Workplace Fitness: Use career strategies to aid weight loss goals

Sometimes people get so good at separating their work life from their home life they lose track of the fact that whether we like it or not the two are connected. Although it's necessary to be able to "turn off" and leave your work on your desk when you leave to go home, it's still a fact of life that who you are at work and who you are at home intersect a great deal. The author of an article on eDiets, John McKee, says that many times the strategies people use to succeed in their jobs and careers can also be used to help them succeed in others areas in life, like with goals for weight loss and healthy living.

He calls it "The Four Windows Method," and it breaks down something like this:

• Review your life currently, and create a vision for the future. What do you like about how things are now, and what do you want to change? Create a 'Vision Statement' for one year from now that is not longer than 3 sentences, and post it somewhere where you'll see it all the time.
• Assess your weaknesses and your strengths, and create lists of what how you're going to work on each. You want to work on improving or eliminating weaknesses, and building on strengths.
• Create an Individualized Life Plan for yourself which extends out farther than your Vision Statement (probably many years), which has about 30 personal goals. Make a 3 step plan for each goal, along with a "by when" target date for each one.
• Prioritize by narrowing the list of 30 goals down to the top 10. These are your 1 year core goals. Set up structured support systems to help you stick to the plan, and anticipate some slippage here and there. Planning ahead for setbacks can help you deal in the best way and will help keep them from derailing you completely.

Obviously this is just a summarized version of what is a much more complex plan from the complete article. I think the plan sounds like good advice, as it's really just encouraging everybody to sit down and really think about what they want and where they're going. It's amazing how treating your life similarly to your career, meaning strategically planning and moving towards specific goals, can make so much sense!