From the Trainer

By Ryan Unverzagt

Goal Setting 2021

The year has FINALLY come to a close. In spite of the whole COVID mess, take a moment to reflect back on this past year. Did you accomplish the things that you said you wanted to do? Did you actually stick to those New Year’s resolutions you had made for yourself? More than likely, the answer is probably not. Why? It might be because you set unrealistic goals, especially when the focus is on exercise.

Losing weight and getting in shape is at the top of the New Year’s resolution list. The first step in successful goal setting is to write it down. This seems too obvious, but post your goals where you can see them every day: on the fridge, front door, bathroom mirror, framed on your work desk, or even set them as a screen-saver on the computer. The more often you see your goals, the better your chances of taking action.

The second step of goal-setting is to be specific. “Lose weight” is a good goal, but how much? A conservative approach is to figure losing one pound a week. Too many times we get caught up on the end result and forget that we can control what we do to get there. The little things we do along the way are referred to as process goals. The end result is called the outcome goal. My point here is that we have greater control over process goals than we do on outcome goals. Focus on smaller achievements such as going to the health club twice a week, eating a healthy breakfast in the morning, or working on correct exercise technique. This will help build your confidence levels. More times than not, the outcome goal will take care of itself.

The third step of goal-setting is to create a time-frame. There needs to be a sense of urgency for anything to happen. Try to gather some social support from family, friends, and co-workers. They need to know what your goals are so they can help you stay on track.

The final step of successful goal-setting is to identify why your goal(s) are important to you. If your goals have no meaning, what’s the point of working hard to achieve them? To attach meaning to your goal, ask yourself, “How will this make me feel?” This is the ultimate way to keep motivated.

After reading this article, hopefully you can finally stick to those resolutions for the New Year. Remember to write them down to read every day, be specific, create a time-frame, and identify why they are important to you. These are just a few things to consider while establishing your New Year’s resolutions. Let’s hope that 2021 is going to be a good year!