Goal Setting Toolkit

WELL-BEING TOOLKIT: GOAL SETTING Goal setting is the process of envisioning one’s future while fostering inspiration to turn it into a reality. This practice is valuable in helping a person reach their full potential and leads to personal and professional development.

Benefits of Goal Setting

Goal Setting Activities Are you looking to infuse mental health and well-being into the day-to-day culture of your department? Use the suggested activities and instructions below to encourage conversations and practice skills for goal setting. These activities can be led by your department’s Wellness Ambassador or anyone who is interested in facilitating an activity for your department. If you have questions, liveWELL is here to help.

Mindful Moments (5 minutes) Mindful moments are quick activities that are 5 minutes or less and are perfect for when you only have a few minutes as a team to connect on a well-being topic. You can incorporate these into the start of a team meeting or huddle.

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Try the Average Perfect Day Exercise: Focus on the individual behaviors that occur in your ideal day from start to finish. Write them down.

Reflect and Refine: Take a moment to think of one thing that went well and something to improve on regarding your health goals. Here are some thought provoking questions: o How are my energy levels this week? What has been contributing to how I feel? o How do I feel about my levels of physical activity this week? o Have nutritious foods fueled my body for the day?

The University of Iowa prohibits discrimination in employment, educational programs, and activities on the basis of race, creed, color, religion, national origin, age, sex, pregnancy (including childbirth and related conditions), disability, genetic information, status as a U.S. veteran, service in the U.S. military, sexual orientation, gender identity, or associational preferences. The university also affirms its commitment to providing equal opportunities and equal access to university facilities. For additional information on nondiscrimination policies, contact Office of Institutional Equity, the University of Iowa, 202 Jessup Hall, Iowa City, IA 52242-1316, 319-335-0705, oie-ui@uiowa.edu.

Contact liveWELL at 319-353-2973 or livewell@uiowa.edu or visit our website at hr.uiowa.edu/employee-well-being/livewell.

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Skill Boosters (15 minutes) Skill Boosters are a step above mindful moments and usually last about 10-15 minutes. These activities provide opportunities for participants to practice enhancing skills for the well-being topic.

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Creating Healthy Routines: Create a personalized calendar with specific goals and changes you wish to incorporate into your life. o Consider people and tools available to you that can be utilized to accomplish those goals. o Set up a reward system for successfully incorporating changes.

SMART Goals Mind-map: Mind mapping divides goals into smaller steps and create a visual organization of how to achieve those goals. Use this for personal and professional goals!

Conversation Starters (20-30 minutes) Conversation starters are for when you have more time carved out to engage with the topic such as 20-30 minutes.

Include this topic as a main agenda item in one of your upcoming team meetings, huddles, or staff retreats. These activities are designed to help foster discussion and connection on the well-being topic.

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Goal Setting Video and Discussion: Watch a short video on the importance of goal setting. o Facilitate a group discussion about the key takeaways and how these principles can be applied in your team or personal lives.

Vision boards: Provide materials for team members to create vision boards that represent their goals. o Spend time sharing and discussing these boards. o Encourage team members to update their vision boards regularly and share any new goals or achievements.

Group SMART Goal Planning Worksheet: o Spend 15-20 minutes having each team member fill out the worksheet o Share and discuss these goals as a group, providing feedback and support.

Department Challenges (2-4 weeks) Do you want to do more with the well-being topic? Consider implementing a department wide challenge that lasts anywhere from 2-4 weeks on the well-being topic. liveWELL has several challenge programs that you can implement with your department anytime throughout the year that are complete with communications and materials.

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Implement a topic challenge (BinGO Hawks)

RESOURCES Learn more about SMART goals: https://www.mindtools.com/a4wo118/smart-goals

The University of Iowa prohibits discrimination in employment, educational programs, and activities on the basis of race, creed, color, religion, national origin, age, sex, pregnancy (including childbirth and related conditions), disability, genetic information, status as a U.S. veteran, service in the U.S. military, sexual orientation, gender identity, or associational preferences. The university also affirms its commitment to providing equal opportunities and equal access to university facilities. For additional information on nondiscrimination policies, contact Office of Institutional Equity, the University of Iowa, 202 Jessup Hall, Iowa City, IA 52242-1316, 319-335-0705, oie-ui@uiowa.edu.

Contact liveWELL at 319-353-2973 or livewell@uiowa.edu or visit our website at hr.uiowa.edu/employee-well-being/livewell.

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