One Essential to Achieving Your Fit-Life Goals
You’ve set a goal to exercise more or eat healthier or lose weight. It’s achievable and realistic and you’re excited about it. But will you actually reach your goal?
Setting goals is easy, of course; reaching them, not so much. Consider: Several studies show that less than 10 percent of people who make New Year’s resolutions keep them. Most people give up on those goals within two weeks. It’s probably not that their goals are unrealistic. Often, the key element that’s missing is desire.
Let me tell you a story.
When I turned 53, I decided emphatically that to reach my fitness goals I “needed” to beat my personal best 5K time from my mid-20s (the motivation for that is a whole other story…). I joined a local New York Road Runners coaching group and set two goals: first was to beat my 10K pace within a year; second, to beat my 5K pace by the time I turned 55. I gave myself plenty of time, so I would avoid injury—I was coming back from taking a year off running because of a torn hamstring.
At 54, I met my first goal: I ran a 10K about three minutes faster than my previous best time (when I was 26). And, at that moment, I also decided to give up on my second goal. I realized that to reach that goal I would have to up my running game significantly—and I just didn’t want to. Being fully honest with myself, I admitted I lacked the desire to reach that goal.
I enjoyed the running plan was using and how it mixed in with other activities (like yoga and strength training). I didn’t want to cut back on those to add more running. I definitely didn’t want to do more speed drills, which I would absolutely need to do to run a whole minute per mile faster over the course of the year.
I had a strong desire to reach my first goal. Once I did, the desire to reach the second one vanished because I better understood the realities of achieving it. Losing the desire for that goal and leaving it behind was OK. I set a new goal: to maintain my current program and pace. That was doable because I had a strong desire to keep the gains I had made over the previous year.
So, when you’re setting your own fit-life goals—whether they seem easy or are tough but achievable—remember to consider how much you truly want to achieve them. How strong is your desire? Is it strong enough that you’ll make a plan and do whatever it takes to stick with that plan? Be honest with yourself.
And remember that goals don’t need to be written in cement. Changing your goals is OK. The journey it takes to achieve your goals can be telling—as it was for me and my running goals. Plus, if your desires or priorities change, you’ll want to adjust your goals accordingly.
So, go ahead and set your most-desired fit-life goals, and then go for it.
