I love New Year’s. The whole thing; I love resolutions, I love setting goals, I love the promise of new beginnings and a ‘fresh start’, and I love evaluating my dreams and fantasizing about where I hope they’ll take me in a year. Also I love staying up late and eating a lot of fattening but delicious snacks. 2018 was a big year for dream chasing and I can officially and happily report that a lot of my goals for the year came to be. The beginning of 2019 finds me:

-Not Pregnant (!!!)
-At my goal weight (ish. Because. Christmas. I’m working on it.)
-Exploring new hobbies (Yoga! Twitter! Lettering!)
-Re-discovering old hobbies (Writing! Painting! Singing!)
-More present
-Less anxious (thanks to my side piece)
-More organized (thank you, Summer Purge)

Not too bad for a year’s work, I must say. Lots of things I wrote on my resolution list last year came to fruition and I’m pretty happy with my progress. This year; however, I’m going to take things one step further with something called “Stretch Goals” and here’s why you should, too.

I learned about Stretch Goals while reading Charles Duhigg’s “Smarter Faster Better: The Secret of Being Productive in Life and Business” just in time for the setting of New Year’s resolutions. While considering what I’d like to include in my extensive list of goals for 2019, I’ve read some articles that advocate for the setting of smaller, more achievable goals. I completely understand the mentality behind that idea and have even seen success in goal-meeting while implementing that strategy, but this idea of “Stretch Goals” has added an even deeper level to the smaller, more achievable goal setting I’ve been engaging in up to this point.

Stretch Goals are just what they sound like: goals that stretch you past your perceived limits and put you into uncharted, sometimes nerve-wracking territory. They’re dream-goals. They’re the Porsche of the goal world. They’re the pie-in-the-sky hopes for your future. They’re that thing you’ve maybe wanted for years, but are too afraid/limited/inexperienced/insecure to actually say out loud or write down or commit to. They are what will stretch you in 2019.

Of course, Stretch Goals can’t do it alone. For example, if you’ve always dreamed of running a marathon, but you currently live a somewhat sedentary life and get winded going up and down the stairs (raises hand awkwardly), and you write “Run Marathon” down as your stretch goal, chances are your brain will make a fart noise and you’ll never think about it again. Or maybe you’ll go for a run the next day that makes your lungs burn so badly you immediately drop all pretenses and return to bingeing old episodes of House Hunters. Stretch Goals, on their own, should be so daunting that your brain will try and immediately reject them on principal. So how do we harness the power of our Stretch Goals and make our pie-in-the-sky fantasies a reality?

According to Charles Duhigg, we pair them with SMART goals. I know, I know. But hang in there. Trust me.

Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Timebound (see what he did there?) SMART goals take your Stretch Goals and break them down into smaller, more realistic, bite size pieces. What a perfect way to start out 2019! So you sit down and think, “By the end of 2019, I will (fill in the blank with the dreamy goal you’ve been too afraid to commit to up unto this point)” and then you pull out your calendar and divide the year into bite-size goals that will get you to that end result you’ve maybe not-so-secretly always wanted.

So let’s take a look at our couch potato marathon runner scenario. Couch Potato says “I want to run a marathon by the end of this year” Couch Potato’s brain says “Fllllrtttpp” (which is how you spell a fart noise) Couch Potato says “No, really I want to” and pulls a calendar over. Month 1: will walk 5 miles every week. Month 2: will jog half of my miles. Month 3: will jog 5 miles a week. And so on. (Disclaimer: Clearly I have never run a marathon and have less than negative eleventy percent idea how to actually train for one. So. Don’t do what I just outlined if your goal is to actually run a marathon by the end of the year)

But you guys! Think of the possibilities! I mean, they’re literally endless. Dream vacation to Disneyworld? Bam! Stretch that goal, girl! Lose 100 pounds? STRETCH it, mama! Learn Spanish? Streeeetch, friend. Read 50 books? Stetch, Queen! You name it, you do it. Write it down. TONIGHT, friends. Tonight, sit down with the fabulous New Years Resolution lists you’ve already created (I see you, Insta friends!) and add one stretch goal and then break it down into the achievable steps it’ll take to get you there.

The hubby and I have a Stretch Goal we’re working on currently and it. scares. the pants off me. I’m not even lying. When I think about it, I get scared, flippy butterfly tummy which is equal parts terror and excitement, but HOT DANG are we gonna stretch it. We have a date on Thursday night to sit down and carve out all the SMART goals that are going to get us there and get there we will. I can’t wait to share more about it with you all! Stay tuned. 2019 is going to be our year, people!

Happy New Year and happy stretching.