10 Ways to Stick To Your Goals!

Being forced into making a New Year's Resolution is not much fun for most of us. I think making a goal at a particular time that has nothing to do with when YOU actually feel ready to embark on a new project isn't all that wise. Now some people need that external motivation to get moving towards a goal, but notice how many people fail their resolutions? Maybe because resolution sounds so big, so odious, so unreasonable.

The article I linked before, Livestrong's article entitled "10 Steps to Succeed at Your New Year's Resolution to Lose Weight," really just gave 10 steps to achieve any fitness goal from any time of year! Let's look at a few of them.

Step 1 is to make your goals measurable. As a trainer I hear this one a lot.

Me: Okay, so what do you want to achieve? What do you think would be really neat if you could do, 5 push-ups, a real pull-up, run a mile without stopping, what?

Client: I really just want to be fitter and more toned and feel better.

Me: Okay, so how will you know when you're fitter and more toned? So you wake up one day, you come into the gym and you say, Michelle, I did it! I noticed it when....

Client: I don't know.

Me: *sigh*

So let's use the term objective instead. If you don't have a specified objective then how will you know what to do with your gym time? For instance, when you go grocery shopping for dinner you have an objective to buy the makings for meatloaf for dinner. If you don't have a clear objective you may end up walking out with some tomato sauce, some ice cream, a couple bagels and some zucchini. When you give yourself the broad goals of being "fitter and more toned" I can pretty much guarantee that you're going to choose some oddball combination of junk to do at the gym that will give you only 1) discontent, 2) boredom, 3) aggravation, and 4) junk for results.

Dare to dream, my friends! When I ask what some one wants to achieve this crazy thing happens. First, their eyes light up for a SPLIT second before they look away and this cloud drops down over the light. That's when they say something lame and generic, "I don't know, get fitter I guess." In that first instant I know all these amazing ideas sprang up: pull-ups, running, push-ups, figure competition, wake boarding, skiing, slinky dresses and then SLAM! The door of doubt comes slamming down on all that. Somewhere they were taught those were crazy ideas, or that they were so hard to achieve it wasn't even worth trying to. Now shutting off those dreams, THAT'S what I call crazy!

You know the phrase, "shoot for the moon so if you fall, you fall amongst the stars." Shooting for the tree line just isn't going to cut it, I'm telling you this because I care! So I'm going to ask you again, what do YOU want to achieve?

Posted with Blogsy