One of the saddest things I can possibly imagine is someone of a ripe old age on their death bed just realizing that they never did what they wanted to do with their life. It is because of this reason that I believe it is important to set goals for yourself and seek to accomplish them. But where do you start? How do you set goals for yourself? Below we'll examine a few angles you can use to set goals for yourself in and out of the gym:
1. Weak Areas: We all have weaknesses. There is always an area of our lives/physique that isn't quite as developed as the rest. This is usually the easiest way to help figure out your goals. If you set goals based on this angle you'll never run out of new objectives.
2. Strong Areas: This is the opposite of the previous goal but sometimes a little harder for folks to identify. What are your strengths? Can you push them to new heights? For example, if your strongest lift is your 315 pound squat, see if you can get 325 the following week.
3. Fantasy Goals: These goals usually have little to do with your strengths and weaknesses. They are things you just want to accomplish just to say you did it. Some people may have a hard time setting or sticking to these goals because they cannot see the relevance of it in their everyday lives.
Now that you have several ways to figure out what goals to set, let's look at how to accomplish them:
1. Identify Clearly: It's time to begin with the end in mind. At this point you should have an idea of what your goal is but now you have to see the end result clearly in your mind. This serves as a measuring stick for progress. Let's oversimplify this, say you need to get bread... before you even get off the couch you've already saw clearly which store you're going to and possibly which aisle the bread is on. Wait, is bread on your meal plan??
2. Believe: You have to believe that it is possible. If your goal is to lose weight, you need to know that there are people who've had more weight to lose than you and have accomplished it, so it is possible. All you need to do is to be open to possibility. One of the worst things I hear from people is that they "Can't lose weight". This is self defeating and simply not true. A complete waste of your mental focus.
3. Get In The Moment: See what it is you can do RIGHT NOW to start moving toward your.
4. Take Action: Once you get in the moment take that first small step to getting it done... For example, It's now 1:26am as I'm writing this blog. The thought crossed my mind to do it sometime tomorrow but instead I pulled my laptop out. Once it was out I figured I'd just write a few sentences to get the blog started... and now? Almost completed :).
5. See It Through: Stay persistent with your goals by reminding yourself often why you started in the first place. Every time you set out to do something, doubt and setbacks are pretty much guaranteed to happen. Do not let these things scare you off the path. Fear is not absent in the lives of the brave, in fact who can be called brave if there is nothing to fear? It is what the brave do in the face of that fear/setback which makes them inspiring. See it through until the end.
Remember this world is 99.9% mental. The physical follows the mind. Change your perspective, change your reality!