A Quick Guide To Setting Your 2018 Fitness Goals
It’s time to start planning goals for the new year.
People love to create new years resolutions around this time of year. But most people set themselves up for failure by not properly planning their goals.
It only takes less than 30 minutes to come up with a great goal that will set you up for success in the new year.
Here’s a simple process to set your fitness goal for the new year that will boost your chances of success.
Make It A Long Term Goal
You should set a goal that you want to achieve in no less than three months. But no more than 12 months.
If you create a short term goal (less than 3 months), it will force you to take unhealthy shortcuts. Or possibly, the goal is too easy if you can achieve it less than 3 months.
If you create a goal that will take more than 12 months to achieve, it will be hard to stay motivated and focused. People want to be rewarded quickly for their efforts and for most people 12+ months is not quick enough.
So the sweet spot is 3–12 months.
Use a bit of self awareness to decide an exact time frame to achieve your goal…
If you’re someone who has a lot of patience and focus, then aim to achieve your goal is 8–12 months. You will be able to achieve a lot more by giving yourself that extra time.
But if you’re someone who easily gets distracted and wants everything now (be honest with yourself!) then you should set out to achieve your goal in closer to 3 months.
Make Your Goal Measurable
Don’t create a vague goal like ‘lose weight’ or ‘get fitter.’ You don’t know if you’ve been successful in achieving your goal if you haven’t defined what success is.
You might remember a scene from Alice in Wonderland that goes like this….
ALICE: Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?
THE CHESHIRE CAT: That depends a good deal on where you want to get to.
ALICE: I don’t much care where.
THE CHESHIRE CATE: Then it doesn’t much matter which way you go.
If you don’t have a measurable goal, then you’re like Alice. You don’t know where to go. And you don’t know how to get there.
Here’s a few things you can measure:
- Weight
- Running times (eg. time to complete a 5km run)
- Blood pressure
- Weight lifted (eg. weight lifted on bench press)
- Waist circumfrence
- Body fat percentage
So a measurable goal would be “reduce my body fat percentage by 4%.” Or “run 12 kilometers in 60 minutes.”
Once you have decided on a measurable goal, you now have a destination. You know where you want to go and it’s now possible to work out how to get there.
You will also be able to measure your progress now. So you know whether you’re getting closer to your goal.
Write Your Goal Down
It’s too easy to forget about your goal after a week or two. So write in down with a pen and paper.
Put that piece of paper in your bedroom or somewhere you will see it every day.
Just by writing your goal down, you’re making a small commitment towards achieving it.
Most people want to follow through with commitments they’ve made to other people or to them self. So writing your goal down increases your chances of following through with that commitment.
Create An Action Goal
Now you have a measurable goal and a time frame to achieve it.
You know where you want to go. It’s just a matter of figuring out how to get there.
What you need to do now is create an action goal.
Think of an action you can take regularly that will help you achieve your main goal. So if your main goal was to lose 10 kilograms, your action could be:
- Walking
- Exercise
- Eating vegetables
- Reducing sugar
- Getting more sleep
All of these actions would contribute to your main goal of losing 10 kilograms.
When you have picked an action, get more specific. Decide how often you will do this action and for how long.
An example of an action goal, might be to walk 6 days a week for at least 30 minutes each day.
Get Someone To Keep You Accountable
You know that look of disappointment you get when you’ve stuffed up or done something wrong?
Like when your parents saw your bad report card at school. Or the look from your boss when you did something wrong at work. Or the look from your teacher when you hadn’t done your homework?
Most people hate getting that look.
And they will put in a lot of effort just so they can avoid getting it.
But that’s exactly the look you want to get from someone if you don’t follow through with your goal.
Knowing you will get that look if you give up on your goal will motivate you to take consistent action towards your goal.
So then you get a look more like this…
If you’re serious about sticking to your goal, tell someone about it. Ideally more than one person.
Tell them exactly what your goal is (and your action goal) and ask them to check in with you regularly.
Want More Help?
If you want more help achieving your fitness goals in the new year, I have something that might help.
I built a bot on Facebook Messenger that guides you through the goal setting process I just outlined. It’s really simple to use and only takes less than 10 minutes to create a clear and measurable fitness goal.
It can even give you advice on what you can do to achieve your goal. And it can check in with you to make sure you’re sticking to your goal (accountability!).
It’s free to use! You can try it out here: Goal Setting Bot
You will need to answer a few questions about your fitness first then select ‘Set A Goal.’
Good luck with your fitness goals in the new year!
