Subscribe
Share
Share
Embed
New Year’s resolutions don’t work, right? Or could they? Booth dives into how to set and achieve your goals by being specific, making an actionable plan, and above all, by creating new habits. Join Booth as she shares personal stories and practical advice to help you become your best self!
Find Booth's blog post on creating helpful environments here: https://www.boothparker.com/post/create-your-sanctuary
Find more educational material and lifestyle tips: https://www.boothparker.com/
Get Booth's financial newsletter by signing up here: https://www.boothparker.com/coaching#contact
Find Booth's blog post on creating helpful environments here: https://www.boothparker.com/post/create-your-sanctuary
Find more educational material and lifestyle tips: https://www.boothparker.com/
Get Booth's financial newsletter by signing up here: https://www.boothparker.com/coaching#contact
Find Booth on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/boothparkercpa/
Find Booth on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/boothparkercpa
Find Booth on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/boothparkercpa
This podcast is proudly produced by Rooster High Productions.
Creators & Guests
What is MOM-enomics with Booth Parker, CPA?
Real moms. Real mom financial issues. Real moms in business. Real stories. I am Booth Parker. A CPA, wife, and mom that loves all things home and family. In this podcast, I talk all things money for moms, families, and small business. From tips to ideas to info you just need to know, I break it down so moms can apply it to their own families and businesses!
S3E9 Habits to Achieve Your Goals
===
[00:00:00]
Intro
---
Booth Parker: Today on MOM-enomics, we are going to talk about habits and goals. The New Year is right around the corner, so it's a great time to start thinking about changes you want to make to set yourself up for success. The key to making those goals happen is by establishing habits that will create your path to achievement.
Goals are achieved by working toward them consistently. You have to take action, even if it is in the form of small steps each day, and you have to make your action effective.
How to set goals
---
Booth Parker: First and foremost, you can't be vague about your goals. You have to be specific on what it is you want [00:01:00] to achieve. For example, instead of saying, "I am going to lose weight," you say, "I am going to lose 20 pounds."
So you want to quantify what the goal is. And then from there, you set the smaller goals and the action plan to achieve the major goal. So how do you create the action plan once you have your specific goal? Well, in order to achieve something new, you have to do something new, right? So what you're currently doing won't achieve your new goal.
Otherwise, you would have achieved it already. So that means you need new daily habits to replace the current habits that aren't achieving that goal. And here's the thing: if you are currently doing Thing X, you can't just say, "I'm now going to do Thing Y." Our brains just don't change like a light switch like that. It could work for, you know, maybe a few days, but long term, you really have [00:02:00] to dedicate yourself to new habits.
Achieving your goals
---
Booth Parker: We often think that creating new habits or stopping bad habits is all about self discipline, and self discipline is great, but the truth is, if we create other factors that guide our new habit, we won't need as much self discipline, and the new habit will be easier and almost come automatically. For me personally,
environment has been the biggest factor in achieving my goals. You have to create an environment that makes the habit easy and attainable on a regular basis. Let me give you some examples. So you start with your vague goal of, I want to eat healthier. And you change it to, I am going to pack a salad for lunch every day instead of getting fast food. And I am going to cook dinner at home instead of getting takeout. So you have changed from vague to more specific. And so [00:03:00] now it's time to create the action plan to do the specific things.
The importance of a plan
---
Booth Parker: This is where planning is important because it helps set you up for success, but then it's the action that is going to achieve the success. Your action plan in this situation may look like this:
Make a meal plan of exactly what you're going to eat and get the groceries. So that would be your first step. And then meal prep and organize the groceries so each meal is convenient to make. You might even need to set a reminder in your phone app, you know, the night before to remind you to prep the next day's lunch. Another benefit of this goal is that you're going to save money as well, right? So not only are you getting healthier, you are going to save some money. So new habits that achieve more than one goal are always going to motivate you to keep going with them. A different example would be you start with a vague goal of, "I need to get more sleep," [00:04:00] and you change it to, "I am going to get eight hours of sleep each night." This is a goal where you have to stop and ask yourself, "Why are you not getting enough sleep?" So do you end up staying up too late watching shows?
Do you scroll on your phone late into the night? So a situation like this would require an action plan of taking something away that you're currently doing. Maybe you need to remove the TV from the bedroom. Maybe you need to leave your phone in the kitchen at night when you go to bed. And creating an inviting bedroom sanctuary would be helpful for this goal as well. I'll link a blog I wrote on creating that kind of space in the show notes.
