Goals = Motivation

“The reason most people never reach their goals is that they don’t define them, or ever seriously consider them as believable or achievable. Winners can tell you where they are going, what they plan to do along the way, and who will be sharing the adventure with them.” Denis Watley

“If you’re bored with life — you don’t get up every morning with a burning desire to do things — you don’t have enough goals.” Lou Holtz

So this blog will be about two things; goals and motivation. To me, the two compliment each other. If you have goals to achieve, then working towards them should be your motivation to do what is necessary to reach those goals. You can have short term, long term, or both kinds of goals. The key is that you must have goals in order to successfully and efficiently achieve what it is that you want.

When setting goals, you must remember to make them achievable. For example, I want to gain 20 pounds, so realizing that's a lofty goal....I settle for a 10 pound gain in a certain time period. Once I reach that goal, when I'm ready, I'll set another goal for 10 more pounds. Scale your goals back to make them easier to attain through "stepping stones". If you don't have goals, then you have nothing to work for. If you don't have a legitimate goal and plan of action, you will most likely be more talk than anything else. I hear tons of people who say "I want to get in shape", but have no plan or real intentions to work toward that goal.

You can tell yourself all day long, "I want to lose weight", but unless you actually set goals for yourself to work towards, you won't be successful. I suggest using a calendar, notebook, or document on the computer to write down your goals and any plans to achieve them. Set "checkpoints" for yourself to achieve to let you know you're making good progress towards your goal. Plan your path to reaching your goal as much as you can and it will help you along the way. If your goal is to run a marathon, you're not going to go out and run 20 miles your first day, you're going to want to start easier. Maybe even start as low as 2 miles. Just make sure to scale your plan for reaching your goal accordingly. Expect possible set-backs, they do happen. If you have any set-backs to your plan or achieving your goal just adapt and overcome, but never give up.

Timeline, timeline, timeline. You need to set a timeline for achieving your goal. If you do not have a timeline, you will not be very efficient at achieving your goal and may not be successful. Again, it needs to be realistic. Do not make your timeline too hard. Better to make it easier than harder. If you make it too hard and don't achieve it, you will loose motivation. If you make it easier and achieve it ahead of time, you will feel that much better about yourself.

The most important step is the first one. All you have to do is get started and turn it into habit. Most people fail at reaching their goals because they don't make the practice of working towards them habit. If it's part of your daily or weekly routine, it's much easier to do without a lot of effort. Again, make yourself take that first step! It's always the toughest to take!

So now that you have a goal set, you also have motivation. Your motivation should come from wanting to achieve the goal you have set for yourself. There are many ways to motivate yourself. One way I have recommended to a female I helped that wanted to lose weight was to go to Wal-Mart and buy a cheap bathing suit that was the size she wanted to be and take a picture of herself in it. She wasn't trying to loose a whole lot, so she could get it on. You can do the same thing even if it won't fit on, just have it there to know you want to fit in it. Take pics of your progress, or if it doesn't fit, then keep trying to get it to fit. The key is to stay positive. Just because your progress may seem slow, don't get down on yourself. That is just one example of motivation used by someone I knew and helped. By the way, it worked for her, and she was thrilled when she finally made it to her goal.

Immediate forms of motivation may be something like music. I have a playlist on my ipod specifically for workout music. You can throw on "Monster" by Skillet or "Game On" by Disciple and I'm ready to workout anytime, anywhere. Know yourself. Find whatever gets you going and helps you crank up and use it. If it's a picture of the beach because you know you want to look good for bathing suit season next year, use that. More importantly, if it's seeing your child, knowing you want to be in better shape to be able protect your children if the need arises or just to be healthier for their sake, use it.

So again, if you have a goal to work towards, that should equal motivation for you to do the work. The thing I want to stress is having goals. If you don't have legitimate goals and a plan to achieve those goals, then you're just "spinning your wheels". In the end, it's you that has to look at yourself in the mirror and be proud of what you've done or just be happy idling your way through life. I believe you should constantly strive to learn and make yourself better.....so set your goal, make your plan, make a timeline, and get up and do it!