Mastering Goal Setting for Success

This episode of "Your Checkup" dives deep into the science of effective goal setting, offering practical strategies to help you reach your full potential. We'll explore the SMART framework, a powerful method for creating goals that are clear and achievable, and the "fresh start effect," a psychological phenomenon that can significantly boost your motivation. Learn how to use temporal landmarks to your advantage, break large goals into smaller steps, and apply these strategies to any area of your life. We'll also examine the data that supports these methods to give you the tools you need to set and meet your goals.

Takeaways

• The majority of people abandon their New Year's resolutions by mid-January.
• SMART goals are proven to increase the likelihood of success.
• Specific, measurable, assignable, realistic, and time-bound goals are essential.
• Setting shorter timeframes for goals can lead to better outcomes.
• Accountability can significantly enhance goal achievement.
• Intrinsic motivation is often more sustainable than extrinsic motivation.
• Finding enjoyment in the process can boost motivation.
• The fresh start effect can provide a psychological boost for goal setting.
• Listeners are encouraged to share their health goals for feedback.
• Goal setting is a continuous process that requires discipline and commitment.

Keywords

goal setting, SMART goals, New Year's resolutions, health goals, motivation, discipline, personal development, lifestyle changes, accountability, intrinsic motivation

Transcript

Ed Delesky, MD (00:05)
Hi, welcome to your checkup. are the Patient Education Podcast, where we bring conversations from the doctor's office to your ears. On this podcast, we try to bring medicine closer to its patients. I'm Ed Dalesky, a family medicine resident in Philadelphia area.

Nicole Aruffo, RN (00:19)
with your arm. And I'm called a repo. I'm a nurse

Ed Delesky, MD (00:23)
And we are so excited you were able to join us here again today. Someday we'll get a video going so that you can see the fantastical things I'm doing with my arms. But today, before we get started, we're going at each other. We're having a little debate. So I guess I could just call it like this. My sister recently got married and the question falls into place of when does someone take the last name?

Nicole Aruffo, RN (00:36)
Good.

No, that wasn't the question. You were like, yeah, she took his last name because she changed her name on Facebook.

Ed Delesky, MD (00:56)
Right.

Nicole Aruffo, RN (00:58)
That's not changing your last name.

Ed Delesky, MD (01:00)
But she like, she took his last name.

Nicole Aruffo, RN (01:03)
Yeah, like on Facebook, you can change your name to anything you want on Facebook. Sure. That's not the name. Like the name on like your passport and your W-2, that's your name. Sure. And I'm sure she has every intention. They're also like leaving the country soon. So like, why would you like, you know, wait until all that's done? Mm But.

Ed Delesky, MD (01:22)
But she declared to the world that she took his last name. And she declared to the world that that was the case.

Nicole Aruffo, RN (01:31)
on

Facebook and social media. has the intention of doing that but unless she did all the stuff already which she may have because she's more productive than I am that might be her last name already who knows but if not

Ed Delesky, MD (01:47)
intention or not, for all intent and purposes, she has taken his last name, is my stance.

Nicole Aruffo, RN (01:55)
I will. You're wrong.

Ed Delesky, MD (01:57)
No, I'm not.

No, who's looking at her like driver's license and passport to say?

Nicole Aruffo, RN (02:06)
The government, that's your name on those official documents is who you are and that's your name. Facebook doesn't mean anything. Yeah, socially people get married and like especially like when like doctors get married, for instance, like a lot of them don't change their name because that's their like working name and whatever. And. That's fine, you can change your last name on social media, but your last name is still.

Ed Delesky, MD (02:12)
So she did it socially.

Not for the government!

Nicole Aruffo, RN (02:35)
whatever it like is like officially.

Ed Delesky, MD (02:41)
So you staunchly believe that it has to come from the government.

Nicole Aruffo, RN (02:48)
Yeah, whatever you're like filing your taxes under is your name.

Ed Delesky, MD (02:51)
name. Yeah.

Nicole Aruffo, RN (02:53)
You can change your name on Facebook to whatever you want it to be. Well, like some people just do like they don't put their last name. They do like their first and middle name.

