Do You Even Know Where You’re Going?

Zig Ziglar once said "If you aim at nothing, you'll hit it every time". And he's absolutely right. We all have good intentions that we're going to lose weight, start exercising regulary, cut down on alcohol and chocolate, <insert your intention here>, but very few people actually get around to doing anything about it. We're always going to "begin tomorrow". Well you know the other saying, "tomorrow never comes".

The problem is those good intentions are so vague. They're just not specific enough. Oh so you're going to lose weight? How much? When by? How? So whatever it is that you want to achieve you need to be more specific about it.

How to narrow the bullseye

Imagine leaving the house to visit an house in a strange town without an address. Are you likely to get there? Not really. That's exactly what you're doing when your goals are vague and unspecific. You won't get much further than the end of your driveway if you don't know whether to turn left or right then.

The way to make your goals easier to reach is to clearly define them and then write them down:

• How much weight do you want to lose?
• What would you like to change about your diet?
• How often do you want to exercise and what type of exercise do you want to do?
• Which item of clothing do you want to be able to wear again?
• How fast would you like to run those 3 miles?
• What BMI range would you like to be in?

Once you know the "address" write it down so that you don't forget it. Writing down your goals makes them more real and you can have them somewhere easy to see so that you're reminded frequently where you're heading. Then it's just a case of finding the best route.

And then you need to start the car!

The hardest part of any transformation is getting started but once you get going it's a lot easier to build the momentum and keep going. The first few days of doing something differently to how your used to is uncomfortable and just plain feels "odd" and we're hard-wired to tend towards the familiar. So how do you get started and keep going? First of all, focus on the behaviours that you need to adopt to reach your goal. For instance, you can't directly control who quickly/slowly your body will lose weight because it's a physiological process within the body, but you can control how much and what you eat, how much and when you move! So choose the behaviours that you want to adopt/change to move you towards your goal. This applies to any type of goal, not just weight loss.

Now shrink the change

Whatever behaviour change you've decided to make, shirnk it so that it's relatively easy to do. That way you're more inclined to actually do it and you'll get used to the whole "change" process and being successful at it. If you want to eat a healthier diet then pick a change like adding oily fish to you diet once a week or adding in another serving of leafy green veg every day. These are simple changes that most people can manage and once you've got one change adopted, choose another simple one to add. Then keep going and keeping adding in those healthy but small diet changes. You'll find you'll end up completely overhauling your diet in the long term and the changes will stick, it won't just be a phase.

You might need to divert

Change is never a simple linear path. You usually don't go from where you're at to where you want to be without some obstacles along the way. That's fine as long as you expect it and realise that it's normal. If you find that something happens that throws you off course then just refocus when you can and get straight back to it. You wouldn't stop an important journey because the motorway was closed, you'd just go via A and B roads instead. Any goal is just like that, if what you're doing isn't working for whatever reason, then change it and go a different route.

If you'd like some help deciding what your goals are or how to go about achieving them then give us a call. We've love helping ladies lose weight, get leaner, tone up or just be healthier and we can help you too.