Committing to a challenge sometimes requires determination to see it through. If it was too easy then it wouldn’t by definition be a “challenge”. The opposite of that is if its too big a goal then it becomes overwhelming and is difficult to achieve. When setting health related goals it’s important to find what drives you towards making the change or achieving the goal, and not what someone tells you to do.
There’s a lot of satisfaction in achieving your goals so its really important to set yourself up for success.
Find your own challenge set some goals around it and commit to the task. You will be surprised at what you can achieve when you commit to it.
Your first step is to identify WHAT you want to achieve. Goals based on something meaningful and personal to you have the greatest chance of success. So identify something you really want to accomplish.
I’ll use my latest challenge as a real life example which you can fit your own personal goals into.
My goal: I wanted to go out running every day in January.
That’s quite a big chunk of time to commit to and could feel overwhelming to start with.
Knowing there are 5 weeks in January it was much easier to take it week by week and day by day.
The small one week mini goal was set up where I had a target mileage for the whole week and I had that planned day by day (seven even smaller goals). However, to meet that target mileage meant running in every type of weather that the Oregon Coast decided to hit us with.
I had to adjust some days that were supposed to be a long run with a shorter one when the weather was just too bad to go out for multiple hours at a time, then when the weather was a bit better I fitted the long run in.
The key thing here was having the one week plan and going back to that keeping track of my progress and the days left to complete it. It would be too easy to bail out at the first bad day that wasn’t suitable for a long run and say “too bad, the weather failed me I cant follow the plan!” What I done here was I planned ahead, identified what could be a potential barrier and had a work-around ready to implement.
Adapting as I went through the week and successfully reaching my mini goals closed in the weeks and finally the whole month.
Breaking this down onto the daily and weekly chunks made the whole thing possible while still achieving my weekly mileage goals and the big longer term goal of running every day in January.
Finding your “why” to set a goal against
If you have a personal meaningful reason to do something then that’s your driving force. For example, “you” want to stay active and healthy to see your grandchildren grow up.
If the reason is because someone “told” you walking 2 miles would be good for your health then you might not be as determined to reach that goal! Personal values are important to identify when picking a goal or challenge. When it really has a meaning to you then it sticks.
If you need help setting health related goals I would value the opportunity to work with you to see you achieve them. Contact me to get started on your journey to build the new healthier you.