Murder of Your Motivation: Pt 2

Setting Realistic Goals

If you have read Part One then you have made the time and sacrifice and you are ready to begin a workout plan or are you? What exactly are your goals? What bull’s eye are you aiming the arrow? What do plan to get out of this plan that you have made? Why did you wait until 1/1/07 to make the plan? A lot of my writing is not actually about routines, sets, reps, and alternatives to the Adkins diet. I am here to keep you motivated when it’s easy to throw the plan away and forget it. Most people start a fitness regimen but are unclear on what exactly it is that they want in return. So the next part is simply that? Are you setting and meeting realistic goals?More…

Realistic goals are simply achievable targets. My first advice to you is talk in numbers. I’m sure you have never accepted any doctor telling you that you look fine. Right? Men? No. He examines you and he runs intrusive tests using equipment that allows a closer look than the naked eye. Results come back from the tests in the form of numbers. Pulse, blood pressure, cholesterol, and fat percentage are numbers that will tell you where you are and where you need to be. I do not watch figure skating often because I would rather poke my eyes out with a rusty nail, but I never seen a gold medal awarded because they look good. They have a score and they get points from executing routines based on difficulty. Numbers are the paint brushes that will define the canvas which is your body. There will come a time that you will not necessarily see your results because you look at yourself everyday and it is a gradual process.

An unrealistic goal is saying that I want a flat tummy. I’ve also heard that women want to lose their butt. Sounds fine but what will you judge your expectations against? How will you mark progress? A realistic goal is that I weight 210 lbs. right now and I want to be at 176 lbs. by the end of the year. Another goals is to lose six inches off of my waistline. Gradual process? Yes. How can you mark progress? Numbers. Weigh yourself the same way in January and weigh yourself again the same way in December. Naked in January then you are naked in December. Start off by setting a goal of losing ten pounds the first month. Take measurements the same way at the beginning of the year and at the end. Achieving these goals will boost your confidence once you work hard to achieve it, but you aren’t done yet! Don’t cancel the membership yet! Get the treadmill back out you packed up next to the Christmas tree and decorations! Starting off, you will physically see that you are losing size by how your clothes fit until you reach a plateau: A point where weight loss becomes stubborn. You have to keep at it at this point because you are not marked by microwave progress. Stay in the game! Take measurements and often chart them monthly. Realign yourself with the original vision and reiterate how important it was for you to begin this program. The numbers will tell you more than your eyes. I will address changing the routine to shock the system out of a plateau in a later article.

Realistic goals are the branches of realistic values. Do you have a set of values? Benjamin Franklin knew that perfection would never be achieved; however, he made it a point to perfect a different value each week. I challenge you to do the same. Run a search on your internet browser and find a list of values; or create your own list of values important to you and for each week of the year challenge yourself to work on each value. That’s right, find 52 values or close to it. Align your goals around your values. Obviously, I’m fitness oriented, but find other values to challenge your mindset. Example if week 13’s value is family, use this time to call relatives you’ve lost contact, touch base with any close family issues, surprise your wife and take her to eat lunch. If week three is adventure, then each night of the week you find a different place to go or different adventure. During this week, I’ve attended country music clubs, ballroom dance classes, hockey games, and things out of the ordinary! Other values are faith, social, diet, patience, reconciliation, confrontations, happiness, cleanliness, fears, etc. Have the same values scattered throughout the year. It would be a shame to make contact with relatives one week out of the year. I am in route to finishing my second year of value setting and it’s a different challenge each week. Challenging my fears was an especially difficult week. That value encompassed other values as well. Not all weeks are successful. Don’t worry because we are rewarded for striving towards excellence. Document your findings, attitudes, and people you have met.

Fitness goals have to be grown up fitness goals. They should align with your overall health and diet for long term living. Why only exist when you can exist and have a satisfying happy abundant life? Accountability partners are great, but you must train yourself to go the course alone. I will cover that on a future article, they will not always be there but you will. Why deal with conflicting schedules and other people’s or family issues. Set a time when you can review your goals. Sunday evening or Monday afternoons are good quiet times when I sit down with a bottle of water and review how I did and what adjustments need to be made for the week. This will conclude a great week of values, exercise, and set you up to face the next one.

So I sat here and wasted 10,000 words telling you to not overdo yourself when you set goals. Before starting a regimen, please think back to how long it’s been since you have touched a weight or piece of equipment if you have. Think about how many days you have stuffed junk food in your system, and sat around being a lazy couch potato. It will take some time for your body to readjust. Trust me the locomotive takes a long time to start but once she get’s going it a force to reckon with if you cross the path! Be patient, it even took God six days to make the world. Give yourself a break and enjoy the trip. The destination waits for you, but enjoy the mountains and valleys on the way there.

If you have any questions or comments or need a ‘shot’ o motivation feel free to email me at fw1685@sbcglobal.net.