In this article I'm going to walk you step by step through the process of setting your health and fitness goals the right way so you can significantly increase the probabaility that you'll achieve them.
We've all heard about the importance of setting goals and a lot of people THINK they're doing it, but almost no one is doing it right.
An extremely interesting study done by Dr. Gail Matthews at Dominican University in California provided us with solid evidence on what the right way to set goals is (1).
Dr. Matthews recruited 267 participants from a wide variety of businesses, organizations, and networking groups throughout the United States and overseas ranging from ages 23 to 72 and representing a wide spectrum of backgrounds. Participants were randomly assigned to one of five groups.
Group 1 was asked to simply think about business-related goals they hoped to accomplish within a four week block and to rate each goal according to difficulty, importance, the extent to which they had the skills
and resources to accomplish the goal, their commitment and motivation, whether they had pursued the goal before and, if so, their prior success.
Groups 2-5 were asked to do the same and write their goals. Group 3 was also asked to write action commitments for each goal. Group 4 had to both write goals and action commitments and also share these commitments with a friend. Then Group 5 went the furthest by doing all of the above plus sending a weekly progress report to a friend.
Of the original 267 participants, 149 completed the study. These participants were asked to rate their progress and the degree to which they had accomplished their goals. At the end of the study, only 43 percent of Group 1 either accomplished their goals or were at least half way there. 62 percent of Group 4 accomplished their goals or were at least half way there. And, 76 percent of those in Group 5 either accomplished their goals or were at least half way there.
So group 5 who wrote their goals, wrote their action commitments, and had the accountability of sending of a weekly progress report to a friend were 33% more likely to achieve their goals than group 1 who only thought about their goals, this is a significant difference!
At the end of the study Dr. Matthews stated "My study provides empirical evidence for the effectiveness of three coaching tools: accountability, commitment, and writing down one's goals."
I couldn't agree with her more and I've seen it time and time again in my own life, my clients lives, and in the lives of the successful people I've learned from that when those 3 elements are in place you set yourself up for the highest probability of success.
Setting goals correctly should be the first action you take to achieve your health and fitness goals. With 2023 starting next week this is the perfect time for you to learn to how to do it right and set your goals for the new year. So grab a pen and paper and let's get it done together right now.
Step 1 is to Write Specific, Measurable Goals and Why They're Important To You. My preferred way of writing a goal is by starting with the phrase "I will", followed by the specific, measurable goal, and ending with a deadline. A goal without a deadline is just a wish, having a deadline creates urgency around the goal and taking the actions necessary to achieve it. For example "I will be 15% percent body fat by June 31st, 2023".
Set your deadline based on the best information you have available about the time it will take to achieve your goal but don't get too caught up in exactly when you want it to happen because it's very difficult to project the exact timing of the achievement of any goal. You may achieve it faster or slower depending on how well you do with the action commitments you'll set in step two of this process.
Then write down why this goal is important to you. Your why is even more important than the goal itself because it's often linked to deeper emotions and since emotion is energy in motion it naturally drives us into action when we feel strongly enough about something. As I always say your why is your unlimited source of inspiration.
Step 2 is to Create Your Action Plan. Break your goals down into daily and/or weekly action commitments. Write these action commitments down starting with the phrase "I am committed to" followed by the specific action. These action commitments will become the habits that not only allow you to achieve the goals but also to sustain them.
For example, "I am committed to training for 45 minutes, 5 days per week" and/or "I am committed to eating 3 balanced, whole food based meals everyday".
There is a significant amount of research that suggests the best way to establish new habits is to choose one to two habits that you are confident you can be consistent with even on your busiest day. Then once the habit has become consistent enough that it's fully integrated into your daily schedule and you no longer have to expend a lot of intent to practice it you can move on to a new habit. Typically establishing a habit takes anywhere from two to six weeks.
Then Step 3 is to create external accountability for your goals and action commitments. Choose a family member, friend, or work with a coach that you report your progress to on at least a weekly basis. Remember this step alone increased the goal achievement success rate by 14% in Dr. Matthews study.
Make sure you fully complete this goal setting process ideally right now while it's fresh on your mind or at the latest sometime in the next week so you're ready to hit the ground running when the new year starts.
So let me know in the comments below, what are your health and fitness goals for the new year? Making a public declaration is another great way increase the chances you'll achieve your goals because once you know you've publicly declared it you'll be leveraging the commitment consistency cognitive bias that naturally drives us to want to keep the commitments we declare to others and keep our word to ourselves.
If you want a coach to serve as not only your accountability source but also to provide you with a holistic, individualized health and fitness program and help you overcome any challenges you face along the way then click on Contact above to request a free success sesssion with me. From there you can answer a few short questions so I can learn more about you and your goals and then schedule your success session with me.
I'm wishing you and you family a Happy, Healthy New Year.
Unleash Your Power, Achieve Your Potential
References:
1. https://scholar.dominican.edu/news-releases/266/?utm_source=scholar.dominican.edu%2Fnews-releases%2F266&utm_medium=PDF&utm_campaign=PDFCoverPages
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