Ed Delesky, MD (03:04)
This is an exercise of like declaration, like after a marriage.

Nicole Aruffo, RN (03:09)
That's fine. You can declare that you're married and like you're gonna take his last name But at the end of the day if that isn't what you change your name to you Then like your name just isn't changed

Ed Delesky, MD (03:21)
Here's another example. She goes up and says, my name is so and so. And you take your, you said the first and last name of the husband and introduces herself in public like that. Has she taken his last name?

Nicole Aruffo, RN (03:36)
That's fine socially, like, officially, it's not.

Ed Delesky, MD (03:40)
So there's nuance, that maybe socially there's something different here.

Nicole Aruffo, RN (03:44)
Yeah, social, you just said it on social media, that's social.

Ed Delesky, MD (03:48)
Yeah, or she goes to a dinner party. She's out and is like, my name is Lauren so and so.

So there's room. We're holding space for nuance. That's what they're saying these days, right? my space for things.

Nicole Aruffo, RN (04:01)
We're

holding space and giving grace.

Ed Delesky, MD (04:06)
We separately, quick aside, like the overused like words of vernacular in pop lay media these days just.

Nicole Aruffo, RN (04:16)
Give

me grace, like, no. You're annoying.

Ed Delesky, MD (04:19)
don't sit well too. Grace

was a great word. Also happens to be the name of your boss. But that now it's just now I'm thinking about it. I'm like, I can't use this word too much because everyone under the sun has used this word grace. Yeah. Like, what's the next word they're going to pick off?

Space.

Alright, so she socially took his name and professionally hasn't taken his name. Maybe she has. Right. This is all hypothetical at this point.

Nicole Aruffo, RN (04:51)
I mean, she probably has. feel like she gets stuff done. She was engaged and married in like eight months.

Ed Delesky, MD (04:56)
She does move quick. Good for her. That was like that was a Fran laugh. That was a laugh like her brother that you did that I just did right there. Yeah. that just came out organically to when you're listening, Fran, I hope that you hear this and I hope you thought, wow, what a great shout.

Nicole Aruffo, RN (04:59)
All right. Couldn't be me.

we're using his coasters right now for our poppies. Our loyal listener gifted us some coasters as part of our Christmas present. It was. It was useful. And those, what are those things called? On the bar cart? Yeah.

Ed Delesky, MD (05:18)
We certainly

This was a great gift.

You guys are good gift gift viewers.

bitters

like antidote dropper bitters. Those are good. All right. Well, let's get started.

So what are we going to talk about today, Nick?

Nicole Aruffo, RN (05:45)
Today we're talking about goal setting, which I feel like by the time this comes out is probably very timely because how many people who set any kind of New Year's goal already dropped the ball.

Ed Delesky, MD (06:01)
Right. So it actually looks like the second Friday in January actually kind of is called Quitters Day because a lot of people actually like the vast majority of people according to Fortune.com is that the vast majority of people give up on that goal that they had by the second Friday. And so we're trying to place this episode right around the time when that might start happening because

I mean, this Baylor College of Medicine did some research and found that 88 % of people who said a New Year's resolution fail before the end of January. Now, I think you can look at any different figure. We don't have the particulars of the research that they did there. But when it comes to people's health, we know that at least on this podcast, we try to create goals for people and change their lifestyle and get reinvigorated in their health. And so that's what we're doing here today. We're going to talk about

how you can make a goal and be more successful at achieving that goal over time, more than the average person. Why don't you tell us about, is there a strategy or something that can be used?

Nicole Aruffo, RN (07:14)
There is and I feel like we talked about this in one of our episodes

Ed Delesky, MD (07:19)
It might have been the being a patient changing your ways, which is like the most popular, one of the most popular episodes we have.

Nicole Aruffo, RN (07:26)
So they're called SMART goals and each letter of SMART stands for something so specific, measurable, assignable, realistic, and time-bound goals. It can't just be this ambiguous, know, the most common one is people want to lose weight, right? So this ambiguous or maybe like a crazy number where someone wants to lose 50 pounds in 2025. Right.

Like that's a long time and kind of, it's a little daunting. It is. Right? Doing something or like having this thing that you want to do in an entire 12 months from now, something that's probably big and also ambiguous and seems unattainable. Right.

