Setting fitness goals that you can follow consistently isn’t easy, but we’ve all been there. Here are five strategies to help you create a successful program and achieve goals you may have thought were impossible!
- Find your motivation – be honest with yourself
The first and most critical step in setting goals is to find your true motivation for exercising. It is important to honestly assess and determine the “why” behind your fitness goals.
Whether you want to live a better quality of life, build a six-pack before summer, or just want to feel better on a day-to-day basis, identify your personal drivers and keep reminding yourself of them as you work out.
It’s also crucial to stay optimistic. After identifying what you can achieve, challenge yourself further by setting higher goals than you ever have before. Reach for the stars and you may actually be able to reach them.
- Goals are realistic, but dream on
Your fitness goals are exclusive to you.
When setting fitness goals, be realistic about what you can accomplish. This doesn’t mean setting low standards, but recognizing your limits, understanding your past, and choosing those milestones that you can actually reach.
At the same time, you need to stay positive. After setting realistic and achievable goals, it is good to set higher goals and challenge yourself to strive for unprecedented heights.
Your Fitplan coach will be here to make sure you can really challenge yourself.
- Break down long-term goals into smaller ones
Breaking down your long term fitness goals into smaller goals will enable you to achieve small milestones one by one and track your progress in a real measurable way.
Using weight loss as an example, if your goal is to lose 20 pounds over the next year, your smaller goals should break that overall goal down into smaller tasks. For example, for the first three months you might want to lose five pounds as a start. Then, in the next three months, you may want to work harder and lose 10 pounds, and so on.
These small goals will help you stay on track and keep measurable results straight.
- Start small – focus on one goal at a time
After setting small goals, attack them one at a time.
If your first mini-goal is to reach it in three months, then focus all your energy on achieving it. When you achieve that goal, celebrate it enthusiastically! Each achievement is an important step in the whole process and deserves to be celebrated and cherished. For each milestone, you can look at it like a professional athlete:
“We’re going to celebrate this victory tonight, but tomorrow, we’re going to get right back to training.”
Remember that success doesn’t happen overnight. Look at each workout in your Fitplan as a step toward your goal.
- Enjoy the whole process
Although this is the last item on the list, enjoying the whole journey may be the most important part. Reaching your fitness goals is a grueling process that takes time, effort, determination, and perseverance. However, the experiences you go through, the emotional ups and downs you experience, and the lessons you learn will stay with you forever. The whole journey is the best part of the whole endeavor. Enjoy it to the fullest.
