Tonight I had the rare opportunity to participate in the weekly #dsma twitter chat. The topic and subsequent questions revolved around celebrations and goals. Normally I think of these two things in the opposite order – you set a goal, work toward it, achieve it, then you celebrate. But tonight the topic went in the opposite order, talking about celebrations (which I am fantastic at – seriously, very talented at celebrating!) and mini-successes that lead to celebrations. Then with the next few questions, I felt as though I’d [willingly] been tricked into a conversation about goals – and I realized, when it comes to diabetes, I don’t set very rigid goals.
Part of this may be that the goals around diabetes management are not terribly tangible until they are happening. Yes, I want to keep my feet and my eyesight and my kidney function. But do I have a goal for my health beyond that? Not really. Just to, you know, hold on to my health. And there is no promise that if you “keep your A1C levels between this and that and you’ll be healthy!” It simply doesn’t exist.
I also don’t have plans to use my body to produce another human being. So there is no two-to-three year planning to be done about getting my blood glucose in tight control before I start trying to conceive.
When it comes to that all-mighty marker of control, the A1C, I usually just think “below 7% is cool, below 6.5% is awesome!” and keep moving, keep working toward that. There have been a few times that, based on considerable hypoglycemia incidents resulting in a stellar A1C, my health care team would advise me to aim a little higher than I was before. Most of the time, I get where I was trying to go and feel just fine about it.
The #dsma conversation tonight made me realize that my goals are usually set in the form of very fuzzy, very flexible rangers. But now I wonder, should I be aiming toward something more specific? Do people get something out of that? While I am much more comfortable with ranges rather than specific targets, I know it also provides me with enough wiggle room to cheat a little.
This is just food for thought at the moment. But if anyone has advice, opinions or suggestions, I’m certainly open to them.
Imperfect Pancreas 
I don’t think the idea of incredibly specific goals is realistic. It will inevitably lead to more failure and more anxiety about your numbers. We have enough “extra” minutia to deal with on a daily basis. Shooting for an 80bg with every test can only result in more frustration. Testing x # of times per day? Maybe a more attainable goal. Let’s just remember it’s not a race. Let’s cut ourselves a break and think of quality of life and the net gain of setting specific goals.