This weekend I visited a friend, and we were chatting about my approach to life and the upsides and downsides to being a person who responds to challenge and setting themselves goals. It thought that this was everyone, I didn’t realise that there are others for whom this setting of goals has a negative impact.

I am undoubtedly a goal orientated person. I have maths equations running in my head, where I bet myself I can’t achieve the following tasks in an allotted amount of time. Then I will set about making a strategy to achieve all of these things as efficiently as possible! I will factor in that I am likely to be more enthusiastic at the beginning, the importance of each of the tasks at hand, logistics (if I want to get two loads of washing completed I need to give myself the maximum amount of time to do so, so this should be my first task).

Whatever the scenario, I pretty much live my  life this way. Which means that the rod that I have built for my own back is that I am constantly busy! Even as I write this blog post now, I am surrounded by people listening to music, playing candy crush and scrolling through their phones. I can get very agitated if time feels like it is being wasted! 

With my development in the gym, I have gone through many stages of goals, and this structure has helped me to achieve my goals and progress over the time that I have been focussed on my fitness.

1. SHOW UP. 

At first I needed the consistency of getting to the gym regularly. Setting a number of sessions and schedule that slotted in around my life schedule, meant that I was there in the gym, where surely the magic would happen. Goal achieved when I made it to the gym all three scheduled sessions

2. CALORIE COUNT

I didn’t know if calorie counting would work for me, I was already obsessed by the number on the scales, and with a preoccupation that spans decades of self body shaming I didn’t feel a focus on calories was perhaps the best thing for me.

But then the pandemic hit and it became a game! How many days could I go in a row hitting my calorie count? Could I make a week? A month?… each day I felt amazing for having  achieved these goals, but it was disassociated from the number on the scales, because it was it’s own independent goal.

3. 10,000 STEPS.

Alongside the calorie counting, I set myself the goal of 10,000 steps in my garden, I would listen to a book, mow the lawn, recite audition speeches, long forgotten. Mostly though I would count. My goal was 10,000 steps, 205 circles of the perimeter, 1 goal.

4. UP THE WEIGHT

When I was able to return to the gym, the comparative ironic freedom of the pandemic meant I focussed on structuring each session to get more out of it (I think of this as the goal within the goal) yes I still had to show up, but now I had to make the most of the time that I was there. I had to maximise efficiency. It wasn’t about turning up and doing stuff, it was about turning up and lifting this weight x this many times. To ensure that I was progressing and my goals were achieved. 

5. THE GOAL OF GOALS 

The goal of my goals is to keep consistency and that sense of achievement. Long ago my goal of just “losing weight” fell by the wayside and instead with my trainer, I began to be much more specific with what I wanted to achieve. I sometimes have to remind myself that this is a journey, and there are so many factors to consider, so the goals will change over time. You have to put the time in though, you can’t change too regularly, or you lack the focus to achieve what you want. 

There are many hurdles in the way of hitting my targets, and that’s why I have found that having a certain amount of flexibility has meant that I have continued achieving even if each week doesn’t look like a cookie cutter of the week before. Where I used to hold myself ransom to a busy schedule, I am now much more fluid to the demands of life and what a successful week looks like. 

Not everyone needs the GOAL to achieve their best, and what works for me won’t necessarily work for you. But try not to feel pressure to hit goals. Some days life is much more kind to us, than others. And that’s ok.

Let me know in the comments what your fitness goals are. And are you a goal orientated fitness fanatic? 

TIB Fitness Focus