Are you a dreamer just like me? I can sit and think of these grand goals I have for myself, for my family, and our life. Dreaming of the future gives me motivation. But the thing with being a dreamer is that sometimes our goals even overwhelm ourselves. Has that ever happened to you? You set a really big goal only to then panic on how on earth you are going to get there? That is for sure me!
More times than I’d like to admit I have gone through that exact cycle to only then end up quitting because it seemed too far out of reach. The problem was never my actual goal though, it was how I went about trying to achieve it. In this post I am going to walk you through my tips for setting clear and realistic goals. They will help map out a realistic path so you can still dream as big as you’d like!
#01 Understand What You Want and Why
Does this sound like you at all? You start out on a goal and as you are going along on your journey you find smaller goals that are sort of related along the way and you add those to your list also. This is something I used to do all the time. The problem with this thinking is you can’t focus on too many things all at once. This is how we get lost on our way to achieving these goals.
Try focusing on one thing at a time. I know it doesn’t sound as grand but that is your best chance for success. Take this scenario for example you want to lose weight but you also want to run a marathon and start that running blog you’ve always dreamt about. All of those are fantastic things to work towards but if you start all of them at the same time you are going to be completely burnt out and will probably end up quitting. Pick one! Just one! And start there. Reach that goal and then move towards another. I know that is probably not what you want to hear but the purpose of this post was to give you realistic ways to help you achieve your goals!
Just one more thing, if you choose to go the weight loss journey first that doesn’t mean you can’t start running as part of your exercise. You totally can but the focus you need to train for a race is completely different than just running for exercise! I wanted to clear that up a bit so there was no confusion!
#02 Setting Small Goals Is The Key
So you have your big dream, fantastic! Now you might be sitting there thinking that it could take a really long time to accomplish and that could very well be true. What I find works best is to take that big dream and break it up into smaller goals. These goals should help lead you to the larger one.
Let’s jump back to the weight loss scenario from before. If you set out to lose 50 pounds, that could take up to a year if not more to accomplish. Now there is nothing wrong with that but you might find your motivation falls off a bit and you have a hard time showing up for it each day. The reason is you set your goal at that 50 pounds, so you are telling yourself that you aren’t successful until that is reached.
To help this we can break up the 50 pound goal into smaller goals. So instead of 50 pounds we set it to 10. Once we reach the 10 pounds we set another goal for 10 pounds and we keep doing that until we reach the overall 50. When you do this you are giving yourself motivation and think about it, when you have success, you want to keep going! Setting smaller goals along the way gives you that feeling of being successful throughout the entire journey rather than just at the end.
#03 How To Measure Progress and Why It Matters
Whenever you set out to accomplish a goal it is really important to set something up to monitor your progress. You might overlook this step but you really shouldn’t. There are many ways you can get from one point to another. If you don’t measure your progress how will you know if the path you are on is working?
You might find along the way you have to change up your approach. This is why monitoring your progress is important. Let’s go back to the weight loss goals we’ve been talking about. So many people now are avoiding the scale and I totally get that. And if you want to skip the scale then you totally should but that doesn’t mean you don’t track your progress in another way. Maybe you take measurements once a week or month or take pictures.
There are many ways to track your progress regardless of what your goals are. If you are working on your mindset you can track your emotions. If you have a running goal you can track your times. Even just a quick checklist can help you monitor whether or not you should adjust your approach.
Setting goals can be an exciting, yet overwhelming experience but it doesn’t have to be. Following these three tips can help set you up for success and keep you on the right path until you get to that goal. Once you take the time to really plan it out you will find you are a lot less overwhelmed!
Are you feeling like you just need more? I totally get that! Click the link below to come check out episode 2 of The Coffee Donuts Fitness Podcast to learn more tips to learn how to stick to your weight loss goals!
