Staying Motivated: Goal-Setting Part 1
Staying Motivated: Goal-Setting Part 1
Have you started a fitness program recently? The first few weeks have been great – you have been working out more than ever before, you may have seen a change on the weigh scale or in how your clothes are fitting. This is a great start, but how long does it last? After the first 2 or 3 weeks your fitness program might not be giving you the effects you have been experiencing or life might get in the way and it becomes less important to get that daily activity.
How do you battle this loss of motivation?
One of the most important things to do when you start a new fitness program (or even if you are in the middle of one and you haven’t done this yet) is to set goals. Without goals you will be wandering aimlessly – especially after those first few weeks.
Types of Goals
There are several types of goals that have different purposes. An Outcome Goal is typically used in terms of sports, and deals with comparing yourself to others and defeating them. Outcome goals can be somewhat translated into fitness if you are competing with a partner or if you are in a contest of some sort. Setting outcome goals in fitness is not always encouraged because of the lack of control one has over actually accomplishing it. The biggest variable is your competitor and you never know what they will do in the course of a competition.
Performance Goals are the most popular in fitness. They focus on measurable self-comparisons – which is most likely what your fitness regime will entail: you against yourself. An example of a performance goal is losing 10lbs in 8 weeks (what we all wish and hope for!). These are important goals to set – if we do not have a defined finishing point, how do we expect to get there?
The best thing about goal setting is that it helps us get to where we want to be, by breaking down a large task into several simpler ones. This is where Process Goals come in. They are the strategy to completing your performance goals. If the goal is to lose 10lbs in 8 weeks, the process goals you could set as strategy to complete that task would be: being active 60min every day, recording your diet in a journal, and hiring a personal trainer to start the process. These are the most controllable and simplest tasks, but they will get you to your end result of losing that 10lbs.
Personal trainers are well versed in goal setting. They will help you set goals and then hold you accountable to them.
Contact one of our trainers today to find out more about goal setting and how to stay motivated in your new fitness regime.
Also, stay tuned for part 2 of this article!
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