Jan 10
21
MOTIVATED & EMPOWERED TO SUCCEED (part 3)
Setting Goals to Stay Motivated
I don’t want to spend too much time harping on goal setting and how important it is to instant and long term success. So let`s get right into it. If you need a moment to visualize take it now. Think of everything you have always wanted in life and what it will look, feel, smell and taste like when you achieve that goal and reward yourself.
This may sound new age and a bit too funky for you, but trust me it helps.
Now lets move into it…
YOUR BIG GOAL
This is the goal that you will achieve over time with dedication and commitment. It’s important that your big goal is realistic. One of the biggest reasons people fail at achieving their goals is because their goals are unrealistic. Gaining 20 pounds of muscle is a realistic goal, but gaining 20 pounds of muscle in a couple of weeks is not! If you are uncertain about what a realistic goal is, a consultation with your personal trainer, a fitness or nutrition professional, or just some research on your own will go a long way. Here are some examples of realistic and attainable goals:
• Losing 50 to 100 pounds this year. Expect to lose one to two pounds per week. One to two pounds per week = 50 to 100 pounds this year.
• Losing three, five, even ten pounds in the first two weeks. Expect to lose the most weight in the first two weeks and continue to lose one to two pounds weekly thereafter.
• Losing ten percent body fat. Expect to lose one to three percent of your body fat each month, depending on your starting body fat percentage.
• Gaining twelve to twenty-four pounds of lean muscle. You can gain one to two pounds of lean body mass per month.
• Increasing your strength by twenty percent. You can increase your strength by two to five per cent each month.
Now it’s time for you to write down your big goal. Your big goal should have a tangible component (like how many pounds you will lose), a timeline (how long it will take you to lose those pounds), an intangible component (how you will feel after losing that much weight), and a big reward when you achieve it. For example, your big goal might be, “I will reduce my body fat percentage to 15 percent and my weight by 35 pounds in one year. I’m going to feel fit, healthy and sexy! My reward will be a Caribbean cruise.”
My goal was to go from 263 pounds to 196 pounds on stage at a body building contest. I came close, in fact I missed my goal by 8 pounds. The good thing was I gained 8 pounds of lean muscle while dieting down. take a look…
YOUR BIG GOAL AND REWARD: (write it down) _________________________________
YOUR SMALL GOALS
Now that you’ve written down your big goal, you can develop your small goals to help keep you on track to success. Typically, small goals will be goals that you accomplish in a month or a week. To develop your small goals, take the timeline from your big goal and divide it into weeks, then work out what you must accomplish each week to achieve your big goal. If your big goal is to lose 50 pounds in one year, divide the year by 52 to get the number of weeks. Now divide the number of pounds you want to lose by 52, which equals 0.96. That means you need to lose less than one pound per week if your big goal is to lose 50 pounds in one year.
Your small goals should include a time component, a tangible component, an intangible component and a small reward. For example, your small goals could be, “Each week, I will lose two pounds and feel a little slimmer and a little stronger. I will treat myself to an ice cream sundae as my reward.”
YOUR SMALL GOALS AND REWARDS: (write it down) _________________________________
You can apply the same techniques for achieving dreams and goals you’ve outlined here to other dreams and goals in your life. Try writing down some of your personal dreams and goals, break them down into small goals, then go achieve them and reward yourself.
You may be surprised by how easy it is when you do it this way!
So get fired up, get excited, visualize your dream, set your goals, plan the work and work the plan, go out and put the effort into Your Best Lean Body ever!
