Personal training serving- Calgary southwest, southeast, northwest, southwest

Making and Setting Goals

We talked in the last "Make Time To Work Out" article about how there was no quick route to fitness success and that to get fit you MUST plan your workouts into your schedule. In other words any of the gimmicks out there, BAR NONE, will not keep you fit until you commit to doing fitness for the rest of your life. I hope you’re not a commitment phoebe, because if you are, you are about to get married to fitness!

So there you have it. There is NO quick route to fitness that will allow you to keep your results without constant applied effort. So what’s the next step after you have set aside your time to work out? Setting goals.

The question before you begin any great adventure or task in life should be, “Why am I doing this?” It may seem silly, but think about it. Why do you want to hit the gym? There are many reasons to take the time to think about this. No single motivation is better” than another, but you must know what drives you. A person with a plan and intense desire is unstoppable. If you don’t know why you’re doing something, any reason is a good reason to stop.

If a man knows not what harbour he seeks, any wind is the right wind. –Seneca Quit getting blown around! Pick a goal and sail your course.

Some say they don’t have the genetics or that they have had two kids, they are very busy and don’t have the time, blah, blah, blah. I say quite making excuses. The world is full of sympathetic ears, but I am not one of them. Excuses fall on deaf ears to the successful.

I have worked with some folks that are in pretty rough shape, you name it, and I have trained it. Car accidents, knee surgeries, heart attacks, depression and the list goes on and on. Some of these folks have trained with me for a few months, going through the motions for what seems to be fruitless effort and I wonder if I am wasting their time as well as mine, but then it happens. Without the coddling and sympathetic ear they are used to, they realize the future is in their hands. A change of life can only be brought about by their hard work and intense desire to do so. A person doesn't get in shape just because they want to. I have the knowledge, but they have to do the work; at home and in the gym.

Then it happens so quickly and without any foreshadowing. I wait out each session patiently until it does. Nothing extraordinary takes place. This is the same person, same type of day, who went to the same job as the day before, but now they are different. Why, and what happened? They have figured out the reason that they are working out and are now focusing the old energy that they used to make excuses with, to change and better themselves.

Anything worth doing is worth doing well! I say, “Don’t go half assed!” You won’t accomplish anything! Go play Ping-Pong or something, but don’t lie to yourself and pretend your working out hard and then become frustrated for not making any progress. Inside you know where you are not putting in 100%, so change it.

You have to work hard and put in the time. There are no shortcuts. So take some time to yourself and ask the difficult questions. What drives you? How bad do I want it? What do I need to do to change? Only when you come to grips with these questions will you be ready to give it your all and make the body and lifestyle that you have always wanted. It’s all well and good to preach but how do you use this information? First of all, don’t just forget it. Here is what you need to figure out.

Why do I work out? Think, what is compelling you to want to hit the gym. Health, sex appeal, confidence? No reason is a bad reason; it’s a very personal thing. But the reason you go determines what method you should take to get the best results. A power lifter shouldn't train like a tennis player and for health; you don’t need to be at the gym every day. Don’t waste time on any method that will not bring you closer to your goal.

How important is this to me? You will run into all kinds of opposition when you take up the gym. Friends will want to party and spouses will want to go out for treats. Once you determine the level of importance your new hobby has to you, a decision can be made as to how devoted you would like to be. Your level of devotion determines your success to failure ratio. The more serious you get, the quicker you will achieve your goals. Set deadlines and stick to them. You need an agenda or you will not feel a sense of urgency and importance.

What should I be doing that I am not? How is your diet? Are you really training hard? Do your bad habits interfere with your ultimate outcome? Only you know what you do and how it affects your goals when you’re alone. Take a look at yourself and once you know why you do the things you do, you'll find all the more reason to be great at it!".

Once you have your goal, you need to set some time lines. Why is this important? Because you don’t want to shut down your trip to fitnessvill if you haven’t even gotten to the gas station. Fitness takes time and you need to know mentally about how long it should take you to get where you want to go. You need to know for a couple of reasons:

1) So you don’t give up before you get there
2) So you know you’re on schedule, not that it’s a race.

Next lesson? Setting up the fitness time lines.

Ray Burton
ISSA CPT
www.buildingbodies.ca



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Ray Burton is a 15 year veteran weight loss coach who specializes in helping busy moms and parents maximize their results.