When it comes to your fitness plan, losing motivation is all too easy: You come down with the flu or go away on business, the kids are home on mid-term break and there goes all that great momentum. However, if you’ve set specific short- and long-term goals for your gym time, you’ll have yet another great reason to bounce back from these and other fitness-plan obstacles.
Long-term Goals: Break Down Your Grand Vision
Do you want to lose 20 pounds before your summertime high school reunion next June? Or maybe you promised yourself the gift of a six-pack by Carnival 2016. Both are potentially daunting objectives—especially if you’re not exactly a paragon of restraint and discipline.
Breaking your long-term goal down into specific, shorter and manageable sub-goals is part of a great goal-setting strategy—and a smart way to get quick results. You could try this approach on the weight-loss plan by segmenting your 20-pound reunion objective into 10 two-pound challenges.
Reward Each and Every Success
Give yourself incentives as you achieve each of those smaller goals: something as simple as treating yourself to an IMAX movie, or getting a massage. Here are a few goal-setting dos and don’ts:
1. Do get creative. Promise yourself to make a donation to your favorite charity when you achieve success.
2. Don’t hinder your success with counterproductive rewards. For example, should you reward yourself with a pint of ice cream for losing two pounds? No, that’s not a great idea.
3. Don’t beat yourself up if you’re not meeting your goals—that’s just a fast track to derailing your program.
4. Do make it a habit to record everything—your successes and your failures. Use stats and take pics to fuel your goals, motivate you and track your progress.
5. Don’t get complacent: As you get fitter, stronger, or lose more weight, your gains tend to get smaller and goals get harder to achieve. Be sure to make the rewards more attractive as you close in on your ultimate goal.
And remember, you’re bound to have setbacks as you work towards your objective; just keep your eyes on that prize.