Ed Delesky, MD (08:18)
And the thing about smart goals and why we pick to discuss them is because they are scientifically studied to show that people who use them are more successful at achieving their goals. Some research and evidence suggests that when people use smart goals to actually achieve their goals, they're 90 % more likely than someone who doesn't use a smart goal to achieve that goal. And so that's why we're taking time today.

to explore why this specific technique is so helpful and can be the thing that makes you achieve your goals more than your neighbor perhaps or your former self.

It's big mountain to climb.

Nicole Aruffo, RN (09:00)
Yeah, so people just stop.

Ed Delesky, MD (09:02)
which is like totally natural and a part of human behavior. So when it comes to each of those going through and we'll take some time here that when you have a goal that is specific, goals should be clear and well defined. So we have this lose weight one that we'll run with and just go through here. So.

Nicole Aruffo, RN (09:23)
like I'm gonna exercise more. That's also another class.

Ed Delesky, MD (09:27)
classic

one. Which one should we do? Exercise more or?

Nicole Aruffo, RN (09:32)
lose weight. Maybe exercise. I don't know. That might be easier. Because like, you know, saying I'm going to exercise more or I'm going to lose weight, maybe start with I'm going to exercise twice a week for January. And then in February, you exercise three times a week. Yeah. Or something like that.

Ed Delesky, MD (09:52)
which gets at being specific and measurable.

Nicole Aruffo, RN (09:54)
Yeah, or I'm going to maybe you want to start running like I'm going to run one mile three times a week.

Ed Delesky, MD (10:03)
Yep.

And then you'll be able to go back and review and see if that was actually something that was happening.

Nicole Aruffo, RN (10:11)
Yeah, and then once you start doing that and that's maybe easier for you, then you can add more, do whatever.

Ed Delesky, MD (10:18)
And something that you said there was specific, you said in one week. And so that also gets at being time bound, which is the T in smart, which really is that goal should have a clear and defined timeline, which we also know from various pieces of research and just commonplace knowledge and human behavior is that people who have shorter timeframes for their goals do better. And it feels like you can have small goals set up to

Achieve your larger goal.

Nicole Aruffo, RN (10:48)
Yeah, it can be like just a bunch of incremental goals that lead you to the bigger goal.

Ed Delesky, MD (10:55)
Right. So aside.

Nicole Aruffo, RN (10:58)
I

see people, sorry.

Ed Delesky, MD (11:00)
No, that's good. I love this. Keep going.

Nicole Aruffo, RN (11:02)
People will talk about doing like, just going back to like the weight loss ones, just because these are always the two most common ones. And I guess easiest to talk about, if they're talking about losing weight, a lot of times they'll kind of use like the summer as the motivation to like look good at the beach or whatever. So they'll kind of use like the Memorial Day as their, that's their goal time. I've seen.

Ed Delesky, MD (11:26)
Okay.

Yeah, I can see that. I can see that being like the ultimate goal time. But like when people have this, we look at the second week of January, if we're going to talk about time bound. If we know that most people drop their New Year's resolution by the second week of January, then set a goal for yourself by then, like to do something. So you were making one before for exercise. You said I will not just exercise more, I will specifically run one mile.

which is cardiovascular exercise. And you will do that one mile three times a week. Now that's that's getting something that's more specific. And you said a week. So that's time bound. And it's realistic, at least that part is, which is the R in smart. So goals should be achievable based on skills, resources and time. You're not going to run. I mean, you might not be able to run 10 miles every day.

In a week, if you're working, you have kids, you have other responsibilities. So being realistic is also really important.

Nicole Aruffo, RN (12:36)
And you have to find something that fits in your life. This goes back to being realistic, like something that you actually can do because if you set this crazy goal, like I'm going to go to the gym every single day before work, I'm going to wake up at four o'clock. Like that's crazy. Yeah. I mean, people do, guess, but not if it's not something that you're used to doing.

Ed Delesky, MD (12:57)
know

many people in the 4 a.m. Five, we've dabbled. I'm not gonna put ourselves out here and be like, we're devout 5 a.m. club people.

