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How To Get REAL and PERMANENT Health, Fitness and Weight Loss Results… With 100% Certainty – Every time!

By Holly Leonard

Goal setting is the most exciting and rewarding habit you can acquire on the road to improved health and fitness. It is the process, which, more than anything else, will insure with 100% certainty you achieve the results you desire and deserve.

Goal setting is the KEY factor in determining your health and fitness success, but success in all areas of your life – relationships, family, work, and play.

Goal setting is the process of freely selecting what you want to accomplish and attain after careful consideration. It is a process which allows you to systematically get exactly what you want, so you must approach this whole goal setting activity as something, when utilized to its full potential, that can become very productive and satisfying on the road to improved health and fitness.

Goal setting is the key ingredient that will allow you to develop the healthy attitudes and habits you want to get you to where you want to be – healthy and fit. Goals allow you to visualize and “see" what you want to accomplish, as compared to where you are right now, and allow you to determine the step-by-step progress you are making toward the completion of your final goal.

Goal setting is a HABIT that must be worked on and developed. But once developed, is an essential part of any fitness success process, because the key to achieving improved health and fitness is to develop a tangible and workable plan of action that enables you to take the proper action steps.

It comes as no surprise that studies into human behavior have long recognized and continue to give increasing importance to the practices of planning and goal setting as factors in individual achievement and personal development.

A comprehensive health and fitness plan of action for your should provide goals in a whole host of areas. I strongly suggest that your goals focus on a variety of areas, rather than one huge goal. A comprehensive plan of action could include goals such as the following:

  1. Improve nutritional habits (i.e. I will eat 5 small meals today).
  2. Smart supplementation habits (i.e. I will take my multi-vitamin everyday this week).
  3. Improve exercise habits (i.e. I will dedicate 10 minutes to working out today.)
  4. Exercise performance goals (i.e. I will walk an extra ½ mile in my next workout.)

We are continually bombarded from all sides by demands on our time and attention. Most clients I meet are people, who, like most, are in a hurry. What seems like a clear goal and focus today can easily become blurred in the rush and urgency of tomorrow. Unless you write down your goals and objectives, there is a good chance that they will become forgotten in the hustle and bustle and excitement of new problems, challenges and decisions that we confront on a daily basis. Written goals will keep you on course, on track, and headed in the right direction. They act as "blinders" to eliminate outside distraction and/or interruptions.

That which you wish to improve must be measured and documented. Written goals serve this purpose and allow you to measure your progress. They'll tell you how far you've come and how far you have to go to reach your ultimate goal. Many clinical studies on increasing human performance reveal that motivation is greatest when there is feedback by which to measure accomplishment. Without written goals and deadlines our memories become cloudy, the finish line blurs and that eliminates much of our desire to keep going. I recommend measuring your progress at least every four weeks to ensure you stay motivated and dedicated to improving your fitness results.

Writing you goals down crystallizes your thoughts, and thought motivates you to action. The mere fact that you are putting your goals on paper gives you clarity to your purpose and dedication to fitness achievement. The act of writing your goals forces you to make a COMMITMENT. Commitment and desire are the two biggest factors to your health and fitness success.

Written goals serve as a reference and a reminder about what you want and why you want it.

The process of committing your goals to writing stimulates the use of healthy affirmations and visualization, because writing your goals requires that you clearly define exactly what it is you really want. Research shows that writing your goals increases your chance for success by 95%. Stated in another way, if you don’t write down your goals you can expect failure 95% of the time.

Remember that your goals MUST BE WRITTEN. They must be detailed and exact so as you read then DAILY they are EXACTLY THE SAME. You should write out your goals on a note card and read that frequently throughout the day. This makes an impression on your subconscious mind, very much the same way in which you memorized the state capitals when you were in school.

I can’t say it enough, but it’s imperative that you WRITE your goals and plans. No more wishing, hoping and praying for what you want to achieve. No more “I should’ve, could’ve, would’ve.” Rather, you must specifically identify what you want and you construct a plan of action to get it.

WHAT DO YOU WANT?

Before you can lay out a plan of action to achieve your health, fitness and weight loss goals, you need to determine what it is you want. What do you want to DO? How do you want to FEEL? How do you want your body to LOOK? What kind of health and fitness do you want to HAVE? If you had Aladdin's lamp and all your health and fitness dreams could be granted, what would you wish for?

The place to start is with a "Fitness Want List." Simply take a piece of paper and make a list of what fitness results you want, but don't be surprised if you find your old friend LOGIC trying to hold your thoughts back. Remember that you’ve always been taught to use logic and reasoning and often these two components are the biggest deterrents to setting and achieving goals. Logic can interfere with goal setting by interjecting questions such as, "Are the goals I listed really reasonable?" "Who am I to achieve these results?" "Am I worthy enough to be in great shape?" "Am I entitled to the results I want," and even, "What do I do first and who will help me?"

