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Goal Setting 101 for the new year
Goal Setting for the New Year
As we move through the holidays, inevitably the words “New Years Resolution” will come up in conversation. It’s usually something we KNOW we need to do, but is usually synonymous with “Seems Like a Good Idea at the Time”. It’s a half-hearted attempt to accomplish something we haven’t managed to do last year so why not give it a shot in a new year? Quit Smoking, Eat More Veggies, Read More, Learn A New Language and Lose Weight are all popular Resolutions. For the purpose of this post, we’ll focus on Weight Loss as a Resolution.
The month of January is like a 5K race with a lot of unprepared racers participating. They haven’t worn the right gear, trained, hydrated or even looked at the course map. Everyone sprints out of the start feeling great, moving fast and thinking, “If the whole 5K is like this, it’s going to be a breeze!” only to realize that it’s not possible to sprint a whole 3.1 miles at the speed they’re going. They get tired, sore, out of breath, and quickly drop down to a walk and don’t accomplish what they set out to. A similar thing happens with Weight Loss Resolutions – a lot of unprepared people will likely come out of the gates on a huge high only to drop out after a few days/weeks when they realize how unready they are for the task and they fail for another year.
Fortunately there ARE ways to ACCOMPLISH YOUR GOALS. If you’re calling it a New Years Resolution, so be it, but in reality all you are doing is expressing a goal of yours for a new calendar year.
Step 1. Write It Down
Don’t say you’ll do it, write your goal down and post it on your bathroom mirror, on your car dashboard, on your computer desktop, on your phone wallpaper, and since it’s food related – ON and IN your refrigerator! You want to be constantly reminded of WHY you’re sacrificing things and WHY you need to stay the course.
Step 2. Plan
Want long-term success? PLAN for it by researching best practices and tips and preparing your life for your new goal. If you’re trying to lose weight, you’ll probably want to not have Oreos in the house on January 1 when you’re trying to start strong! And I’m not talking about the latest “Miracle Hollywood Pill” or any gimmick or gizmo that’s supposed to be a cure-all. Want to lose 30lbs? Find someone who has and ask them for advice.
Step 3. Set a Timeframe
Don’t just blindly plunge into it for “2012” because you’re not going to accomplish everything at once. Set up smaller 4-, 6-, or 8-week goals and use those in conjunction with Step 2. Plan each timeframe and what it will take to get the job done. Overall goal is 20lbs? Ok so in 4 weeks a reasonable weight-loss sub-goal is 8lbs.
Step 4. Tell Everyone
Seriously. Everyone. Use your friends, family, and social media to help you. If everyone knows about you wanting to lose weight, then people will hold you accountable when you want to give in. The same goes for food – use your real-life friends, online “Friends” and especially relatives. All of those people care about you so use them! If they don’t care about something that’s important to you then are they actually friends? But I digress.
Step 5. Post your progress
Facebook, Twitter etc. are all wonderful ways of mass-communicating how you’re doing. And you’ll be surprised at the snowball effect your small successes have when people congratulate you for the little things. Trying to lose 40lbs? Well if you post that you lost 4, people give you such a warm response that it is great positive reinforcement to KEEP GOING. So use your support systems!!!
Hopefully you’ve found these 5 Steps helpful in planning for success – At FX Fitness, we are in the business of helping people reach their goals. We have a wonderful 6-Week start-up package called New Year: New You so check it out and good luck in 2012!
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