PLANNING FOR SUCCESS!
I always love goal setting and success planning, especially at the beginning of the year. It's exciting to put a plan together that will help you achieve your dreams. There are many tactics you can use to write a successful plan, and having a plan is a MUST. You're not going to hope and wish your way to success. Here's how I like to write my goals and plans:
Ask yourself what you're willing to do to reach your goals. It will be hard at times, and you're going to have to make a few sacrifices. How important is it to you? How will you feel once you've reached your goal? Keep these things in mind when goal setting.
Write them down and be specific. Your goals need to be measurable. So, I want to lose weight doesn't work. Since I'm going to be repeating them to myself often, I like to write them present tense and add an emotion. It feels amazing to be below 10% body fat by my vacation June 5th!
Take some measurements to see where you're currently at and break your goal up into smaller incremental goals with goal dates. This will help to keep you from procrastinating. If you need to lose 20 lbs of body fat and have 12 weeks to do it, aim for 7 pounds in the first 4 weeks, another 7 in the next 4, and 6 in the last 4 weeks.
I like to give myself 2-3 daily behaviors that will take me a step closer to my dreamland. Usually these are simple things such as, drink 120 ounces of water, eat 200 grams of protein, turn all screens off an hour before bedtime. Set reminders for yourself so you don't slip up. After 2-3 weeks these will become habits and you can begin working on new behaviors. I will also do this with weekly goals. I generally don't like conditioning, so at least one conditioning workout is perfect for me.
Track everything! Keep a journal where you can log your workouts, the exercises, sets, reps, weights, rest periods, tempo, all of it. Track your nutrition and how often you successfully follow your behaviors as well. Good record keeping is key.
That's it really! Set aside some time to really layout a detailed and progressive plan. Tt may take more than one sitting. Revisit your plan often, assess your progress and make changes if necessary. It's a fun process to turn your dreams into reality!