Nicole Aruffo, RN (13:10)
Well, we have even talked about, like, we recently were like, we should pick, like, a couple days a week where we get up early before work.

Ed Delesky, MD (13:17)
Yes. And I like that idea. I mean, we could even afford to we could do it right here in front of the people like.

Nicole Aruffo, RN (13:24)
and we can take our own advice.

Ed Delesky, MD (13:25)
Yeah, we were ambiguous. were like, let's pick a couple of days. Yeah. But which days of the week?

Nicole Aruffo, RN (13:32)
Well, it depends. Days when you have to go to work at like a normal hour. Like tomorrow you have to leave at like 6 a.m. So we're not working out before work tomorrow.

Ed Delesky, MD (13:44)
See this ends as these blend together. You have to be realistic and you have to take all of these pieces of the smart goal. And I guess one that I wanted to hold space for being all, using the language over here, being hip, is assignable. And this is clearly identify who is responsible for the goal. Most people have their goals for themselves. But I think this gets at people have a higher propensity to achieve their goals if they tell someone or if they write them down.

So if you don't have anyone you want to tell or you want to keep it personal, write it down somewhere. But if you want to tell someone, that probably will be even more because then someone else is holding you accountable, or at least your reputation. I don't know.

Nicole Aruffo, RN (14:30)
Well, I think that also goes, that's like the difference of or the difference between like motivation and discipline. Like people will talk about how they're like they lose motivation or I don't have the motivation to, you know, eat healthier workout or whatever it is. But then like no one has motivation to do every like to do everything all the time and the discipline like and to keep, you know.

making those healthy meals or getting yourself to the gym or going out for your run or doing whatever is that's what's going to get you to the goal because you're not always going to have motivation for yourself. You know, like the like assignable or like just being disciplined is what's going to get you there, you know, and even with like like going to work, like no matter how much you like romanticize like your life or your career or whatever, like

How many times do you wake up in the morning and you're like, I don't want to go to work today? But you do because someone's holding you accountable. Big time. And whether that's like your boss or you have a house or a kid, you have things to pay for, so you have to go to work. not everyone's motivated to go to work every day.

Ed Delesky, MD (15:33)
Yeah.

Yeah. Skipping gleefully down the street. Yeah. Wow. This is great. I can't wait to be here. Yeah. And that gets a little bit at intrinsic motivation and extrinsic motivation, like summertime body. You mentioned earlier, like Memorial Day, you want to wear a bathing suit and you want to feel confident in wearing the bathing suit. And you look at that, I guess that's external motivation, extrinsic.

Nicole Aruffo, RN (15:48)
out.

It depends how you look at it. Sure.

Ed Delesky, MD (16:16)
Versus intrinsic motivation where you find value within the task itself and are motivated by that piece, like that positivity and aspect of it, the journey itself, which is something to it. Something else that came up with this, this clearly isn't on the outline, and if you haven't been able to tell, this is the most conversational type episode we'll have, is finding something to be fun.

Is actually a huge motivator and I think that's why we like the peloton so much. Yeah, it's because it almost gamifies it. Here we go

Nicole Aruffo, RN (16:50)
Nicole and Eddie have pelotons and it's their only personality.

Ed Delesky, MD (16:55)
But I like gamifies it, which I don't love the word gamify in general.

Nicole Aruffo, RN (17:01)
Well, it also just takes even not even like peloton going to any kind of like workout class or something like if you don't have to think about it and someone's just telling you what to do and all you have to do is do it. That makes it a little easier.

Ed Delesky, MD (17:14)
Yeah, like you loved and I like going there too. Like you loved CrossFit.

Nicole Aruffo, RN (17:18)
Yeah, I was talking about this with when Monisha and I were talking about it like That's why she was like I love it like I don't have to think about it I go I got a great workout for 45 minutes and like someone tells me what to do when I do it

Ed Delesky, MD (17:29)
Yeah, there's something to be said for that. Yeah, it's awesome. I guess I don't do I have any more to say about intrinsic motivation.

I think intrinsic motivation is more long lasting than extrinsic because things change. Even going to work for money, extrinsic motivation is the money. It's the classic, if you won the lottery, what would you do? Would you be going to work with what you're doing or would you be doing something else?

