Vision and Persistence

Where do you want to take your personal fitness?

Before you get anywhere substantial you will need to decide what your fitness goal is and put it in writing. On your way to achieving your goal you’re going to have setbacks. No one’s perfect. You’re going to make mistakes. Losers make a mistake and give up. Champions make mistakes as too, but champions use their setbacks as a source of motivation.

You can learn from your own mistakes or someone else’s. I feel this is one area where a drug addict can be a great teacher. One way recovering addicts use to stay on course after a slip up is to “look upon the slip as a single, independent event, something which can be avoided in the future with an alternative coping response.” (1)

What slip have you made lately? What can you do to avoid it again in the future?

Look, if you fall go ahead and pick yourself up! Give yourself a pat on the back, and realize that you already burned a few calories by picking your butt up off of the ground!!!


Until Next Time,
Jonathan Azevedo


References:

1. Marlatt GA, Gordon JR. Relapse prevention: maintenece strategies in addictive behavior change. New York: Gulliford; 1985.












Keys to effective Goal Setting (2):

Be SMART about goal setting. Set goals that are:

Specific
-Write down what it is that you want; do not be vague, BE EXACT. Know “why” it is you want what you want. You can overcome any “how” if you just know “why”.

Measurable
-Quantify your goals by using numbers. Sales people are the best at this. Every good sales person has a quota. Give yourself a numeric goal (weight loss/gain, mile time, or number of visits to the club) and reward yourself when you hit that goal. Every good salesperson also earns a good bonus!

Attainable
-GET REAL. If you have not trained in the last 6 years it pretty unrealistic that you will be able to sustain training for 6 days a week! Break down your loftier goals into smaller and more reasonable pieces and reward yourself regularly. It’s tough to eat a whole cake at once but you can enjoy it slice by slice!

Relevant
-If your trying to achieve a fitness goal then you need to begin with fitness “how’s”. In other words; if you want to build stronger muscles then learn the “how” and tie that into your written goal statement. Make sure what you are doing while you are training is relevant to where you want to go.

Time Bound
-Know WHEN and you can make it happen. Tie a date to your written statement and post it with your goal. The date will act as a stimulous when discipline gets low (and it will).