Fitness is something that requires hard work, patience, and perseverance. An average person starts their fitness journey the minute they realize that they need a change. It could be the number on the scale or the breathlessness they feel after climbing a flight of stairs that motivates them to leap.
Motivation is the key, but knowledge is what keeps you going. When a person usually decides to lose weight, the first thing they do is sign up for their very first gym membership. Having zero guidance and some unhelpful advice from a gym buddy, they start attacking the weights and running excitedly on the treadmill.
The fever to train lasts for a few weeks, and some people get good results, and then binge eat to celebrate their road to fitness while others give up the entire process since they couldn’t see any visible improvement. Either way, their new gym membership high starts to dissipate, and before you know it, they stop going at all.
But now it’s time to change the old thinking ways. No matter how big or small your goal is, whether it’s losing 10 pounds or 50, making change requires planning a smart goal setting. And once the goal has been set, it is equally essential to maintain it as well, which is why we have listed some guidelines to setting smart goals and maintaining them as well, and you will be surprised at what you can do.
- Be Specific
Your goal should be clear and easy to understand. A common goal of getting fit is very vague. There are many ways to get healthy, but how do you intend to do it? Is it losing weight, working out, or eating healthy? It would be best if you broke it down and it will be easier to manage.
To pick a smart goal, you need to choose, for instance, you could decide that you will lose weight.
- Make it Measurable
Now that you have decided to lose weight, you need to put more work into it. You need to figure out ways to track your progress and how to know when you have reached your goal? Making your goal measurable means adding numbers to it.
- Make it Attainable
Before you can add a number, you have to know how high or low you want to go, or you can really go. While it’s good to have high aims, one shouldn’t go to intense extremes. Similarly, a goal that is too easy is also not very motivating. Only you know your limits and can strike the perfect balance. A measurable, attainable goal could be to lose 8% of your body weight.
- Relevance
Set goals that are in sync to where you are in your life at the current moment. Don’t set a goal that doesn’t motivate you, and someone else is pressuring you to attain.
- Examine your Goal
Does your goal seem relevant to you? If it does, then keep going. If you are not concerned about weight loss or this is not a good time in your life to focus on that, choose something that is motivating to you.
- Deadlines
Include a deadline for you to achieve your goal and remember that it isn’t crucial for you to attain precisely what you aimed for, falling somewhere close to your set goal is an achievement as well.