Goals, what are personal goals? Sure, you hear about them all the time but how many of us actually take the time to sit down and put them on paper, committing ourselves to them? Ask yourselves this; can you remember the last time you worked towards a clear and concise goal and know the moment that you actually accomplished it? No I'm not saying that this doesn't happen, nor am I saying it is rare, but I would like you to take the time to actually remember what it feels like to accomplish something we set out to do. Let's break down a simple process that you can implement today. Here is a road map to deciding what goals are right for you, setting for the short, medium and long term, and working towards accomplishing each.
What goals are right for you? Do you want to lose 50lbs, buy a new car or get a new job? Let's ask ourselves a few question which should help stimulate this process and get you on the way to a goal oriented life.
1. What do you want, specifically? - This is the first thing to ask yourself in your goal planning process. What is your vision? Your dream? Without being clear as to your explicit desires, no other steps can be taken, and no progress made.
2. Why do you want it (what value does it serve)? - The pivotal question in your goal setting process and a prime motivator. You must reflect on your values in order to answer it. What are my values? I can hear you asking. Well for right now lets say your values are what you value in life. For instance you may value free time or happiness. Does your desire reflect your values? If so, you've accomplished the second step and are on your way to goal setting success.
3. When do you want it? - Determining specific dates for completion of tasks is a crucial part of your goal setting procedure. Knowing that you have committed yourself to achieving a certain thing by a certain date will enable you to plan your time and thus maximize your efforts.
4. What will you give up or overcome to get it? - Confusion? Fear? Procrastination? Insecurity? Make sure you keep in mind why you want your goal. It will give you all the courage you need to push through your fears and move forward.
Long Term Goals or KEY Goals
Now that you have decided what is important to you lets start from the top and work our way down. Lets set a long term goal and call it our KEY goal. Make your KEY goal ambitious but attainable. Take a pen and piece of paper and answering the above 4 steps, decide on one KEY goal now.
Now remember in order to reach a key goal, you'll need to set interim goals – multiple short-term goals. Broken down into bite-sized pieces, the objectives are less intimidating. That is were our medium and short term goals come into play.
Medium Term
You have now created an overall KEY goal, a light at the end of the tunnel if you will, hopefully you have made it concrete by placing it on paper. Now how do you get there? A medium term goal is a good start. It is a stepping stone that you will have to cross in order to reach your destination. What do you need to accomplish prior to reaching your KEY goal? Write it down.
Short Term
Ok, now for the fun part. You are going to look at short term goals, these are goals that you can accomplish today or tomorrow or maybe even over the next couple of month. The trick is you need to pick goals that keep you moving in the right direction to accomplishing your medium term goals and then finally your KEY goals. You could make setting your KEY goal your first short term goal. But remember, goals can't be made too easy or they won't be worth working towards. I would like you to now list several short term goals you could start working towards today, keeping in mind what we talked about above.
Now that you looked at setting short medium and long term goals it is important to remember that once you complete your list it will continuously be evolving. Once you complete a short term goal you need to re-asses were you are on your journey and pick what to do next to help you get to your destination. Have fun with this and take pride in your accomplishments. You are ultimately the one who is in charge of your destiny so work hard and you will attain not only your goals, you will accomplish your dreams.
Thursday, October 22, 2009
Monday, October 19, 2009
3 Elements of Motivation
Welcome to FitnessDTT! Here is a quick glimpse of what I would like to offer to the readers of FitnessDTT, enjoy.
Today I will take a look at the average persons progression through a fitness program, from the overabundance of dedication in the beginning right up to the ultimate failure due to lack of motivation a few months down the road. Let's explore the truth of what really happens.
Remember last new years when you made the decision to start that fitness program? You decided to start eating well on Monday morning and had a deep desire to make it to the gym at least 3 times that first week. After a few days your off to a great start! Two weeks in your seeing some result and you motivation spikes, you hit it even harder, doubling your efforts. Your now cruising into the fourth week and you decide to throw caution to the wind and eat fast food for lunch, heck you deserve it right? You can make it up with an extra thirty minutes on the treadmill. The next week you miss going to the gym because of family or work commitments. No big deal right? Well maybe not if we are mentally prepared, but most of us are just not aware that truth is this is when our motivation falters, this is when failure begins to set in. How then can we then create motivation over the long term.
3 ELEMENTS OF MOTIVATION
Goals-Most importantly, goals focus our efforts, goals give us a clear direction. Creating short and long term goals is our first key to developing motivation.
Intensity-Is the amount of effort we put forth in order to achieve our goals. Without clear goals this intensity will be misguided or possibly even non-existent.
Persistence-Finally we have persistence which we can look at as how long we can sustain the effort of accomplishing what we set out to do. Having the persistence to reach short term goals will obviously be much easier than reaching our long term ambitions. This is why when we accomplish our short term goals we will need to replace them with new ones. Each time this is accomplished we will ultimately be brought one step closer to our fitness objectives.
With a lack of any of the above 3 elements you will also experience a lack of motivation which unfortunately leads to failure. When we fail a few months down the road on our way to a better level of fitness it is most likely attributed to neglecting one of the elements which fosters motivation. So we need to ensure all of these elements are met and nurtured. Remember,the above components are important not only to achieve your fitness goals but also in your day to day life. Motivation is one of the main keys to performance.
In future article we will look at how we can create focused goals and how to reach the next level in intensity and persistence. Stay tuned.
FitnessDTT
Today I will take a look at the average persons progression through a fitness program, from the overabundance of dedication in the beginning right up to the ultimate failure due to lack of motivation a few months down the road. Let's explore the truth of what really happens.
Remember last new years when you made the decision to start that fitness program? You decided to start eating well on Monday morning and had a deep desire to make it to the gym at least 3 times that first week. After a few days your off to a great start! Two weeks in your seeing some result and you motivation spikes, you hit it even harder, doubling your efforts. Your now cruising into the fourth week and you decide to throw caution to the wind and eat fast food for lunch, heck you deserve it right? You can make it up with an extra thirty minutes on the treadmill. The next week you miss going to the gym because of family or work commitments. No big deal right? Well maybe not if we are mentally prepared, but most of us are just not aware that truth is this is when our motivation falters, this is when failure begins to set in. How then can we then create motivation over the long term.
3 ELEMENTS OF MOTIVATION
Goals-Most importantly, goals focus our efforts, goals give us a clear direction. Creating short and long term goals is our first key to developing motivation.
Intensity-Is the amount of effort we put forth in order to achieve our goals. Without clear goals this intensity will be misguided or possibly even non-existent.
Persistence-Finally we have persistence which we can look at as how long we can sustain the effort of accomplishing what we set out to do. Having the persistence to reach short term goals will obviously be much easier than reaching our long term ambitions. This is why when we accomplish our short term goals we will need to replace them with new ones. Each time this is accomplished we will ultimately be brought one step closer to our fitness objectives.
With a lack of any of the above 3 elements you will also experience a lack of motivation which unfortunately leads to failure. When we fail a few months down the road on our way to a better level of fitness it is most likely attributed to neglecting one of the elements which fosters motivation. So we need to ensure all of these elements are met and nurtured. Remember,the above components are important not only to achieve your fitness goals but also in your day to day life. Motivation is one of the main keys to performance.
In future article we will look at how we can create focused goals and how to reach the next level in intensity and persistence. Stay tuned.
FitnessDTT
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