GOAL SETTING

NO MORE YO-YO DIETING. TRY THIS TIP TO TRULY SEE THE RESULTS YOU’VE BEEN WORKING TOWARDS

What do you want for yourself? What’s the goal that you want to accomplish? Imagine having the body you desire? If you achieved your goal, what would this look like?

When most of us are looking to lose weight, increase energy and boost confidence, we usually start by doing a deep dive into the latest trend on social media. Or maybe we stock the popular page on Instagram to see what the top influencers’ are posting to find the next best diet or quick fix remedy! Instead of wasting your limited free time on fads and gimmicks, what I want you to focus on is goal setting! Goal setting? Yes, goal setting! However, this is not JUST about coming up with a SMART goal like you did in high school or at your kids’ first day of school meetings. I want you to throw out what you thought creating a goal should look like and follow these simple steps to set a proper (meaningful) goal. Let’s make it foolproof, to ensure you are going to get the body you truly deserve.

First, I would like you to understand and remember to BELIEVE that you CAN! You are fully capable of accomplishing this goal. No matter what past trauma you may have gone through, what limiting beliefs that you have; you can totally accomplish this goal. That is number one! Trust me on this one, it is that belief in yourself that will take you from 0 to 100! Don’t tell yourself otherwise. Heck, even I believe in you! Just some random person who is writing this column in the passenger seat of the vehicle, heading to a family event, believes in you, so you should too!

Now I understand it may be hard to trust yourself, but let’s work through these steps to get you closer!

Goal setting is so important for success; having a plan and something to work towards will help to keep you motivated and on track. Consider a few things while goal setting. How is this going to look? How are you going to achieve this? Be as specific as possible. What do you want to get out of the program that you are in? Write it down! Whatever you feel is achievable but be specific!! This will help you pinpoint what you want to work towards!

So let’s dig deeper into how to be specific. The next step in goal setting may be an emotional journey for some, but trust me, the process is worth it and will take your goal from being worlds on a page to something with meaning, purpose and result-laden depth.

Ask yourself: “What is my WHY?”

Knowing your “WHY” is HUGE! It puts a lot more importance on your goal!

Why do you want to lose weight?? Why do you want to fit into the pair of jeans you could wear 5 years ago?? Why do you want to have more energy?

Is it because you felt confident and want your confidence back? Do you want to feel sexy again? Or to be a healthy role model for your family and kids? Or do you want to be able to bend down to play with your kids and even pick them up without a back spasm?

Finding the “WHY” to your goal makes your goal solid. So how do we find the why…?

Through the Seven Layers of Why!

I often go through this process myself and with my clients. So let’s work through it together.

ASK YOURSELF WHAT YOUR GOAL IS? AND THEN CONTINUE ASKING YOURSELF WHY UNTIL YOU FIND THE TRUE MEANING!

Pick your goal: For today’s example, let’s say it is that you want to lose 15 pounds!

Now we are going to continue asking why this is important.

I want to lose 15 pounds…

Why is this important?… Because I don’t like being overweight.

Why is this important? ….Because I have no energy and no confidence in myself.

Why is this important? ….Because I want to be a role model for my kids.

Why is this important?…. Because my parents weren’t there for me like I want to be there for my kids.

BOOM now that’s your WHY! Dig DEEP, this may be emotional but it’s going to give you a stronger connection to your goal! With this stronger connection, you are more motivated to stick to the goal of losing 15 pounds because of the meaning behind the goal.

Of course, as you see in the example above, you might not get seven layers, it might only be three and that is perfect. Maybe it’s because that’s where you are at with opening up about your true why, or you are really good at digging deep and you can get right to the point. Either way, it is your journey and that’s what is important.

So now that we have our goal and our why, I want to focus on tools that you can implement today in order to help motivate you to fully accomplish your goal.

Here are a few tools you can use!
I want you to focus on a few that you feel will work really well for you and your lifestyle:

Write your goal and your why on a piece of paper and stick it on your mirror, fridge, or pantry, etc:
Try to find an area where you will see it daily. Much like a tattoo, seeing your goal in writing and somewhere visible makes it real and permanent. The more you see it, the more real and permanent it feels, creating a stronger connection to that goal. You will have a much easier time pushing yourself to accomplish it when you are reminded what exactly it is that you are working towards every day.
Tell someone: An accountability partner, family, significant other, a friend, or a trainer.
Again, this part is just as important as creating the goal. Much like the old saying, if a tree falls in the forest does anyone hear it? We can create all the goals that we want to, but if we don’t share them with anyone does it hold any weight? It can be easy to give up because no one knew about the 15 pounds you wanted to lose or the marathon you wanted to run. I encourage you to share your goals with someone significant to you. Since you put in the work of giving your goal a why, it now means something to you, and so should the person you tell. This person should be someone who is in your corner to help you stay accountable.
Write your goals down and READ them daily:
We talked about how writing goals down and putting them in a place that we see every day makes the goal real and permanent, but we need to also hear it out loud. We want to read them daily, so it’s the first thing you read when you wake up and the last thing you read when you go to bed. Like I said earlier, seeing it every day is going to help solidify this. I personally find it helpful to write it down in my goal journal and also on q-cards that act as a bookmark. Find creative ways to showcase your goal!

If you made it this far, I have one more challenge. No matter how many fitness tips we read it won’t change if we don’t take action. So let’s take action today. I challenge you to do some homework!!

Homework!