WHY YOU ARE NOT REACHING YOUR GOALS

A problem with people who come to me for coaching is not that they don’t have goals. No, most people have massive goals that they want to achieve. Lose 20 kilograms in 20 weeks, put on 10 kilograms of muscle on in 20 weeks, look like a cover model for your honeymoon in 12 months.

All common goals that come out as we sit down for the initial consultation. And there lies the first problem.

Your goal is too far into the future

Most people set outcome goals too far into the future. When the initial goal is huge and only a distant blink in the future it’s hard to stay motivated when in the day to day grind.

When things get challenging with diet and training people easily slip off the plan and progress slows down, or worse, regresses.

What if you don’t set up any goals at all

No goal, no direction. Imagine you are trying to get from Sydney to Brisbane with blindfolds on. Endlessly frustrating.

What if you don’t know what goals to set

Should you let other people tell you what your goals should be?

A friend, a coach or your grandma can give you guidance. They can pepper you with ideas to spark your interest.

But they shouldn’t decide what your goal should be. Because, and this might sound obvious, they are not you. Only you will truly know what you want from your training.

If you let others decide what you should train for you are not going to stay motivated. The end goal is not something your heart is set on.

HOW TO BE BETTER AT GOAL SETTING

Goal are crucial for progress. They give you a target to aim for and help you to avoid guess work in this world of endless options and opinions. Goals also keep you motivated since you are able to visualize the end result.

There are two types of goals which you need to set up though. This will allow you to achieve the highest motivation that lasts the rough seas of your busy lifestyle.

Outcome goal

This is the big end goal we talked about earlier. Your wedding in six months, that bodybuilding show in a year’s time. Or looking like Terry Crews on your honeymoon so your new wife can’t contain her desire.

But settling only for the outcome goal will diminish your chances of ever being the object of that honeymoon desire. The odds are that you’ll look more like Tom Hanks than Terry Crews when time comes to board the plane. No matter how committed you were at the start.

That’s why you need to go through this next step.

Process goal

These are the small goals which you need to set along the way.  Process goals keep you on the right track while giving you something along the way to celebrate. Without process goals you’ll be like John McClane in the fifth Die Hard: utterly lost in your own adventure.

Simple process goals could be:

• a specific amount of muscle mass in six weeks

• body fat lost in a month

• the number of “ooooooooooh”’s you’ll get from your fiancee during the next five weeks as she runs her fingers on your bulging bicep

Regularly attaining these small goals keep you motivated while adding to your progress along the way.

So, we’ve established that taking the time to set both outcome and process goals is where the money’s at. Just remember that because you set a goal doesn’t mean that you will be the desire-magnet when the honeymoon rolls around.

A goal without a plan is just a distant dream. No matter how many inspirational Terry Crew’s quotes you read each morning.