Good Saturday Morning!!
I am really glad you're here and ready to get started, so let's jump right into Step 1: Setting Goals.
If you want to achieve your big fitness goals and start living the active life you've been dreaming of lately, you MUST start by setting goals. While this sounds simple enough (all I have to do is get a piece of paper and write some words on it), for some reason this is often the most difficult task for many people. Why? First, people frequently have a tendency to come up with 4-5 goals, or more. Maybe you want to lose 30 pounds, be able to fit into that size 6 black dress, run a marathon, and look good for your 30-year high school reunion in 6 weeks.
Second, and more importantly, we want to start with defining "what" our goals are. So to make this process simpler for you, let's focus first on your "why". If your "why" is significant enough, your "what" and "hows" will fall into place. But if your "why" doesn't have a deeply-rooted meaning, any obstacle, no matter how small or temporary, can defeat you.
Here's an example: Let's say I placed a 20-foot long by 6-inch wide steel plank on the ground and bet you $50 to walk across it. No brainer--it's an easy $50 for you. But what if that same steel plank was placed between two hotels, 16 feet apart and 15 stories, or about 175 feet, above the ground. Chances are there's no way you would walk across that for $50. But what if your 4-year old granddaughter was on the roof of the other hotel, which was on fire? You'd probably be there and back before I could get the money out of my pocket.
Nothing physically changed--it's the same steel plank that was on the ground. But in the last scenario, your "why" changed. You didn't walk across the plank for $50, you did it to save a life. So if your "why" is big enough, the how becomes possible.
When you come up with your "why", I want you to focus on that deeply-rooted reason. Keep asking yourself "why?" until your answer speaks to you on an emotional level. Think back to, or re-read, our previous blog post on Success vs. Significance. Make your why significant, meaning that you want to make these changes for others as well as yourself.
Once you have your "why" figured out, write down one, and only one, specific goal. You MUST write it down! Make sure your goal is specific (I want to lose 30 pounds of fat), measureable (take before and after caliper and/or girth measurements), attainable (it must fit into your present lifestyle), realistic (can you lose this body fat while working 2 jobs and getting 4 hours of sleep every night?), and time-sensitive (losing 30 pounds of fat in 6 weeks isn't going to happen).
You also have to know where you are right now. Record your height, weight*, circumference measurements and body fat percentage. The reason I placed an asterisk after weight is because I don't want you to get hung up on what the scale reads. I have seen numerous people lose 2 dress sizes while losing 5-6 pounds of scale weight. I want your focus to be on health measures: body circumferences and body fat levels. If you need help with these, give us a call here at Success Health & Fitness, and we'll gladly schedule an appointment to take these for you, FREE.
Now that you know where you are, where you want to go, and why it's important for you to get there, you're almost ready to get started. But first, here are your action items for today:
1. Write down your 1 specific health / fitness goal on a 3x5 index card and place it somewhere you will see it every day;
2. On that same card, write down "why" achieving this goal is important to you; and
3. Take your starting measurements and write them on that same card.
We'll see you on Wednesday, where you will get a short lesson in how your metabolism works and why it's important to you.
Move Better. eat Better. Live Better!
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