Setting Realistic Goals
You’re most likely to be making this change with a longer term view of your overall health and fitness, so be realistic in what you feel you can achieve and set yourself some achievable goals for a 3-6-12 month period.
Now we're just at the start of a new year, this is an ideal time to get your ambitions down, and if you set them well, you'll be able to keep tracking them as you progress, and don't let them fall by the wayside.
Exercise and fitness is just the same as other areas of life in that you have to put in the hours to become proficient and you have to accept that there is NO QUICK FIX.
You won’t magically become super fit, super athletic and/or strong, but if you set realistic goals, you will be able to monitor and see the progress you are making along the way and be able to see the overall gains.
Here are our tips for goal setting..
- Give yourself a realistic number of goals: between 3 and 5 is the recommendation and if you can look at both performance goals and development goals. A performance goal is where you are focussed on achieving a result A development goal is where you are developing skills and competencies that will help you achieve other goals.
- Be realistic for your starting point.. don’t make things difficult for yourself by aiming too high, too fast, or conversely, too easy straight away…
- There are a number of ways to help you define goals - I’m going to use one that is also popular in personal and management development.
SMART Goals :SMART means it is:- SPECIFIC - well defined, describing particular actions and you are clear on what the goal is.
- MEASURABLE - the objective can be measured in quantifiable terms and you are able to detail what successful achievement of the goal will look like.
- ACHIEVABLE - The goal is realistic based on your skills and experience and the time and resources you have available in the time allocated
- RELEVANT - the goal should add value and meaning together
- TIMED - the goal should have timescales of what is required, when and have an appropriate sense of urgency.
Here are my goals for 2017… I have 3 performance goals based on my race entries for the year and then 2 more development focussed goals.
- Compete in the Crossfit Open in early 2017, with the aim to complete each workout able to score at least 1 repetition for each defined movement.
- Compete in the Edinburgh Ironman 70.3 in June with the aim of hitting a PB for overall time, to include a sub 3hr bike.
- Compete in the 1 day Coast to Coast in September with the aim of completing the course within all time limits. A massive stretch goal here is to be the first 50+ finisher.
- Create a personal training plan for 3 months (Jan-March) to allow for cross discipline training for Crossfit, Triathlon to include 2 sessions weekly of swim, bike, run and crossfit specific training to help meet goal 1.
- Create a personal nutrition plan for Jan-March to (finally) kick my cake habit and start eating a more balanced diet to support my training (rather than eating what I like because I’m training!)
Have a go at writing them, using the following 4 tips... (I've shown how it relates to my goal 1)..
1. Include the deadline (Early 2017)
2. Include a measurable standards of successful performance (1 rep for each movement)
3.Include the specific goal of the action (Complete each workout)
4. Write the action verb that describes what is to be achieved. (Compete in the Crossfit Open)
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Coming up in the next month..
Challenges: What is next for 2021?
Articles/Blogs: Finding the right exercise for you...
