I am a very goal oriented person, hence why I have been able to lose and keep off over 100 pounds, bench press 600 pounds raw in three different weight classes, and bench 900 pounds equipped. These exploits were not happenstance. I set goals for each and every one of them.
A lot of my blog posts come from a very organic place. This one is no exception. Since hitting my weight loss goal, I have been a little lost with my training. I need for it to have purpose. I need a goal. I have come up with a couple of ideas and am massaging them out. Then it dawned on me that many readers out there have no idea how to set a proper goal. Bam, blog idea!
This is a common time of year to set a goal. The sad truth is that most of these goals will never become a reality. These goals all come with good intentions, so if you have a goal, let's try and get you there.
First, make your goal MEASURABLE. The number one goal most people set after the holidays is to lose weight. Does that mean if you lose one pound have you reached your goal? Probably not. It's kind of like setting your lifting goal to be stronger. That's too broad. The goal needs to be specific. However, don't set your specific goal just yet.
The next step is to make your goal ACHIEVABLE. If you are a 300 pound bencher, don't set your goal to be to hit 600 pounds. It's not that you could never achieve a 600 pound bench, but it wouldn't be in a relevant time manner. Set a realistic goal. Achieving a goal will give you great satisfaction and cause you to strive for an even greater goal.
Now if you have a big goal, CHUNK it down. Break that bigger goal down into smaller ones. This one resonates deeply with me. When I was 328 pounds, I would have been horrified at the prospect of losing over 100 pounds. It just wouldn't have seemed realistic to me. That hill would have been too big to climb, in which case I may have never started. Instead, my goal was to simply get down to the 308 pound weight class. That was only 20 pounds. It was manageable and when I hit it, I felt great about getting there. Next was the 275 class, and so on, and so on, until I got down to my final goal of the 198 lb class.
Lastly, set a TIME to accomplish your goal. That time constraint will give you a sense of urgency. That looming date may cause you to get an extra training session in. Perhaps it might keep you from eating those extra calories the weekend before you weigh in. Whatever it is, putting a time to something makes it more likely to happen.
I'm sure some would like to make this more complicated, but it's not. When you have a goal in mind, make sure it's specific and MEASURABLE. Be realistic and make it ACHIEVABLE. If your goal is too big and overwhelming CHUNK it down. Finally, set a TIME to reach that goal.
These steps won't take much time and will increase the likelihood of achieving a goal exponentially. Good luck and get after it!