fell smack dab in the middle of that statistic. What about you?

Truth be told, I never had a plan to execute my goal in a way that was SUSTAINABLE.

Can you relate?

I often sit and meditate on this question … “Why do I continue to put this off, even though I know it’s good for me?”

Well, I can’t speak for everyone, but I know most of you on this list very well! … and one thing I’ve learned is that almost everyone I know (myself included) are waiting for the PERFECT solution to their problem…. Whether that is losing weight, finding the “right” mental health or physical therapist … starting to invest for retirement…

… Always waiting… Where does this get us?

It may feel all warm and fuzzy inside to live inside our comfort zone… We feel a sense of certainty. What if we flipped that mindset … and just once … embraced UNCERTAINTY. What if we decided to take IMPERFECT ACTION?

What if instead of reaching for the stars, we aimed to improve just 1% each day? Would this be such a bad idea? Imagine the compounding effect over 100 days, Heck... one year!?

Example 1: You have really wanted to travel to a European country once COVID subsides, but don’t feel confident you could handle all the stairs or 3 miles you have to walk. Walking 3 miles seems impossible! It feels like a mountain that could not be scaled … Well, it may be UNCERTAIN that you’d get to 3 miles before COVID ends, but if you started walking 1000 steps TODAY…. 1010 Steps tomorrow… so on and so forth… It would be a lot more manageable, right?

See…. the problem I’ve found with New Year’s resolutions is that they are often lofty, vague, and grandiose. If you want to achieve a goal, it must be a S.M.A.R.T. goal (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, Time-based.)

A goal that is doomed to fail: I want to be able to walk further so I can travel.

An example of a S.M.A.R.T. goal would be: I want to be able to walk 3 miles (Specific and measurable) by September 30th, 2021, so I can travel to Spain (Relevant and Time-based). I will achieve this by starting with 1000 steps today, and walking 1% more steps each day (Attainable).

It might not be pretty at first …. You’re going to have set-backs… but measure your progress, and you’ll grow exponentially!

You may have read this and thought, well Duh! This is all common sense, Chris! That may be true … but remember what I’m here for …. I’m a permanent reminder service to push you forward towards your best life … to take IMPERFECT ACTION ….

If we don’t take IMPERFECT ACTION, we end up in “Analysis Paralysis.” I’ve been there many times, and it never served me well.

And speaking of S.M.A.R.T. goals, I have my own that I want to share! 

“I will ask 5 past patients to write a Google Review (Specific, Attainable, Measurable) by February 15th, 2021 (Timely) about their experience at Healthy Consumer Physical Therapy, so that we may continue to impact additional lives in a positive way (Relevant).”

If you’ve been looking for an opportunity to help a small business during COVID, please consider writing a review of your experience with us / how we’ve positively impacted your life by clicking here, or visiting: https://g.page/hconsumerpt/review.

If you’ve already done this, we are grateful for your feedback!

CANDY UPDATE: Thank you for all the kind messages about Candy. She's had a great few days, and I'm hopeful that we'll get a little more time together. If I haven't responded to your message yet, I will very soon.

Have a great weekend!