Setting goals sound so easy to do, yet, they are so difficult to accomplish. The problem that most people encounter when setting goals is (1) they set unrealistic goals and (2) people get discouraged to easily when other people tell them they "can't do it".[This blog will tackle the first problem and the blog following this one will tackle the second problem.]
Problem # 1: Setting unrealistic goals
"I want to lose 20lbs in 6 weeks"
The problem so many people make when they set goals in life is that they don't realistically take an inward look at themselves. In other words, so many people don't give an honest self assessment of themselves and, as a result, their goals reflect their false sense of what is possible for them. If I hear anyone say to me one more time that "anything is possible" I am going to look right at her and say "How would you know what is possible for me?". It is this mentality that sets people up to fail time and time again. People need to start making goals that will set them up to succeed and not to fail. Don't let others tell you what is possible. Instead, show yourself what is possible! For example,
Are you more likely to continue to work out if you see results or are you more likely to continue to work out if you don't? (The answer is obviously the former)
Now, if you "want to lose 20lbs in 4 weeks" and you only lose 8lbs, the fact that you lost 8lbs in 4 weeks now means nothing because your goal of losing 20lbs wasn't reached. But, HELLO, you just did an awesome job by losing 8lbs of fat in 4 weeks! You see, when you set unrealistic goals, even when you accomplish great things, you don't recognize what you just did as being great because you unrealistically thought you could do more. If you originally set your goal to lose 8lbs in 4 weeks and you accomplished that goal, then this would motivate you to accomplish further goals. So you see, it's not that "anything is possible", it's achieving your goals in the forefront to make you NOW think that "anything is possible" :). Don't let anyone tell you that anything is possible - show it to yourself that anything is possible!
In short, the next time you set your goals you should set long term goals and short terms goals. Your long term goals should be goals that take time to accomplish. How do you reach these long term goals? You reach them by achieving your short term goals. Your short term goals should be realistic goals that can be accomplished in a shorter amount of time. By achieving your short term goals, you will see that reaching your long term goal is possible as you can see from your success of your short term goals!
SO, you want to lose 20lbs? Great! just don't try and achieve this goal in 4 weeks - try to achieve it in 4 months. You might be thinking, "4 months is soooooo long". But my response is this: Is it really? Think about it - if you dedicated 4 months of your life to change the rest of your life, is 4 months really that long when you are going to look and feel better than ever for the rest of your life?! So the next time you think it takes to long of a time to achieve a goal, ask yourself, in the grand scheme of things, if it actually is.
The greatest thing about reaching your goals in fitness is that when succeed you never want to stop. All of sudden working out and being healthy doesn't become a chore or a goal anymore - it becomes a lifestyle that just continuously allows you to reap all of its wonderful benefits. Now, when you accomplish your long term goals and I tell you it will take 6 months to put on 15lbs of muscle your response will be, "6 months is nothing!"
Set realistic goals and GO GET IT - after all, don't take my word for it when I say "anything is possible", prove it to yourself!
-Afd
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