Goals are a great thing. Typically we all set in the back of our minds some goal that we’d like to accomplish. One example I have is one goal I have is to own one of the Jeep Wrangler’s. Not picky, old style, new style. I don't care. Just have always wanted one. Now, in order to reach that particular goal, what do I have to do? Not sure. We’ll lets look a bit deeper into simply stating a goal and actually creating a concrete plan to fulfilling that goal.
So I learned from a friend a great way to structure your goals and how to approach them. I will outline his general philosophy and we can apply this to my favorite topic of the day, fitness. :)
1. Decide WHAT matters most to you. Basically spell out your priorities(family, career, etc.). The end result being ‘align your actions with your intentions’.
2. Decide HOW you define SUCCESS. The key here is to give details on something that you can truly ‘measure’. Not just simply say I completed. i.e. I will be able to do 100 pushup’s in 10 weeks .. Concrete numbers, tangible values that give meaning to what you are defining as success.
3. Write them out. But not simply just writing them on a piece of paper and then marking it off. Give them perspective. Give yourself checkpoints along the way to gauge your level of ‘SUCCESS’. This can be done, by using checkboxes. They will act like a meter. So continuing with our pushup example. mark off 10 checkboxes. Each representing chunks of 10, cumulative. so week one. You accomplish one of your tasks for that goal of reaching 10 pushup’s. The following week, you reach the milestone of ‘20’ pushup’s. So on and so forth. This will help MOTIVATE you forward as you are showing that you are making progress and can achieve an end result from this goal.
4. Always carry your goals with you. Shrink them, laminate them and stick in a wallet or purse. It doesn’t matter where. Just have them close, check them daily and get satisfaction that you are reaching your goals.
Now with all that said, sure you will find that you can’t accomplish your goal within the framework that you set for yourself. You don’t let that get you down. You just re-examine your priorities, re-examine what you define as a ‘success’ measure and move on.
Yesterday I begun a 60 day ‘challenge’ with BeachBody’s Insanity workout by Shaun T. This is an all out 60 days of Max Interval training not for the faint hearted. I will be chronicling my 60 days here at my site. Follow if you’d like. So I’ve been thinking after the fit test last night and what are my goals over the next 60 days? What am I hoping to accomplish?
First goal: one success measure will be, just completing the 60 day challenge. In and of itself, that will be a major accomplishment.
Second goal is to become at least 25% fitter than when i started. How can I measure that? I am going to break that down into 5 checkboxes. Each checkbox will represent the fit tests. At each fit test, I am going to push myself to be able to do 5% more than the previous fit test. By then end I should be 25% or more above where I started in terms of my overall fitness level.
Third goal is to show the transformation. I will provide ‘proof’ to myself that I have done what I set out to do. Pictures showing every step along the way.
If you are on the fence about starting Insanity just drop me an email. I will gladly discuss with you your fitness goals. If you are already interested and want to grab it, head over to here
So that is my little goal setting exercise for today. I hope that you will come away with something useful and applicable to your general fitness and life as a whole. I would welcome any discussion and see if we can get you on track to reach your fitness and life goals.
This exercise was borrowed from a co-worker who does a lot of motivational type discussions. You can find this and more over at http://www.billparker.org.