Goal-Setting
It happens every year, you tell yourself this is my year. This is the year I will finally achieve my weight loss goals and get into the shape I have always desired to get into. Although you can’t help but think, you have failed countless times before, maybe you made it through Jan and gave up in Feb or maybe lasted until March.
Statistically March is actually the busiest month in gyms, usage it at it’s highest then, normally membership totals are too. Most people believe it to be Jan but it’s actually March. This also suggest that March is when people start to drop off and give up, normally because of lack of will power, letting others things get in the way or more likely a lack of results.
I want you help you today by giving you some advice from my experience on how to make sure this is your year, the year you follow through with it.
So let’s travel back to when you set yourself the huge long-term goal of losing 3 stone or similar. In my terms this is equivalent to 19kg or 42 lbs. Here is what I suggest you do for starters, drop the 3 stone mentality. Swap that to work in kg or even lbs because with this you have more to celebrate, you are much closer to losing a kg or a lb that you are a stone. Stop looking too far in the distance and work on what you can achieve in the next 4-6 weeks. Don’t just pick any number though, break down the long-term goal into smaller realistic chunks. Chunks that you can regularly celebrate once you achieve. It’s much easier to think you have roughly 1lb per week to lose rather than 3 stone in 6-9 months.
The next part is really dialling into your goal, not just saying you want to lose the weight but asking yourself why, maybe 5, 10, 15 times to get to the real why. I get all my clients to write down with pen on paper what their goals are, there is a lot of power, there is more commitment. So you have the goal itself e.g. 3 stone in 6 months. You have the ‘WHY’ which is of course specific to you but it could be for the wedding you are attending in June. However if it is a wedding or a holiday, please note that this isn’t enough, you haven’t gone deep enough. If you was to ask why again you would find that it is nothing to do with the wedding itself, it is to do with the fact that you want to be confident in what you wear to it. It’s about YOU not the wedding. So that is what you write down, the real reason why, the emotional reason, how it makes you feel, not the thing itself.
So we have the goal, the why, now the real why. Now we have to commit to what we have to do. Now ask yourself, what has to change for me to achieve me goals? Write it down, get honest and be detailed. You will have outlined all the things that you already know stand in the way, it is likely that these are ‘bad habits’.
Next question, what are you prepared to do, what action will you do to ensure you achieve these goals? Here we go again, write it down. This is you making commitments to the very things you know need to happen to achieve your goal.
Note that in all of this it is you deciding the goals and the actions, it is your committing and writing it down. One other activity that is good to do is to ask yourself what barriers stand in the way, now this is similar to the question about what needs to change but this really homes in on specifics. You would then write down a strategy to overcome that barrier should it arrive e.g. meals out, nights out etc.
Once you have all of this, you would then go back to your short-term goals, break the damn thing down, I always recommend an average of 1lb per week for weight loss. But, the writing down on pen and paper cannot stop here, it has to continue, you have to remind yourself every single day what your goals are. You have to check that what you are doing that day is in line with those goals, you do that by journaling, every day. Yep, I said it, every day – 5 minutes to yourself to set the day up and also to reflect on the day before. This positively channels your energy the right way. It also gives you a minimum of 5 minutes to yourself in your own world focusing on your own wants and desires. You are to do this every morning, you would also review your week every week on a Sunday and plan your week ahead. Lucky for you, I have something that facilitates all of this and more…
The 4 H’s Journal is something I have created having trialled multiple journals myself, the beauty of what I have created is that it allows you to set up 6 week health and fitness goals and really home in on that each week. You worry about the 6 weeks, then it’s the next 6 and the next, rather than looking too far ahead. Not only that but this journal allows you to reflect on all other areas of life too, I have categorised these as the 4 H’s which are HEALTH, HEART, HOME & HOBBY. Health stands for anything related to health & fitness. Heart for anything relating to loved ones, partner, kids, friends or family. Home relates to where you live and making that a peaceful, clean, tidy & nice place to rest. Finally hobby relates to doing the stuff you love, that you probably don’t do enough of.
I have 15 copies left that are going to be available for just £6. This is the only time you will be able to purchase this for this price, it’s a prototype and I’ve noticed one or two typo’s to which I will correct on the next order as well as improving the front cover.
To get your copy simply send me an email (info@dalewallacept.com) with the words ‘DAILY JOURNAL’ and I will send you the details.