The start of the year is a time for setting new health & fitness goals for many of us, which is great, but setting goals and even establishing well thought out strategies to achieve them is simply not enough. So many goals decided on the 1st of January unfortunately fail and I've noticed that it's because something important is often missing from the start. Don't let your new year's motivation fade, make sure you've considered this...
If you want to be successful with your new year's goal you need a compelling reason why you must achieve it and a compelling vision of what things will look like when it's been achieved. If your reason & vision is truely important to you it will compel you to take action no matter what.
It's your compelling reason & vision that will keep you moving towards your health & fitness goals when things get tough (and they will at some stage). Setting a goal without this but instead based of fleeting emotions alone may get you started, it may even keep you going for a few weeks or a couple months but it's unlikely that it will be meaningful or significant enough to provide the long term motivation needed to see your goals followed through to completion. This unfortunately describes how most New Year's resolutions are decided and explains why the majority fail before the 31st of January.
I want to see you achieve your goals this year. I don't want to see you giving up before the end of January (or at all). Connect your health & fitness goals with a reason and vision that is truely important to you - it needs to be so important that it compels you to take action everyday despite any distractions or temptations. It needs to be so valuable to you that it removes all decision making because you've already decided that every action you take will lead towards your goals being achieved.
- Ask yourself what the reasons for setting your goals are.
- Example; I wan't to lose weight to reduce my risk of developing cardiovascular disease - my doctor told me I'm at risk.
- Ask yourself why these reasons are truely important to you.
- Example; I don't want to take medication daily, feel too unwell & lethargic to get the most out of my day and not live to enjoy my retirement.
- Picture how you'll look/ how you'll feel/ what you'll be able to do/ how things will be different when you successfully achieve your goals.
- Example; living medication free, feeling well & full of energy and living to enjoy retirement.
- Realise why successfully achieving your goals is the only possible outcome.
- Example; my reasons are too important and my vision is too appealing for me to accept anything but success.
When you've got a reason & vision that makes a goal truely important to you & strategies in place to acheive it you don't have to force yourself to take action - it will just happen. All the best with your goals this year, don't accept falling short as an option.
David Eggins | Personal Trainer at Drive Fitness in Brisbane | dave@drivefitness.com.au