Think for yourself and set your own damn goals

I find it surprising that so many people don’t know how to set good goals.  Those that are able to set goals often get out of the habit.  Do people forget to think for themselves?

It almost seems that many of us fall victim to our family circumstance, supervisor(s), customers, children and school projects.

Objective of this article: Think for yourself and set your own damn goals.

Coaches, trainers and friends will help contract and stretch you to be more ambitious or knock you down to be more realistic.  In either case, you set the goal, you are the driver of your body.  You are an adult and you get to decide where you want to go.

But I don’t know what I want.

Let me help guide you to simplicity:

You want to be happy

Being consists of a few things.
1.) Sex
2.) Drugs
3.) Rock n’ Roll

Crazy right?

Okay, I’m just kidding. (albiet there is some truth to my humor)

Most people want to have importance, feel better and have more.  As of this current moment that’s what I’ve been able to simplify things down to.  Being able to have importance, feel better and have more will result in more happiness.

Keep in mind that this doesn’t have to be anything physical, but often it is.  As much as I’d like to get into a philosophical discussion about that, I will save that for another blog post.

1.) Importance or purpose
2.) Feel Better
3.) Have more

This all equals more happiness.

You, everyone and myself all want more happiness. Without over analyzing things related to fitness will give you the most happiness?

Lose 10lbs, Get in better shape, get stronger, get better, make more money, get better grades.

Sorry, but all of these are really sh*tty goals.  Really ****** dumb.

They are all arbitrary and have no specific meaning.  None of them are specific.  Like the famous, “lose 10 pounds” goal.  “I just want to lose 10 pounds.”

Yeah the 10lbs you gained recently or a few months ago.

I’d like to rant about that too, but I’ll also save that for later.

Losing 10lbs is a goal and a major undertaking for most people.  It’s a project that requires multiple behavior changes.  The actual behaviors requires a time commitment. Each behavior has a certain difficulty level.  Some are easy and some are more difficult.

Assess what you’re willing to do.  If you’re not willing to track your food or give up your morning doughnut, it might not be a good idea to set a 30 day 10lbs weight loss goal.  Set a goal of 3 or 5lbs.  Or maybe you reduce how often you have your doughnut, or maybe you can track your food 2 days out of the week.  Keep in mind the doughnut in this example could easily be weekend alcohol consumption.

Set some behaviors you know you’ll stick to.  Make sure they line up realistically with your goal.  Maybe drink one weekend day a week.

Know thy self.

No one knows you better than you.  So it might be a good idea to start paying attention to your tendencies.  I’m a compulsive eater.  If there is ice cream in the house, it will be gone in a matter of days.  Of course I’ll share it with my family, but lets be real, I’m going to eat more than half of it.  If there are peanut butter M&M’s in a bag in the trainer area, I’m going to eat some.

If there is a bag of Doritos cool ranch in my house, I will eat some and then eventually all of it.

I usually work Sunday thru Thursday.  It’s unlikely I will workout as hard as I do on Friday and Saturday (if at all).  I know me and I know how to plan my week.  You need to do the same.

Unless you’re overly motivated, it’s best that you set a behavior based goal.  Like exercise for 10 minutes everyday.  Eat one serving of green leafy vegetables everyday.

Too many fail at losing 10lbs.  Too many fail at accomplishing anything with their fitness in 30 day they can be proud of.  They can’t be proud of it because they set a goal they are not ready to own up to.

I’ll end this with a sports analogy.  60-70% of all shots taken in an NBA basketball games are lay ups. A majority of NBA games are effectively won with shot within a short distance.

In order to score in baseball you have to get on base.  Hitting a single is what gets you on base.  Then run home. Score points.

In football, it’s really protecting the quarterback.  He needs enough time to get the ball where it needs to go.  When someone has the ball the opposing team needs to stop him to prevent a touchdown.  Blocking and tackling.

These are basics.  These are fundamentals. Think for yourself and decide what you want to work on.  Pick 1 or 2 NEW behaviors to adopt.  If you are ambitious and want to see radical change, journal your food, prepare your meals and spend 10 hours a week working out.  If you’re less ambitious, eat a leaf everyday.