Your environment matters
---
Booth Parker: Another big factor that drives new habit success, and ultimately goal success for me, is who I surround myself with. First and foremost, I communicate my goals with my husband. He's my biggest cheerleader, and he also helps kind of hold me accountable and give me that little tough [00:05:00] love when I need it sometimes. But who we surround ourselves with outside the home matters greatly too. So if you're looking for major changes in your life, you most likely will need to make some major changes in who you surround yourself with. I know this can sometimes be easier said than done because you can't always choose your co workers and things like that.
But the people you can choose is what you need to focus on. So there's a saying that we are a summation of the five people we surround ourselves with the most. So look at your five and ask yourself if they define who you want to be. Or are they bringing you down? So if they're bringing you down, you may need to revamp who you're spending your time with and surround yourself with people that are going to bring you up and help you achieve your new habits and goals. So for example, take the goal I was talking about just a moment ago [00:06:00] about eating healthier and the action of packing a salad to have for lunch every day. So if you eat at work, you know, find an accountability partner who wants to achieve the same goal and track your progress together. So if you currently have someone at work that you always run to get fast food with every day, you're going to have to not be getting lunch with that person anymore because you're going to be having the salad you make, unless that person wants to do this with you, and they can be your accountability partner. But accountability partners can make a huge difference when you are instilling new habits in your life.
Habit tracking
---
Booth Parker: It's always a good time to create new goals and daily habits to put you on the path to being your best self. It doesn't just have to happen, during a New Year. You know, the New Year's resolutions and all that kind of stuff can be a little overwhelming. So it's always a good time if you are ready to make a change. You just have to make [00:07:00] that list of those specific goals you want to achieve and then start looking at the action plan needed and what habits will drive those actions. And make a list of the habits. So a habit tracker can be really, really helpful. I'll link a free download to one in the show notes as well. And you know, put it on your mirror or something like that. But list out these daily habits you need to do and hold yourself accountable with a habit tracker.
My own story
---
Booth Parker: So a few years ago, I went through a really hard time. And so when I was kind of revamping my life, I created new daily habits. I had kind of really gotten into doing some bad habits and not being productive. And I was constantly frustrated by the lack of productivity. So a few of the small habits that changed my life.
And these are really little things, but they add up to big things because of what they can do for your mindset. So don't think the habits [00:08:00] have to be some major, major thing. Little new habits can make a really big difference. So one of mine was making the bed every morning. When I was going through a hard time and, and I was struggling with that motivation to get things done, I dedicated myself to I'm going to get up and make the bed every morning. And it gave me kind of a jumpstart in my mind of, okay, I just got that done. It's checked off the list. What's next? And that little mindset shift is what you need to keep attacking new habits. Another one that I did is I started cleaning the kitchen nightly before I went to bed. I no longer would leave any dishes in the sink or any clutter on the counters. I got everything all put away and cleaned up that night after dinner before I went to bed. And sometimes I even would go ahead and put things out for the next morning. Like maybe if I was going to have a [00:09:00] smoothie for breakfast, cause I was working on one of those, I'm going to eat healthier, goals and a smoothie was my action plan, I would get the blender out any, you know, fruit that didn't need to be in the refrigerator, get a glass out, things like that.
And then when you walk in the kitchen in the morning and it's this nice, clean, inviting space, it will motivate you to stick with that, "I'm going to eat healthy," "I'm going to make my own breakfast," all of those kinds of things. So these habits just kind of domino effect into good results. And another one that I did was I got real intentional about carving out some time each morning for myself to journal, map out my day, maybe read for a few minutes.
I'm not naturally a morning person that, you know, wants to jump right out of bed. But when you are consistently getting your 8 hours of sleep and you feel rested, it's a lot easier to get up. And you can get up before everyone else if you need to. [00:10:00] And just take, even if it's just 15 minutes or 20 minutes, for yourself with some tea or some coffee and really just get your mindset focused for the day. When you're waking up and you constantly feel rushed and behind right from the get go, it can ruin the day.
So taking those, you know, few minutes to yourself in the morning and really letting that set your mindset up to go after all of these other new habits you want to do. You are setting yourself up for success.
You can do this!
---
Booth Parker: So I know that those are just, you know, some kind of small things, but they really make a big difference in your life.
So if you are working on your goals, think about the little habits that can really help get you there to achieve them. You know, make that list. It's almost like creating a roadmap. So list your goals. Be specific, quantify them if you can, and then list out an [00:11:00] action plan to achieve them, and then the habits that will get you there. So, back to the, "I want to lose weight." No, I want to lose 20 pounds. In week 1, I'm going to lose 2 pounds by following this meal plan, and here's my grocery list to achieve the meal plan.
So, mapping it all out and then dedicating yourself to the new habits to achieve them are going to help you on the journey to being your best self. [00:12:00]