The new year is commonly about making changes and setting goals. Establishing goals is a great thing. It gives you something to strive for as you go through your days, weeks, and months. I absolutely love setting goals and set big ones for myself every year.
The problem with setting lofty goals, especially when it comes to lifestyle changes, is many people attempt to do everything at once in order to achieve it quickly. Attempting to change everything at once is setting you up for failure. The key is taking action, taking one step at a time, going through the process to achieve the ultimate goal.
So what exactly does this look like?
Start by taking your big goal and create action goals from it.
For example, if your big goal is losing fifty pounds, break it down into smaller goals, such as
- Drink ½ your body weight in ounces of water each day
- Consume 1 healthy fat each day
- Consume 1 fruit each day
- Consume 3 veggies each day
- Consume 0 foods with added sugars each day
- Walk 1 mile each day
Or if you are wanting to run a 1:30 half marathon, your goals may look like
- Long training runs averaging 6:50 pace
- Strength training 3x/week
- Spend 15 minutes on mobility every day
- Work on speed drills before each run
- Find a coach to fine tune technique
- Fine tune nutrition/food intake/food timing
Once you have the action goals created, you can start making a plan. It is much easier to break down small action goals and create a plan to get there than working to create a plan from your big outcome goal.
Are you wondering how to create a plan? Not sure what this looks like? I can help you with that! Start by prioritizing. Of the action goals you have created, which is most appropriate to be the first to start with? Which step is most important to implement immediately? Go through your list of goals and arrange accordingly. From there, you can start breaking things down by months, weeks, and days.
Let’s look at the half marathon action goals as an example. Personally, I would order them like
- Strength training
- Mobility
- Long run pacing
- Find a coach
- Speed drills
- Nutrition
And then depending on time frame for the race, you can determine when each sub-goal is going to be addressed by.
Goals keep us motivated. Meeting goals and setting new goals keeps us even more motivated. When you have the smaller action goals and are able to meet them, the process is more fun and rewarding.
Have questions or comments regarding this? Email brianne@getyourfixpt.com.
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