You can begin a cross country trek in your vehicle, but without a plan or map you could end up anywhere or lost or worse. As you begin your fitness program it is extremely important to set goals for yourself. I really do mean goals, not just one goal. I like to set a series of goals for my work-outs. I ask myself, “Where do I want to be in a month, in 3 months, and one year from now?”
Having short-term goals is essential in getting to your ultimate long-term goal. It is important that we are able to track where we are as we move toward our ideal fitness and health goal. If we only focus on a long-term goal, such as running in a marathon, it can seem overwhelming because it may take months to get to where we are able to run a long distance.
Short-term goals are little incentives along the way to long-term goals. They allow us to win small victories along the way to our objective. They also serve as a progress marker so we know whether or not we are on pace or need to work a little harder.
Let’s assume we have a long-term goal and we have committed to achieving that goal. We want to set shorter, realistic goals along the way to keep us inspired and motivated. What would make up a short-term goal? How do short-term goals tie in to what I want to achieve long-term?
Short-Term Goal Setting
• Be realistic
Know that if you have not lifted weights in a few years you probably won’t be able to start out where you may have left off when you did it last. If you have not run lately and you try to run 5 miles the first day you will most likely be disappointed. Give yourself a reasonable goal and a reasonable amount of time to get to it.
• Be definite
If you want to be able to be able to do pushups, define how many you want to do in a particular timeframe. Let’s say it’s our first week of doing pushups and by the end of the week we want to be able to do 10 of them. We need a plan of action that will get us to 10 pushups by the end of the week. Maybe I can do 5 to start out with. The next day I need to push to do 6 or 7. If I have 10 pushups in mind I need to stay on pace to get there by the fifth day of the week. If you want to be able to continue to increase, set definite goals for the day, a week from now, a month from now and so on. Mark a calendar with the dates you want to complete each goal.
More times than not, when trying to achieve our fitness goals, we are going to do a variety of things in order to work the areas of our body that we want to improve. Trying to keep track of it all in our head can be a daunting task. It is quite helpful to write down our short-term goals for each individual exercise or run we are doing. That way we can visualize our progress and stay focused as we go.
• Adjust as needed
Along with being realistic with our short-term goals, we need to be able to adjust them as we get a better feel for how our body is performing. We don’t want to underestimate our body’s ability to perform, but we also don’t want to cause setbacks in our program by doing things to early or causing an injury. It may be that we can do more than we thought we could at the outset and we need to increase repetitions or how far we run. Be honest with yourself throughout your routine and adjust accordingly.
• Self-analysis
While you are working on achieving your goals, make certain you are listening to what you body and mind are telling you. Are you getting all you want from your daily work-out? Are you able to push yourself to get where you need or do you need a partner to help you along? Do you need to hire a personal trainer to work with you? Don’t quit when the going gets tough.
• Celebrate your achievements.
Your long-term goal may still be out there in the future, but that doesn’t mean you should put off recognizing your short-term achievements. When you achieve a short-term goal make sure you do something to acknowledge it. Treat yourself in some fashion. Let others know what has happened and they can celebrate with you.
Remember, it is important to set short-term goals for many reasons. They keep us on track, they keep us moving forward, they help us stay in tune with our bodies, and they allow us to enjoy the ride if we use them correctly.
We may be able to visualize what we want to look like once we get to the ideal fitness we want, but we don’t always take the time to measure the cost of getting there. Many people have started out without a plan and had unrealistic thoughts of the journey. These people get defeated early on and decide it isn’t worth it because they did not plan.
Goals are designed to make you feel strong and capable and they do if we stick to them. Sticking to goals isn’t always easy, but it is much easier to get where we want to be if we use them properly. It is not enough to set long-term goals if we truly want to succeed at becoming fit. If we only set long-term goals we are more apt to find a reason to stop exercising.
Short-term goals can help us feel good about our progress along the way. They can set a course for us to succeed. You never, ever want to give yourself a reason to fail. So dream and take action by way of short-term fitness goals.
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