Goal Setting For Fitness Success!
By Cameron Abel – BestFitnessChoices.com
The Hardly Ever Used but Absolutely Vital First step On Any Fitness Program…
Ok so I know what you probably believe the first step on any exercise or fitness program is… and that is to get a full health check and doctors approval before starting. Yes this is correct and should be high on the list however, taking that as a given, the single most important thing is setting your fitness and weight loss goals!
Now, you may already feel you know what you want to achieve and some of you may also feel that setting goals is namby-pamby and not much good however I want to explain why setting a few simple goals for yourself will ultimately decide overall on the level of success you will achieve.
When you want to drive somewhere specific, you never just get in the car and go without a plan or knowing what direction you want to take. Same goes for fitness and weight loss. You MUST write down exactly what you want to achieve and what sort of time frames you want to set for these results.
The benefits in doing this are many but here are a few of the basics:
- You make a commitment to yourself which when written down, strengthens the bond and degree of your commitment
- You know exactly where it is you want to go and what you need to do to get there
- You can break your end goal down into mini goals which give you massive inspiration and motivation as you achieve each mini goal. For instance, you may want to lose 100 pounds. By itself that is a big number and a big challenge! However, losing 100 pounds by way of ten mini 10 pound goals, that is possible and doable!
- If you get off track, it is simply a matter of reviewing your goals, reassessing where you are at and getting back on the job!
- When you need motivation or refocus, reviewing your progress made towards your goals is a great motivator and can have you reaching for an apple instead of that pack of crisps!
So after you have written your goals, this is the next most important part! Again with the car scenario, you don’t fill it up with gas or petrol and then leave the car sitting forever in the garage do you?!
Your goal petrol or gas is leverage and human emotion. You MUST take some extra time and assign some form of emotional attachment to your goals because this is the kicker which will ensure you stick to your guns and achieve your goals especially in times of nutritional weakness or exercise motivation.
Tell me, what goal inspires you most out of the two below?
1) I want to lose 100 pounds and get fitter.
2) Because I love my kids and I want to be around for them, play with them and be able to run around and keep up with them in the back yard, I promise to them, that I will lose 100 pounds, get healthy and become fitter.
Can you see the difference? Of course you can and for whatever reason you have chosen to set off on a journey of fitness or weight loss you must break it down and really give yourself some emotional leverage.
So to break down the process of goal setting, you need to sit yourself down in a quiet and relaxing place where you can really think clearly about what it is you want to achieve. You can then use the SMART process.
S: Your goals must be SPECIFIC, not vague and should also have some significant emotional attachment
M: Your goals must be MEASURABLE.
A: Your goals must be ATTAINABLE.
R: Your goals must be REALISTIC. You will not running the Iron Man in Hawaii in 6 months if you have never regularly laced up your runners, swum 20 laps of the pool or rode a bike!
T: Your goals must be TIMELY. Setting a goal of 1 year to drop 5 pounds is not going to motivate you very much is it?Setting a goal deadline of someones wedding or the summer swimsuit season is much more motivational.
When goal setting is done correctly, you will be easily and regularly reminded about what is truly important to you and why you are doing this which will really help you through the tough times of your program and give you the drive and motivation to reach for the next level!
