How is the goal you set at the start of the year going?
If the answer is “not super awesome” this post may help you understand why and help you get back on track.
When you set goals, you should keep a few things in mind:
- What are the behavioral changes needed to achieve this goal, and;
- What is the flexibility and accuracy associated with this goal?
Let me explain. Let’s say your goal is to look like Dan Bailey or Brooke Ence. To achieve this goal, you would need to set behavior goals such as weighing and measuring your food along with a pretty comprehensive workout schedule. But most of all, you would have zero flexibility and 100% accuracy in your behavior goals. That means in order to achieve your goal, there will be no missing workouts and no regular cheat meals.
What if you are simply not willing to make that kind of sacrifice? No problem bro! Plenty of people are not willing to do that, just don’t expect to reach your goal. You cannot have the best of both worlds.
Another way to think about this in relation to any goal you may have is to imagine your goals are a target and the behavior changes you have set out to achieve this goal are an arrow. If your behavior changes (the arrow) are super accurate then you will hit your target (your goal). And if they aren’t, you wont.
So the question you should ask yourself before even setting a goal should be – “how accurate am I willing to be/how hard am I willing to work?”. From there you can extrapolate out a goal.
Before you set your goal of losing that 10kg, make sure you understand that a cheat meal will send your arrow off target no matter how bad you try and convince yourself that it doesn’t matter or that you have earned it.
The same applies if you have set a performance goal and you think missing one important training session every week or so won’t matter; the accumulation of the inaccuracy over a year will see that you miss your target completely.