When you are writing your “Fitness Want List" give yourself the permission to dream, to think big, to desire, to imagine...to reach out. Nothing is out of your reach! With the right support team and plan of action you can accomplish anything you set your mind to.

PRIORITIZE

After completing your “Fitness Want List,” you must then PRIORITIZE your list. Be sure to put some easier goals first, so as you accomplish them you build the confidence that is necessary for you to move ahead to meet your larger goals. Progressing from the easiest to the hardest is very similar to your fitness program that should begin with easy exercises and progress to those that are more difficult. Review your "Fitness Want List" and prioritize your goals in the order you desire to accomplish them.

BENEFITS AND REWARDS TO YOU

It’s often challenging to maintain a high degree of effort and momentum toward the accomplishment of your goals unless you know the benefits in advance. This helps you stay motivated and committed to your plan.

Knowing the benefits and rewards of your fitness endeavor allows you to create the desire or willingness to “pay the price.”

Knowing the benefits allows you to create and maintain that burning desire that propels you toward significant ACTION.

Remember to spend some time and list in detail the benefits and rewards you expect to obtain when your goal is accomplished.

It’s only these personal rewards that will give you the reasons to keep going when the road gets tough and it becomes necessary for you to overcome the obstacles or roadblocks you may encounter.

Rewards and benefits may be real and tangible or more esoteric, such as in personal satisfaction or pride. By listing the benefits you will become to take massive action.

OBSTACLES AND ROADBLOCKS

After you’ve defined your fitness goals and exhausted the benefits and rewards you’ll achieve, the next question to answer is "what are the circumstances that may prevent me from reaching this goal?" The answers to this question are the obstacles that you’ll need to overcome to attain the benefits and results you crave.

Some obstacles may be simple, such a rearranging your time schedule to fit in exercise or meal prep. Others may be much more significant and call for you to make some difficult decisions, such as changing gyms, creating a home gym, hiring a fitness professional to help you create a plan and keep you motivated. Nevertheless, all obstacles must be handled and made to be important enough for you to overcome... or you'll find yourself burnt out and unmotivated.

Unfortunately there is a natural tendency that when we begin to look at what may prevent us from getting what we want, our enthusiasm to accomplish our goal diminishes, because we look at the effort that will be involved to attain it...and both the obstacles and effort look like a mountain in your path. If this happens, re-read your “Fitness Want List” and increase the value you place on your benefit and reward list, focusing on your achievement...on the thrill of victory.

To stop in the middle because of some obstacle appears to be too significant will greatly decrease your effectiveness in all areas of your life, not just the accomplishment of your fitness goal. Quitting is a self-image destroyer, so remember, NEVER QUIT once you are committed to something.

SOLUTIONS

Once you know what stands between you and your fitness goal, you can usually find a solution to the problem. Just identifying an obstacle goes a long way in providing the answer. You will find that most of the solutions to overcoming the obstacles that appear will come from within you. I say this, because I’ve found that most of the roadblocks and barriers you will face are inside YOU. They are mental and emotional barriers that represent the limitations that have been placed around you.

Determination, tenacity, audacity, creativity, flexibility, and a strong internal desire and commitment to your goals are some of the tools you can use to overcome most obstacles. Usually, as you become more accomplished at your fitness goal setting, you’ll probably find a shift in the way you view achieving what you want. You no longer see outside circumstances or people limiting you, but rather that you can overcome these circumstances by developing your untapped confidence, abilities and resources…by expressing the power within you.

This is where the breakthrough finally happens. It is at this point in your plan of action where you’ll begin to take PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY FOR ALL THINGS in your life and your fitness program. When our goals, benefits, obstacles and solutions are all committed to writing, the old clichés and programmed limitations will disappear. It becomes obvious (sometimes painfully so) that the limitations we experience are SELF-IMPOSED.

TARGET DATES

A deadline is critical to the achievement of your fitness goal. It is an essential activating mechanism. When you set a target date for achieving a goal, you tend to act on the time frame you have set. This creates a sense of urgency.

Deadlines challenge you to act now and focus your attention and concentration on the objective at hand.

Deadlines must be handled with some further understanding. Sometimes through miscalculation, or because of unforeseen circumstances, you may not reach your goal in the time frame you have set. The key is to decide if the miss is because of an unforeseen circumstance or procrastination. Altering your target dates on the way to accomplishing your goals makes them more realistic and keeps you energized.

I want to remind you that ninety-five percent of all people don’t know exactly what it is they want, they’re just sure they don’t have it yet. The winners, special 5% of those who set goals and are successful, have very specific goals and they are always WRITTEN AND READ REGULARYLY. The choice is yours!

About the Author:

Coach Holly Leonard, owner of BeFit Health and Wellness Solutions, is a Body Transformation Expert who has helped over 300 Pioneer Valley men and women reclaim their healthy, fitness and vitality through proper fitness and nutrition. For more expert advice on how to master your metabolism so you can make 2009 your best year ever, check out http://www.befithealthandwellness.com Today!