The temperature is getting warmer. The grass is getting greener. And the last time I looked, there was a bit of snow in the forecast. Go Wisconsin! 🤣 Spring is here in any case, and summer isn’t too far away. That means we’re in the second most popular time of the year for setting fitness goals—the other two popular times being the beginning of the year (#1) and back-to-school/pre-holidays (#3).
Whether you’ve been struggling with or making steady progress on the goals that you (hopefully) set earlier in the year or you’re excited to tackle some new goals for the summer, here are three ideas that you can use to improve your chances of accomplishing what you set out to do.
Willing vs. Won’t
Change is hard, and we often feel resistance against the actions that we think we need to start (or stop) doing in order to accomplish our goals. That resistance typically occurs because we try to force ourselves to do things that we either really don’t want to do or aren’t sure that we’ll be able to do.
A great way to overcome this resistance is to get clear on what we’re currently willing and unwilling to do. (This can and probably will change. So don’t feel like whatever you come up with is set in stone. It’s just a guide for now!) Once we know what actions are on either list, it becomes much easier to get started with one or a few items from the “willing” list and feel confident that we’re doing something to make progress.
Small Actions > Big Actions
Particularly with fitness-related goals, we often feel like we need to do everything that’s possible or we won’t make progress. While we may need to eventually build a number of new habits in order to achieve our goals, starting small is the best way to build momentum and avoid overwhelm.
For example, which of the following two nutrition-related actions do you think you’d be more likely to stick with daily for the next month (or even just a week)?
- Drink 80 oz. of water, cut out alcohol, consume 180g of protein, eat 4c of veggies, and cut out all added sugar.
- Eat a handful of baby carrots.
Probably the second option, right? Yeah, me too. 🙂
Again, this doesn’t necessarily mean that we won’t need to eventually do some or all of the actions in the first option above in order to achieve our goals. But this leads to the final point:
Consistency + Persistence = Progress
You wouldn’t expect to graduate college after attending a single class or studying for one test, right? What about expecting to get a promotion at work after finishing a single assignment? Or winning an agility competition with your dog after going to the park and playing fetch all day?
Ultimately, progress toward any goal is made because of what we do consistently over the course of time (i.e. persistence). Obviously, different goals will require different degrees of consistency and for different lengths of time. However, it’s often not as intense as you might think. (See this article for more details. Notice how even 10-49% consistency with simple actions over the course of a year produced some results.)
Putting it into practice
Consider one of your current goals, make a list of as many actions as you can think of that could help you achieve that goal, and then cross out any action that you’re not willing or able to do at the current time, for whatever reason.
Then pick one of the actions that you did not cross out. On a scale of 1-10, decide how likely you are to be able to perform that action consistently (preferably daily or at least every couple of days). Be honest. If it’s anything less than a 9, figure out how you can break it down into even smaller actions, and repeat this step until you score it 9 or 10.
Finally, practice that action today and the next day and the next. Before too long, you’ll likely need to set another goal!