The idea of stretch goals used to make my teeth hurt. My best friend and I were talking about stretch goals the other day (as I’ve been working on my own goals for 2020). And we both agreed how pointless and stupid they are. Every manager we’ve ever had would want us to create those idiotic stretch goals. I would rather accomplish my goals and hit that ball way out of the ballpark than have goals that make me feel inadequate. But as I thought about stretch goals more, I realized there are some different ways to think about and use stretch goals.

Literal Stretch Goals

The first way I thought of stretch goals differently was to have goals for yoga. For this year, I’d like to be bendier. And to do that, I thought why not include goals that are fun as well as actual stretch goals? So I’d like to be able to do a good shoulder stand by the end of the year, as well as do a Crow stance. According to Women’s Health Magazine, these 3 moves will help you finally master crow. The three moves didn’t help so much as this one sentence near the end of the article:”Modify or ease your way into the pose by placing your hands on blocks.” Yes, blocks and also maybe a roomful of pillows. I’m kidding, sort of. Maybe you also have a literal stretch goal.

What If Goals

The next thing I did to change my goals this year was to make exciting goals. And I think that’s where the gold nuggets really were. Since I’ve taken up knitting, I’m really enjoying both the knitting itself and the community I’ve found. So, to make knitting more exciting and challenging, I asked myself what if I made all my own clothes? And that made me think about what I’d need to do to get there. First, I’d have to really want to do it. Second, I’d need to learn some more sewing and knitting techniques. Sure, I can sew a cover for the blender or make a scarf. But I’ve never done zippers or buttons. And I’ve never knitted a sweater. I can start with YouTube videos, but probably an in-person class would supercharge my learning there.  By the way, you might like 100 Best Questions that Will Guide Your Social Media Resolutions.

Learn from Others

As I was tooling around the interwebs, I found an article about micro-resolutions: Year-long resolutions don’t work. Here’s how to make 12 ‘micro-resolutions’ instead. Then I thought what if I took the best of those resolutions, and “borrowed” them? For instance, his July goal of fresh fruit and water was very successful. I think I could do that one! The second one that resonated with me was November’s micro-resolution of thankfulness. Another successful one. As you read someone else’s resolutions you, too, might think “that’ll never work!” Or you might think “I could do that!”

Now that is interesting!

Reframe Goals

Thinking about what I’d need to do to get to a more ambitious goal has made the creation of goals so much more exciting. Maybe that’s what people really mean by stretch goals. And if your goals don’t excite you, why bother?

Print the Goals

We’re so used to having everything online these days. The printer gets barely any action at all. So the next new thing I’m going to do is print my goals and put them in one of those plastic sleeves so I can look at it every day. That way, the stretch goals can become more a living document, and less something that gets created and forgotten by February. What do you think of stretch goals? Yay or nay? Leave me a comment. And thank you!