As we’ve just started the new year and began to settle in after the many dinner parties, celebrations and indulgences over the Christmas-New Year period, I decided to write a blog post to help you to achieve the fitness goals you’ve set for yourself.
This is by no means a complete list but if you stick to it I’m more than confident it will keep you on track no matter how challenging the goal you’ve set for yourself.
Be Clear About Your Goal
I cannot stress the importance of this. General statements like ‘I’d like to lose a bit of weight‘ or ‘I just want to get fitter‘ are all well and good, they’re positive and they give you a general idea of where you’d like to be, but how do you honestly know when you’ve achieved them?
This uncertainty can often result in you giving up after a month or two when perhaps you’ve only taken some action towards your goal i.e. you’ve been jogging a few times for a few weeks, or you’ve cut out alcohol for a month. You feel this is enough but in reality it’s far from where you want to be.
Be very specific and deal in numbers if possible i.e. ‘I’d like to lose 7 pounds by February 28th‘ then ask yourself how you’re going to get there. Be clear and very specific, break the goal down week by week, even day by day on what your actions will be. Only then will your route to achieving your target becomes a lot more possible.
Back Up Your Goal with Motivation
For all the hard work and effort you’re putting in to achieve what you’ve set out to achieve, you deserve a reward at the end. Yes the goal itself maybe reward enough but sometimes that little something extra can have a big impact on your journey as a whole.
The reward can be something material like a brand new watch or even a whole new wardrobe to accompany your new and improved image. Whatever it is, take a print-out, bookmark the website, write it down and leave it next to your bed so it stays at the forefront of your thinking, perhaps for when you may lose a little motivation.
Tell People About Your Goals
You may be fine just being accountable to yourself, knowing that if you fail only you yourself know about it and you’re ok with that. My advice is if you’re really serious about your goal tell someone about it. It may be your spouse, a family member or a friend, or even tell your whole Facebook circle!
Tell them about how important this is to you, why you’re doing it and when you plan on achieving it. Once it’s out there and they know just how important it is to you they’re likely to want to check how you’re getting on. Knowing this alone can keep you going strong.
You may be half way through a 10km jog somewhere and all of a sudden your body starts to really ache and begs you to sit down. It’s at this point that your mind has to be stronger and knowing that others are counting on you can really make the difference in carrying on or not.
Plan For Setbacks
If you set your goal, have a solid plan and believe that everything is going to go smoothly without any setbacks along the way then you’re likely to be mistaken. You need a contingency plan to put you back on track.
Just knowing that you may stumble along the way is a positive. If your goal was so easy to achieve then perhaps it’s not a tough enough goal for you? It’s the challenges, stumbles and being able to get back up and carry on that ultimately make the journey, and the reward that more valuable at the end.
For example your goal may be to run a marathon by March and in the last week so many other tasks were required of your time that you never got the opportunity to go running. So you feel like you’ve lost everything you’ve worked towards and are thinking about giving up.
Well knowing in advance that this could happen could have meant setting out a ‘fitness plan’ for the following week that keeps up the intensity of the training you’ve been working towards.
I hope that these fitness tips helps you. They’re not easy but you can achieve them and that feeling of when you finally do is a feeling beyond words. Good luck out there.
Adam Warren
Disclaimer – this is a sponsored post and a commission was received however all opinions expressed are honest and my own.
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Great tips! I really like that you structure in planning for setbacks. It’s going to happen and the problem that most people have is that they fall behind on their goals and then give up. Thanks for sharing!
That’s it Candace, we can’t pretend that it’s all going to be super smooth all of the time, being prepared is the way forward!