Nicole Aruffo, RN (18:05)
Hmm.

What would I do theoretically? I probably wouldn't work and then I would probably like work part-time because I would be bored. Yeah, but then we would have like Go to like a I don't know a finance bro To invest all of our money and just make it grow forever. So we never have to work

Ed Delesky, MD (18:31)
Yeah. Well, I love that attitude about you. do. love that you're so thoughtful.

Nicole Aruffo, RN (18:37)
That's what we would do and probably go like to Bora Bora or something. It's like there's people are like, if I won the lottery, if I the lottery, I wouldn't tell anyone, but there would be signs and they buy like 12 dogs or something.

Ed Delesky, MD (18:42)
Yeah, got it.

You got to take a little off the top and like, you go do something nice for yourself. Should you should one win the lottery? Clearly we haven't. But I won the lottery finding you.

Nicole Aruffo, RN (19:04)
my god, so sweet.

Ed Delesky, MD (19:07)
So what do think? we talked. I mean, this is great. I love this. Talked about smart goals. We talked that they are specific, measurable, assignable, realistic and time bound. And this is again our invitation to send us fan mail and send us your health goal. And I if we get enough, perhaps we will talk on the show and help you refine your smart goal.

and your health goal. I mean, we've talked about several things on this episode, like we've talked about fixing your A1C or getting your blood pressure better or exercising more. And we would love to be a part of that. And if you send us a SMART goal, we'll shout it out. We'll read it live on air when you record these. And it will be a great way for us to interact. I guess the next thing we have talking here is an aside. We've kind of talked about it already is the fresh start effect, which

It's essentially this like temporal landmark that give people motivation to go things. It's the basis of the New Year's resolution. It's the basis of why people go to the doctors near their birthday or they look at the new year and their birthday saying like, I'm going to do this this year. And it's a good thing. It helps people and their mentality and say like they're going to wipe the slate clean and we're going to start fresh, which is great. I mean, like, why not? It can boost your self image or confidence.

And it also encourages people to take more challenging goals for themselves. But when you're to take those goals, maybe you make it a smart goal next time. I mean, they literally do this with us in residency. So it's like every three months, put our smart goals out there about what we're going to do. I will inject three knees. I will inject three right knees to practice arthrocentesis in the next three. Forget the left knee.

Nicole Aruffo, RN (20:54)
the left knee.

Dead

to me. More variety.

Ed Delesky, MD (20:59)
More variety. Actually, my goal is to do more shoulder injections for people. And I do have one coming up on Wednesday. So I'm hoping to help that person out. I mean, this was awesome. Any thoughts at the end?

Nicole Aruffo, RN (21:13)
I don't think so.

Ed Delesky, MD (21:14)
All right. Well, thank you for coming back to another week of your checkup. Hopefully today you were able to learn something about health for yourself, a loved one or. And please visit our website, please go ahead. There are tags, so if you want to search through any of our number of episodes, you can find them. If you'd like to send us an email, your checkup pod at gmail.com. Visit our Instagram or TikTok or send us some fan mail. Send us.

Nicole Aruffo, RN (21:24)
a neighbor.

Ed Delesky, MD (21:41)
some of your health goals and we'll go live on a random episode and we will try to refine your health goal with you. And most importantly, stay healthy, my friends. Until next time, I'm Ed Delesky Thank you and goodbye.

Nicole Aruffo, RN (21:53)
Bye.

Ed Delesky, MD (22:09)
This information may provide a brief overview of diagnosis, treatment, and medications. It's not exhaustive and is a tool to help you understand potential options about your health. It doesn't cover all details about conditions, treatments, or medications for a specific person. This is not medical advice or an attempt to substitute medical advice. You should contact a healthcare provider for personalized guidance based on your unique circumstances. We explicitly disclaim any liability relating to the information given or its use.

This content doesn't endorse any treatments or medications for a specific patient. Always talk to your healthcare provider for a complete information tailored to you. In short, I'm not your doctor. And make sure you go get your own checkup with your own personal doctor.

Nicole Aruffo, RN (22:46)
I am not your nurse.