It's a Goal

Someone I am currently training asked me a question recently. The question was this, "After I get past this, what should my next goal be?"
And I gave her the truth. I can't answer that for you.

When it comes to personal training, a goal is a specific objective to be achieved at a specific point in time. Goals should not be end all be alls. They should be looked at as stepping stones. Rungs in the ladder, by grasping one, you are able to pull up to another. Though I want you to be and feel the best you can, I will never force another goal onto you. I will not project my hopes for you onto you. If I did, you would never get anywhere.  A goal must have sincere emotion tied to it, it is what pushes us towards achievement. Therefore a goal coming from any other source than one's self is doomed to fail. You have to want it, to get it.

Here are some ways to accomplish successful goal setting:

1. A goal must be well defined. No beating around the bush because if you can't lay it out, you will never have a map to success.
2. You must write it down. Life has a way of over whelming the unprepared. Writing down what we hope to attain and scheduling our time to support our goals is the only way to accomplish them. 
3. A goal must be stated in the positive. Out with the "I won't" and in with the "I will". Instead of "I won't eat fast food.." try "I will prepare healthy meals at home." I hope you can see how the latter example provides a concrete affirmation, and the first one sounds weak. 
4. You have to have a deadline. Any thing left open ended is destined to fall through.
5. A goal must challenge us, but not overwhelm us. If you make a goal too easy it becomes easy to push aside. But when you give it just enough weight, it is harder to shake off.
6. Remember to make it personal. 

And though it is not an official rule, I like to add this on when speaking on goal making:

You should not incorporate real sincere goals with insincere goal making holidays. There is a reason New Year's resolutions fail. For one, as we have already reviewed, a whole YEAR is already too long of a time line for goal getting. And not to mention that the whole new year stigmata already makes the goal less intimidating, as everyone you know is probably failing at their resolution as we speak.

Lent and other times for religious sacrifice are yet another time I believe it is best to leave goal making out of the equation. And this is why: When we give up things for religious purposes that we also wish to hold on to as a personal goal we take away our personal attachment to them. When you want to lose five pounds and you give up chocolate or fast food for Lent, you take yourself out of the equation. You have now given up Hershey Kisses for Jesus (and I know if you went all the way to church on a Wednesday morning you probably think Jesus is worth more than some lame chocolate) and not for yourself. And then what happens? Well, everything gets mixed up and fuzzy! Because when you are supposed to be focusing on religious devotion, you are now going crazy about not having chocolate. AND when Easter comes around you forget about why you gave it up in the first place and reward yourself with little chocolate bunnies for sticking to your promise not to eat them (forgetting that you were supposed to be giving them up for YOU) and TA-DA - no goal was accomplished at all! So, no mixing religion and secular goal making. It's troublesome.


Successful goal setting can motivate us to achieve greatness. When not set up correctly goals can seem overwhelming and scary. (Or worse yet, underwhelming and easily ignored!) The most important thing about goal making is to inject the I into it, and leave out everyone else. Though "I am going to lose ten pounds so I can rock this bikini I found in a box in the attic (marked 'summer of '94-best summer ever!') and blow my crazy neighbor  out of water at the community pool, making her regret not inviting me to Bridge night the last four months in a row, I'll show her, neon lime green zebra print is totally back..take that, Carol." may seem genius at the time, it really is not going to get you into that bikini (hopefully a new bikini- Carol will laugh at a neon green zebra print two piece circa 1994). Learning to set proper goals, however, will change the way you view health and wellness. As you start climbing the ladder steadily and with confidence you will begin to wonder what made success look so unattainable in the first place.

You are never too old to set a new goal or to dream a new dream.

-CS Lewis