You’ve heard the advice a million times before…
If you want to be successful with your fitness journey, set a goal.
In theory, goal setting sounds like great advice, but in reality, it doesn’t always play out so smooth.
Seriously, have you ever noticed how some women talk about goal-setting like it’s the holy grail + seem to have no trouble achieving whatever goal they set their minds to…
…WHILE the rest of us have had the same goal for 3 years and still can’t seem to get results?
The ugly truth is that most women fail at goal-setting.
This isn’t an opinion. It’s fact.
Whether we’re talking about New Year’s Resolutions or short-term fitness goals, research shows that the overwhelming majority of women abandon their goals before ever experiencing success.
The problem with goal-setting today is that:
>>> Everyone talks about how to achieve goals, and very few people focus on how to set a goal that’s worth chasing.
And so in this blog post, I’m breaking down everything you need to know about setting the ‘right‘ fitness goal so that you can finally experience the kind of results you want!
Goal-setting is a key element of any fitness plan.
You see, goals give us something to strive for; they motivate us to jump into action.
The thing about goals, however, is that when we fail to reach the goals we have set for ourselves, most of us assume it’s because we’re not motivated or disciplined enough to get there.
In case you didn’t know:
You are capable of achieving your BIG GOALS- you just need to be strategic about it.
So, what’s the magic formula?
It’s simple, really. And it goes something like this:
The Purpose of the Right Fitness Goal:
The first-step to setting more effective goals is to understand ‘what‘ a goal actually is.
Here’s the thing:
Most women mistake goals for being a how-to guide on achieving success.
A goal is NOT a blueprint for how to reach success.
Rather, it’s a description of what success looks like for you.
A goal will always tell us what we want, but it will never tell us how to get it.
You see, goals help guide our actions but they aren’t meant to be step-by-step directions for reaching success.
Think of it this way:
If we were talking about a GPS system- the goal would be the final destination that we wish to arrive at, but it’s not the turn-by-turn directions that help get us there.
The BETTER Goal-Setting Framework:
So then it makes sense that in order to increase our odds of reaching our goal, we have to make sure that we’re headed somewhere worth going.
For best results, I encourage you to use the following framework.
To be clear, this is the same framework that I coach all of my students through in my signature program. And it has helped dozens of women reach massive success within their own health and fitness journeys.
It goes something like this:
The most effective goals are Personal, Reaching, Intentional, Specific and Measurable. Otherwise, known as P.R.I.S.M goals.
To give you a better understanding of what I’m talking about, let’s break this framework down.
1. Personal: It can be tempting to follow the crowd + pursue a goal because that’s what everyone else seems to be doing.
But the thing about success is that it’s very subjective. Meaning- we are in control of how we choose to define success.
For some women success looks like mustering the willpower to steer clear of the donuts that your co-worker brought into the office. But for other women, success is very much about being able to indulge in that donut without feeling guilty about it.
When you choose to define your success based on someone else’s definition of it, you feel disconnected from what you’re doing.
Remember, a goal should help transform you into a better version of you, NOT someone else’s version of you.
So, some important questions to ask yourself here, are things like: what’s important to me? what am I willing to work for?
2. Reaching: It can feel intimidating to set a big, audacious goal. You may be tempted to set a more realistic goal to help boost your confidence.
But the problem with playing small is that you’re limiting yourself to what’s possible.
The truth is:
You can’t reach farther than you aim. So my encouragement here, is to aim BIG because you may just surprise yourself at what you’re capable of achieving.
The purpose of a goal is to STRETCH you beyond your comfort zone so that you can grow into an even better version of you!
If you’re not just a little bit overwhelmed by how you’re going to accomplish your goal- you’re playing it too safe.
3. Intentional: Whether you realize it or not, your motivation behind your goal will play a big role in how successful you are in achieving it.
If you don’t have a strong ‘why‘ behind your goal, you’ll never sustain the energy and motivation necessary to make good on that goal.
You see, purpose is what DRIVES us. And that’s where so many of us get this fitness thing wrong.
We believe that ‘wanting’ something is enough motivation to achieve it.
But here’s the truth- that desire only works in the short-term. We can talk ourselves out of wanting something as easily as we can talk ourselves into it. And when challenges arise- that’s exactly what we do.
The magic to achieving success (in fitness + in life) is discovering our ‘why’.
When we have a ‘why’ behind the things that we do, we don’t question the action that we need to take, we don’t make excuses for when things get tough, we don’t settle for anything less- because we can see beyond the mundane actions we’re performing + we can make sense of it all.
Purpose connects us to the bigger picture at hand. Purpose creates meaning. And finding your purpose- there’s power in that.
Forgetting why the goal is important is one reason why so many women quit before ever reaching their goals.
To keep in touch with your ‘why’, ask yourself: Why is this goal meaningful to you? Why will its results benefit your life? Why do you need to pursue this goal?
4. Specific: When you don’t have a clear idea of where you want to end up, it’s anybody’s guess as to how you’re going to get there.
Most women set a broad goal in hopes that it increases their chances of hitting their target.
The wider the goal, the more likely you are to hit it…right?
Not exactly.
Because here’s the thing:
When you don’t have a clear understanding of where you’re hoping to go, knowing how to get there is nearly impossible.
Goals may not give us step-by-step directions on how to get there, but they still guide our actions.
They give us a trajectory to follow.
When we settle on a vague, nondescript goals, what happens is they we act on those goals by taking scattered action.
Not surprisingly, we see scattered results.
A specific goal helps narrow your focus to what’s really important.
5. Measurable: It’s important to have measurable goals so that you can track your progress- so that you have a clear understanding of whether or not you’re moving in the right direction.
After all, what gets measured, gets managed.
Now remember- because you get to define what success looks like for you, you also get to decide the ways you’ll gauge your progress.
Just because you want to ‘lose weight’, this doesn’t mean that you have to use the scale to measure your progress.
Perhaps, for you, success looks like:
- More energy
- Better performance in the gym
- Looser fitting clothes
Conclusion:
Some women make this goal-setting stuff look easy; and it often leaves the rest of us pondering what the heck is wrong with us that we can’t achieve that same success…
But my hope for you is that you are able to take the information that I have shared with you + use it to your advantage.
The truth is:
>>> When you get strategic with mapping out your ambitions, ANYTHING IS POSSIBLE!
Now it’s your turn:
I’d love it if you’d share with me in the comments below ONE goal you plan on CRUSHING this year!
Here to support YOU!
XO- Britney (ms.fit.farmer)
P.S. You’ve landed here because you’re looking for tips + tricks to leading a more healthy lifestyle! If you want to jumpstart your fitness journey even further, I have an epic and yes, totally free mini-course on How to Jumpstart your Healthy Living Lifestyle!
It’s called the Start Living Healthy Challenge and in it, I walk you through the exact strategies you need to start bringing healthy habits into your life!
The goal is to help YOU reach your health and fitness goals with ease check it out by clicking here!
