As you know, goal setting is seen as an important part of reaching your desired outcome. But what happens when they don’t seem to work? There are various reasons – some may not be in your control, a crisis at work or home means the routine goes awry or an illness or injury means you have to stop. These can be demotivating, but what about the goals that you set for yourself which aren’t achievable but are desirable.
Working with a trainer can help you set SMART goals, breaking them down into manageable and realistic goals for you. But sometimes, the end result isn’t enough (ever sabotage yourself while on a diet?). So a starting point of “I want to lose weight and get toned” (which is probably the most common goal for a woman), but is that a real goal? It’s the reason you came to the gym, it’s the ideal outcome for you, but in terms of having a goal, it doesn’t create a reason to put the work in.
How you get there would be a better focus of your time. To lose weight and get toned – you need to add in weight training – learning new moves, technique and building a stronger (leaner) body will keep you working hard as you see the changes and therefore more likely to keep going.. A positive goal – I want to get stronger, lift more weight do more repetitions/sets, will see you losing that body fat while getting stronger and leaner. So whatever your initial reason for walking into a gym, find the reason to keep going, enjoy it and you’ll soon see results.