Deb Brown, NSCA-cpt, cns, cws
Have you created goals for the New Year? You may be having challenges in keeping motivated and wondering how you are going to stay the course. Are the excuses starting to pop up? If so, read on to learn how to stay motivated.
1. Examine your goal: is it realistic and measurable? How will you know when you have been successful? Does it work into your current lifestyle and schedule? Do you have a good support team?
2. Examine your obstacles? What is really getting in the way of you actively working on your goals every day? The “I’m too busy” excuse is not good enough. If you are truly committed to making your health a priority, you will find the time needed. If other things are constantly getting in the way of you working out, you need to do some soul searching and ask why you keep ending up on the bottom of your own priority list?
3. Ask yourself: what motivates you? If you are feeling ambivalent toward your goals, but feel that they are achievable, examine why you are not still excited to work on them. Ask why you are motivated to work on this goal, and then ask why again until you have distilled your true motivation.
4. Believe in yourself and abilities – look at what you have done well in the past; in what areas of life you have succeeded. What did it take to achieve success in these areas? Organization, focus, hard work? Guess what? It takes the same skills to commit to and live a healthy life. You have the skills. Now, just
harness those skills that you use at work or in other places in your life and apply to your fitness goals.
5. What is the “game-changer”? What is the one action, that if you did it every day, would lead to success? What is standing in your way? Commit and find a way to make this happen. Is it getting into the gym three times per week? Grocery shopping and meal planning over the weekend? Do it!
6. Recommit!! Refine your goals to what excites you and what is achievable. Don’t just totally give up! Push aside those goals that do not work for you and focus on what DOES work, what gives you energy. Use visualization to see where you want to get to. At your optimal level of wellness, what do you look like, feel like? What are the things that you will be able to do that you cannot do now? Write these ideas down and go back and read them when you are feeling out of focus.
If you would like support in achieving your health and fitness goals, give us a call to learn how we can help.