Before you embark on any new fitness and weight loss program, one of the best things to do is have it and yourself checked out by your doctor. This is a great safeguard and good preparation for your physical body however what about the mental aspects? The absolute next thing you must do is set your health, fitness and weight loss goals.
Now I am sure you already have an idea about what exactly it is you want to achieve or get out of your program but is it really enough just to have these thoughts bouncing around in your head? Ultimately, taking the time to really sit down, think about and hand write your specific goals is paramount to the level of success you will achieve.
There are some fantastic benefits to goal setting and when you go through the process correctly and follow through, you will find that your commitment is stronger, you know exactly what it is you want to do and how to go about it, reviewing your goals will help keep you on track and you will celebrate success every time you achieve a goal. This last point in itself is a very powerful factor in keeping you motivated and ensuring you are continually reaching for the next level.
When writing out your goals it may be helpful for you to follow the well known SMART acronym. SMART is a great way to break down your goals and ensure you write them in a way that gives you the best chance of success to achieve them.
S stands for SPECIFIC — Your goals should be clear, succinct and to the point and clearly state what you are trying to achieve and in detail.
M stands for MEASURABLE — This simply means you should be able to take stock of where you are in comparison to where you started from and measure the difference.
A stands for ATTAINABLE — Meaning there MUST be a possibility for you to attain your goals.
R stands for REALISTIC — Pretty straight forward here meaning that if you are 100 pounds overweight then do not set a goal that you will lose this weight in 3 months!
T stands for TIMELY — You must set adequate yet challenging time frames that motivate you to succeed.
If you follow these principles you will be well on the way to writing some great goals and in a way that sets you up for success. Before you go ahead and do this however, I must give you the number one crucial factor when writing goals — emotional leverage.
Emotional leverage simply means that you must assign some form of emotion to your goal. Doing this will iron clad your goals and strengthen them to a degree where you would never, ever give up.
To explain further, at the end of the day, there must be some basic, grass roots level reason why you want to get in shape, get fit and lose weight. This could be so you can run around with your kids more, so you are more attractive to your significant other, you have some real health problems that need fixing, to get into a good enough condition to play sport like you used to, to stop feelings of insecurity and so on.
The list is endless and the common factor here is you are trying to avoid some type of pain you are currently feeling. The key is transferring some of this emotion and reasoning to your goals so that you are strengthened and conditioned to make sure you succeed.
For example, which of the two statements below would empower you to get off the couch and get out there and exercise or put away that chocolate bar and reach for an apple?
1) I want to lose weight and get fit by Christmas or 2) Because I am seeing family members I haven’t seen in years this Christmas and I really want to take part in our annual family football match this year after seeing the disappointment in my sons’ eyes because I was too unfit to run around with him, I WILL LOSE 50 pounds by December 25.
I am sure you don’t need me to tell you which goal is the most motivational and you should easily be able to see how this makes an incredible amount of difference. There will certainly be times when you have nutrition or exercise weaknesses and this emotion will help you through these times.
If you are truly serious about losing weight and getting fit, then it is a crime against yourself to not write down your goals and regularly review them. Only 3% of people that actually write down their goals choose to review them and yet this in itself is a major contributor to overall success.
Writing your goals correctly will remind you exactly of the reasons you are doing this for and give you that extra push which we all need once in a while!
I would love to share with you the information I have found that gives you the best results for your time and helps you finally break the frustrating cycle that is fitness and weight loss.
