Why you should set smaller more achievable goals!

When we start our fitness journey our end goal is usually something along the lines of the get a 6 pack, lose 5 stone, return to a weight we were before we had kids 10 years ago and more along these lines. The problem with these ‘goals’ is that they are quite big goals that will take a while to get there, this opens up the opportunity for us to lose motivation to continue and result in giving up and/or self sabotaging.

What I have realised over my time in the fitness industry and along with all my clients is that it is important to have that ‘end goal’, but it is even more important that you then break that down into smaller more manageable goals that we can monitor on a monthly basis. This way once a month you are able to check back on your progress and make sure that you are on track to get to your end goal.

By getting little wins each month, whether it is lift 1kg more than at the beginning, run a little bit faster or lose 1lb they are all progress in the right direction toward getting to your goal. By seeing that we are on track and getting a little endorphin buzz that we are on the right path plays a huge part in keeping us on the right path.

For example if you wanted to lose a stone (14lbs) over the course of 3 months (12 weeks), that is 1.1lbs per week. Therefore if you were to weigh yourself weekly you are looking at a 1lb loss each week, or a 4-5lb loss each month, you can clearly see these are easy to follow and easy to track. If you happen to put 1lb on one week this allows you to look back at that previous week and try identify if there were anything you could have done better, if there were then you can implement this the following week and hopefully claw that 1lb back.

However if we just check our progress after 3 months and we haven’t lost the stone, it makes it a lot more difficult to isolate what the problem was. Along with the fact that it opens the opportunity up for you to slack off on your diet, for example because you still have 10 weeks left so it will be ok. But if you do this more than once it can really derail you and you wouldn’t notice it until the end of the 3 months.

Ultimately you are still working towards your end goal we are just breaking it down into smaller chunks that we can manage more and adapt to external factors that may play a part in our journey. The kids may be off school poorly, you may be poorly, your sleep quality may be poor amongst other factors that all contribute to you not being able to exercise or stick to your plan.

The most common reason people fail on reaching their goals is because the overall goal is too big and they have no direction to work towards, small manageable chunks are the way forward.

If you would like some help planning your goals and setting those smaller achievable targets just use the button below to drop me a message.