At the beginning of any health and fitness journey it is easy to focus on the goal. But I challenge you to change your focus to the actions needed to reach the goal and watch your results change as a result.
Just as when you take a road trip, you know the destination but you spend much of your time ensuring that the details of the trip are executed. You start with things like do you need gas or an oil change, when you want to leave and how many rest breaks will you take. You narrow down the details to make your trip as efficient as possible while in the back of your mind knowing what your destination will be. You give yourself time to enjoy the actual journey as that is usually the best part of any road trip until you reach your destination.
Your health and fitness journey should be looked at in the same way. Yes, you may have a goal of losing “X” amount of weight or dropping “X” number of dress sizes. But focusing on something that is in the distance will only make the daily steps need to get there feel less and less appealing. You are then able to break your bigger goal down into smaller pieces that you can successfully complete on a daily or weekly basis. This is how you build the level of consistency needed to reach your ultimate goal which is much further down the line.
Old Focus…
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- I want to lose 20lbs in the next 6 months
- I want to lose 4 dress sizes in the next 4 months
- I want to decrease my body fat percentage 10 points in the next 6 months
New Focus…
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- I am going to focus on drinking an extra glass of water each day
- I am going to focus on eating protein with each meal
- I am going to focus on strength training 2-3 times per week each week
- I am going to focus on going for a 30 minute walk at least 2 times per week
By simply checking off the smaller yet manageable tasks you do two things…1) you can create more long lasting positive habits & 2) you will reach your longer term goal without having to stress over the fact that you are not there yet.
SPOILER ALERT: it was never realistic to think that you were going to get to that big goal any time soon. But somehow we tell ourselves that we should be there already.
