Happy New Year everyone. Now that the festive season is behind us and the reality of being back at work has hit home, we tend to reflect on the last year or look towards the new year.
A lot of people have made New Years Resolutions but how many of us actually follow through with them?? We make that first initial step to say “I want to change or dosomething” and sometimes thats are far as we get. Most people tend to look towards improving their health and why wouldn’t you it's the most important one but the least important on your list of priorities! How often do you say to yourself, I should check to see what I’m eating and make sure I’m getting enough fluids. I bet you never say i should book myself in for a full medical and make sure my health is in order!
So turn your New Years Resolutions into goals, some of you would have used goals at work so lets use goals to improve your health. Remember S.M.A.R.T. goal setting - Specific, Measurable , Attainable, Realistic, Timely?
First things first before you even think about exercise, go to your doctor and get a full health check. Find out your body weight, your body fat percentage, blood pressure, heart beat, cholesterol, etc etc. Now you have a bench mark! Right so what next? Set your goals!
Specific - this relates to you! What do you want to accomplish, establish a time frame, identify requirements and constraints, specific reasons, purpose or benefits of accomplishing the goal. Whats your goal?? To lose body fat, to lower cholesterol, to improve blood pressure, to have more energy? A general goal would be “Get in shape.” a specific goal would say, “Join a health club and workout 3 days a week.” A long term specific goal could be “Enter and complete a 5 km running race in 30 minutes”.
Measurable - establish criteria for measuring progress towards achieving the goals you set. So if its cholesterol then another visit to the Doctor in a month will provide you with a measure of your cholesterol level. If its a 5 km run in 30mins then in a months time your measure could quite simply be to run non stop for 5km. When you measure your progress, you stay on track, reaching your targets is a most exhilarating experience.
Attainable - plan your steps and establish a time frame that allows you to carry out those steps. Goals become attainable because you grow and expand to match them. When you list your goalsyou build your self image and develop the traits and personality that allow you to possess them. Steps along the way to completing your first triathlon could be to learn to swim freestyle non-stop for 500m in 3 months. Cycle non-stop for 1hour in 2 months. So set a step and a timeframe.
Realistic - a realistic goal is an objective toward which you are willing and able to achieve. You are the only one who can decide how high or low your goal should be. Some people look towards their first Ironman, thats a pretty high goal, for others quite simply getting a regular exercise regime is a high goal. Its down to each individual, but be sure that every goal towards your main goal represents substantial progress.
Timely - each goal needs to have a timeframe, without a timeframe there is no urgency and therefore you won’t get the wheels in motion. You become a gunna, “I’m gunna lose weight”, “I’m gunna get fit”, you should say I’m gunna lose 5kg in 2 months. Now you set your unconscious mind into action to begin attaining the goal.
Goal setting is not just one goal, its a main goal with goals or steps along the why to get to the main goal. So don’t put that New Years Resolution off any longer, set your S.M.A.R.T. goals and obtain it!