Fitness
5 Simple Ways To Set And Achieve Your Goals
Set the scene: it’s the third time this year that you’ve attempted a diet in order to lose those extra 15 pounds from last year’s Holiday season. It’s also the third time this year that you have, yet again, found yourself fallen-short of your goal.
It’s no mystery that goals of any kind require planning, preparation, and patience, and while setting goals can be relatively easy, achieving them takes just as much patience and prep. Here are a few tips that may change the way you view your goals so that you can finally get it right.
Make sure it’s your goal
Before going any further, ask yourself this question: is the goal your goal?
You may be thinking, “Of course it is my goal, I’m the one who set it.” However, it is important to take a step back and examine the roots of your goal. What is your motivation for setting and reaching this goal? Do you honestly enjoy what you’re doing and do you want to achieve it for yourself? It’s not uncommon to allow the people in our lives to have some sort of influence on the goals that we set for ourselves.
An honest goal has personal meaning and shouldn’t be sought after to please other people. Furthermore, being involved in the goal-setting process gives a person a sense of autonomy – which research shows is an imperative aspect of becoming and staying motivated.
The only person who should be in control of your goal-setting process is you. Don’t set yourself up for failure before you even begin – make sure that the goal is truly your goal.
Brick by brick
People tend to overestimate what can be done in a day and underestimate what can be accomplished in a year. Goal setting can be very exciting. However, setting too many goals or trying to make too many changes at once can be overwhelming and might eventually lead to failure or burnout.
Focus on making small changes that you feel confident that you’ll be able to realistically keep up with. Not everyone is able to go to the gym every single day, and it’s probably not realistic (or necessary) to cut out all carbs, sugars, alcohol, etc. from your diet for the long term.
Instead, take little steps that will contribute to the overall goal. Walk outside for 10 minutes a day. Go to the gym three times a week. Incorporate more protein and veggies into your diet. Only go out to eat one time per week. Drink more water and less wine.
Start off with the minimal about that you’re able to do. Over time, these changes will form into behavioral habits, which will contribute to your long-term success.
– READ MORE: Why Setting Goals Isn’t Enough To Achieving Results –
Set positive goals
Whether you realize it or not, the perspective that you create while setting your goal can have an impact on your feelings towards it.
Let’s use weight loss as an example; weight-loss is an end goal that many people tend to go into without realizing the negativity of its origin. When somebody says, “I want to lose weight”, they are often consumed with thoughts about what they don’t want: the extra weight.
Being overly focused on the negative things about yourself that you’d like to change can have a detrimental impact on important personal attributes such as body image or self-worth.
Rather than the goal being to lose weight, think about your goal to start eating healthier and becoming more active. Focusing on behaviors that should be present rather than behaviors that should be absent makes all the difference.
Don’t discredit failure
Although goal setting is an imperative component of achieving success, by doing so, it also allows us to become vulnerable to failure. It doesn’t matter how hard we work, we are bound to fall short of our goals from time to time.
Don’t become discouraged by this. Instead, use your shortcomings as learning experiences and apply that knowledge to achieve your goal next time around.
Furthermore, if you can look back and realize that you’ve learned a lot and created habits that have made you better, then you can still celebrate that success!
– READ MORE: Are Mixed Health Messages Hindering Your Fitness Goals? –
View the process as a learning opportunity
Our ability to absorb information and learn is ultimately what makes us successful, even if over an extensive period of time. However, what’s even more important than achieving our goals are the habits that are learned along the way.
These habits are what will allow us to sustain our success once we reach it. What was the point of losing 10kg for a deadline if you weren’t able to build up an internal library of healthy habits that allow you to keep them off?
Finally, it’s important to reiterate the fact that the achievement of a particular goal doesn’t guarantee success or happiness. You can set a goal as arbitrary as weight loss, but it still doesn’t mean that you will be happy once you reach it.
It’s important to feel proud along the way. By becoming the source of your own actions, you’ll allow yourself to remember that each step in the right direction is an achievement.
