When it comes to setting exercise/training goals, the first thing that comes to mind could be doing your first pull up, squatting a certain weight or achieving a desired physique. However, if longevity and health are important to you then it would be necessary to eventually look at the bigger picture.
I’ve decided to put together the 4 stages of goal setting throughout our fitness journey. This can hopefully give a different perspective on what we should ultimately strive for when introducing exercise into our lives.
1. Completing a session, and then another one…
Setting up small goals for every session can be very encouraging. It can be anything from – I am going to try performing landmine squats for the first time to I’m going to run for 30 minutes straight. Very often going to a gym and completing a 30 – 40-minute workout is a goal in itself. And then you repeat it again and set a goal of completing another session. Keep setting and achieving these small short term goals every week and before you know it you will have consistently trained for a few months.
How to achieve?
At this stage, the important thing is to focus on the goal at hand instead of the bigger picture. Being new to anything and realizing the length of the journey ahead of you can potentially be discouraging and make you feel like there isn’t even a point in starting. That’s why it is really important to start with one small task at a time. It will be challenging at the start, but even the fittest people out there had to start somewhere.
2. Finding comfort and joy in exercise
It might be difficult to instantly find joy in exercise when you’ve just started. You are not 100% sure what you are doing, you don’t feel too comfortable in a gym and you are definitely not a fan of being sore for days after a workout. However, when you start feeling more at home in a gym environment you can start finding joy in little improvements and achievements during your sessions.
Being able to look forward to going to the gym and not dreading it or having to get it over with is an important fitness goal to achieve. Once you learn to truly enjoy challenging your body, getting stronger and have your workouts not feel like work; when you build a positive connection between training and feeling good physically and mentally you will be setting yourself up for long term fitness success.
How to achieve?
Physical activity is known for its benefits to not only physical but mental health as well. One of the ways to create a positive association with training is simply when you feel any negative emotions, try having a workout instead of other less healthy alternatives we usually reach for to cheer us up. After the session, you will feel great physically and mentally for having accomplished something good.
3. Performance/physique goals
The vast majority of people join the gym to primarily achieve a certain physique. However, this might be a frustrating journey since results take time to happen. If you hate training and purely do it to achieve certain looks it is going to be significantly harder to maintain it long term. Hence, I placed a goal of learning to enjoy training and exercise before chasing physical appearance goals.
When you truly find pleasure in challenging your body physically it is going to be significantly easier to move towards your physical and performance goals. It is also important not to get too fixated on your goals. Enjoy working towards them but don’t get discouraged if you don’t seem to be able to achieve them as fast as you thought you would. At the end of the day, your training and attitude towards training will change and what seemed like a legit goal 2 years ago might not seem as meaningful now.
How to achieve?
These goals will definitely require some discipline not only in training but in other aspects of your life such as diet, recovery, etc. However, if the training part of the process is no longer a burden and you genuinely enjoy it, staying on course to your goals is going to be easier.
4. Making exercise an integral part of life
This is the ultimate life long goal that we all would benefit so much from achieving and maintaining. At this stage, you don’t need to look for motivation or question whether you will exercise this week or not. The answer is you will.
Is this going to be easy to achieve? Definitely not! That’s why I consider it to be the mother of all fitness goals. Just imagine though, no more New Year’s fitness related resolutions, no more excuses because now exercise is just something you do – today, tomorrow and for the rest of your life.
How to achieve?
Keep working on goals 1, 2, and 3, year after year, and exercise will become an integral part of your life without you realizing it.
Goal setting in exercise is an ongoing process but at the end of the day, it’s called a fitness journey for a reason.