Thought I would post a few articles from my new http://personaltraineruk.blogspot.com/ ! I know it is a little late, but I only started this blog in mid Jan, so I thought I would talk about some of the things that people should consider when thinking up the dreaded and often overlooked by now, New Years Resolutions. If yours have gone down the pan already lets look at some of the ways that you might be able to bring them back to life and make them work for you. Setting New Years resolutions is just a form of goal setting, goals are a vital part of life and also a great tool to get yourself motivated. However people often set themselves un-realistic and un-achievable goals, these will be doomed to failure and thus become a great de-motivator. So what is a goal? The definition of a goal is ‘the desire to attain a specific standard of proficiency on a stated task within a given time’. This definition shows us that goals are clearly defined in terms of the task and the standard that you are looking to gain and also they are over a set time. To make your goals work, they need to be SMARTER!! Specific - goals need to be relevant to the situation and described in detail. The more specific that your goal is then the more useful as a motivation tool it will be. Measurable - goals need to have some measurable part, such as an amount of weight to loose. This ensures that you know when your goal has been achieved, by merely saying you want to loose weight, how will you know when you have achieved your goal? Agreed - agreed between all parties involved, e.g. you and your trainer. A goal forced upon you will never be as effective as a motivator as a goal that you have agreed to and excites you. Realistic – your goal need to be achievable, if a goal is seen as or is impossible to achieve it will de-motivate you. Goals need to be achievable but challenging, this is the hard bit, and requires you to be totally honest with yourself as to if it is achievable but provides some sort of challenge. Time Framed - goals need to be set over a defined period of time. Such as by a certain date of over a given time frame. This again makes the goal have some form of urgency, by not putting a date on the completion you can constantly put off starting. Exciting - any goal you set must be exciting or again it will de-motivate you. Try and build in a fun part or a fun reward for boring tasks. Recorded - a written record of what your goals are is vital to ensure that the goal stays constant and is not changed mentally or debated on a later date. A record of your route to achieving your goal can also be a great motivator, this will allow you to randomly look at how far you have come. If your goal is a long term one, i.e. it will take more than a say six months to a year to complete, it may be worth having sub goals. For example, if your goal is to ‘Run in the next Manchester 10K, and shave 10 seconds off my time for last year’. A sub goal at month three of training might be to ‘Run 5k on the mid point to the race saving 5 seconds off my best 5k run time’. As part of you goal setting system it might be useful to think of rewards that you would give yourself if you achieve what you have set out to. For example it you achieve the sub-goal above you might say your reward will be a sports massage. Hope this helps you set goals that you are much more likely to achieve! Until next time, don’t just train hard, train intelligently! Tom
