Tag Archives: Setting Goals

Birthdays – A Time to Set Goals in 5 Easy Steps

13 Thursday Feb 2014

Posted by in Setting Goals

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week93Today is my birthday. Like many, I have stopped counting years ago, as age is just a number and numbers don’t matter. It’s all about how you live your life and how well you care for your self well-being.

Some of us love our special days and enjoy it with great festive celebrations. Dinners. Parties. Gifts. Trips. Others keep it on the down low and treat it as just another ordinary day.

Birthdays are milestone markers. They wrap up one chapter and start a new one. A clean upcoming year. A fresh slate. A new beginning. And if you weren’t happy where you were yesterday or yesteryears, well, here’s your chance. No one can argue otherwise, after all, it is your one and only day a year; the one day where no one can, or should, challenge you.

So what will I be doing this year on my special day? No big parties with friends. No celebratory trip planned, as of yet, however since I do love to travel, perhaps a later trip I will label a post birthday celebration. Actually, right now I’m working from home – snowed in from a nor’easter snowstorm – with birthday wishes from family and friends via texts, phone calls, emails, and social media mentions starting since the day before. If it weren’t for the snowfall, it would be the gym and the office in that order, followed by ideally an aerobics class afterward and then dinner at a favorite restaurant with one of my two brothers. Dinner with my other brother occurred a few nights ago as an early celebration since I was near his town.

Like both my brothers, I love to achieve – a born driven go-getter – and there is no better time then now to create some new goals to achieve than on a birthday. It’s an idea time to reflect and reminisce the years gone by then plot and plan the next upcoming bright ones ahead tagged with new aspiring goals. And if the years don’t seem bright at the moment, now is the perfect time to make certain they will be.

Setting and obtaining goals first takes a true steadfast mindset filled with determination and disciplinary actions to make your efforts and hard work pay off. The following are five steps to make your goals reality.

1. Commitment.
When planning your goals, select the one that is your highest priority and focus on that goal first. Concentrating on one goal at a time gives you the clarity you will need to achieve it. Then develop a realistic plan of action with a timeframe and benchmarks.

2. Discipline.
Stay focus with your eye on the prize and keep it going. Find the time. Every day, every week, whatever it takes to make it happen! This is the period that divides the go-getting achievers and the no-drive couch potatoes. First go at it didn’t work? Try again. Try another. Just make it materialize.

3. Consistent.
Remember the story of the tortoise and the hare? Never waver. Don’t back off. Staying consistent is a key ingredient to achieving your goal. Keep it going and stay persistent with your efforts and eventually you will achieve the results you are seeking.

4. Faith in Self.
Believe. It will happen with time and your hard work. Thicken your skin and resist listening to those who say that you will fail. Show them wrong. Prove it to yourself. There have been many before you that were told they won’t succeed and they do. Alexander Graham Bell, Charlie Chaplin, Winston Churchill, Charles Darwin, Walt Disney, Thomas Edison, Henry Ford, Bill Gates, Stephen King, Isaac Newton, J.K. Rowling, KFC Colonel Harvard David Sanders, Jerry Seinfeld, Dr. Seuss, Steven Spielberg, Socrates, Vincent Van Gogh, Vera Wang, Oprah Winfrey, F.W. Woolworth and others who believed in themselves and, despite of the odds against them, went on to find great success.

5. Have Heart.
Movie character Rocky Balboa once said, “Every champion was once a contender that refused to give up.” You must have heart and passion. You have to want it and want it bad. The achiever may not always be the one who finishes first or at the first go but often the person who fell down a few downs along the way, brushed him or herself off, and got back up to finish what they started – all because they had heart.

Stay committed, remain discipline, be consistent, keep faith in yourself, and have heart and you will achieve your goal.

Be Fit. Be Strong. Be Well.
Adriana

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Setting Your Fitness Goals

10 Monday Jan 2011

Posted by in New Year's Resolutions, Setting Goals

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Now that the New Year is rolling, you are probably are ready to get going, or already have, on your “new” fitness habits. Perhaps you are inspired and motivated to lose some weight, tone up, or increase your endurance level. Most likely you dove right in to your workouts, returning or joining a gym or exercising at home.

As a gym person, every year I am always amazed by the number of packed parked cars I see outside the gym come every January. This is accompanied by long waits to get on cardio machines and doubling up to use the gym equipment. As weeks and months pass, the cars and people start to lessen. By early spring, all has returned to normal at the gym, meaning it’s just us diehard regulars coming for a good sweaty workout. The gung-ho others have either lost interest, gave up, or just couldn’t find the time anymore.

Setting your fitness goals is a commitment – a promise to yourself, that for a certain length of time or for an indefinite period of time – you are pledging to change and improve your current fitness routine with the goal of improving yourself physically to some compactly. While this may seem oblivious, a very large percent of those who start working out eventually find their enthusiasm waning as their goals get further and further away and they have settled back in their own previous lifestyle and routines.

So when setting your goals, make sure your goals are reasonable and that you have a specific plan to reach them followed by a realistic plan to achieve them. Be certain they are reachable to avoid frustration and disappointment down the road which may cause you to give up. Remember, altering your lifestyle can be challenging in the beginning, but this will pass after a period of adjustment.

A few of my own fitness goals for 2011 are to increase my endurance, tone and conditioning by adding new fitness classes and hiring a trainer to help me change up my own personal workout routines; be more diligent with my healthy eating habits, which will include eating a green salad daily as one of my meals; get a consistent 7-8 hours of sleep, 5 days a week; and to train and compete in a half marathon in addition to other running races and three triathlons after recovering from an injury in 2010.

The following are a few simple steps to help you stay on track with your fitness goals. 1) First, decide what you want for yourself and set specific fitness goal(s). 2) Next, write down your goals and begin keeping a log to keep track of your progress. 3) After getting the go-ahead from your physician, develop a plan of action. Decide what steps are necessary to achieve your fitness goals. 4) Remember to include your daily diet and sleep into your new routine. What you eat is 80 percent of your success rate. The other 20 percent is how you change your lifestyle to incorporate your new physical activities. 5) Finally, set realistic target dates with benchmark dates along the way.

Remember to be patient. Know that you will have good and bad days, and some days in between, but regardless you need to keep plugging away. Ask yourself, ‘how long did it take to become in the physical condition I am?’ Don’t expect overnight results. Your fitness goals will be obtainable not only with patience and perseverance, but with self-discipline and follow-through.

So get started today, if you haven’t already. Treat yourself to a new pair of sneakers and check out your local gym. There’s no better time like the present. So get out there! Maybe we’ll even bump paths!

Be Fit. Be Strong. Be Well.
Adriana