What's your Fitness Goal in the New Year?

Very soon, 2008 will pass us by and we'll welcome 2009 although some will not look forward to the gloomy economy of 2009. Wheather or not the economy is good or bad, I feel that looking after your body should always be a priority. It's easy to understand why but often people overlook the importance having a healthy and fit body. With a strong body, you'll perform and think better at work and be able to leave good impression when you go for your job interview with the energy you got. Well there is a whole lot of other good stuff you already know. 

Before you even get into your workout gear in 2009, think about what you really want to achieve in 2009. It's very crucial that you don't miss this step. Why?  With no destination, there is no road map. You may probably heard about or done all these goal setting stuffs and may think it's about sheer determination and just some positive self-talk that do not work. I urge you to read on because it's about asking yourself why you want those goals or the desired changes you wish for. And you want your goals to serve you and goal setting is also about taking personal responsibility.

I can't stress enough that the  Number One "pitfall" is not setting any meaningful goals. This is a surefire way to FAILURE! I seen many who did not set goals get nowhere and eventually gave up. Not that they did set goals, they set very vague goals. What are vague goals? The following are examples of vague goals:

• I want to lose some weight.
  
• I just want to tone up.
  
• I want to be fitter.
  

Do you get what I mean? All the goals above cannot be measured and are very subjective and would definitely be considered as vague goals.

So what's a meaningful goal? It is objective and clear and can be measured quantitatively. The following are examples of meaningful goals:

• I want to lose 10kilo of body fat
  
• I want to achieve a 15% body fat body
  
• I want to be able to run a marathon
  

You get the idea now? Meaningful goals have values to it and very clear. If you have not set any goals for 2009 I urge you to do so now. Because you'll never do it on another day. Write your goals on a piece of paper you will look at everyday.

When you set you goals, keep this in mind "There are no unrealistic goals but only unrealistc deadlines". So go ahead set yourself some goals and have a look at them for a minute. 

Ask yourself very honestly why are those goals very important to you?

If you can't answer these honestly to yourself, you going to find it hard to achieve your goals. Remember you want your goals to serve you and not you serving your goals.

I remembered I had a client who wanted to lose weight and I asked her why. 

She said:"It's obvious I'm overweight and I need to lose weight." 

Then I went further by saying:"there is no crime in been overweight and it's not wrong to be overweight."

She later confused that she wanted to look good so she can meet people and feel loved.

It's important to find out the true reason and let that be the catalyst and motivation you can draw from.

Setting goals can be scary as well for some people because they can't envision themselves the way they want to be. Maybe because they don't think they deserved to be in great shape and that's probably why people set vague goals. I personally had clients who were afraid of the thoughts or images of themselves in great shape. If you can't picture yourself in great shape, how can you achieve it? According to a book called Psycho Cybernetics 2000, we cannot distinguish the difference between the subconscious and conscious mind and our subconscious mind dictate most of the things we fail to achieve. And I personally believe that sometimes we do have self-defeating thoughts in ourselves that we aren't even aware of. Really sometimes we do talk ourselves out of trying to do the things we needed to do in certain situations. Things like:" I should give up exercise because I am so unfit to begin with and I hate it." I'm sure you heard something like that before.

In order to stop the self-sabotaging, you got to catch yourself in that negative self-talk and stop that "head-thrash". Because all those "head-thrash" are going to stop you from realising your goals in the new year. Well of course, it will take more than just positive self-talk such as "Exercise is going to make me fitter and I love it". 

"All the things we achieved are things we have first of all imagined"

David Malouf, Australian Writer

According to Bobbe Sommer(author of the book I just mentioned),  all these logical thinking and verbal self-talk take place in the left brain which works in tandem with the conscious mind. And the subconscious mind is paired with the right brain which Bobbe Sommer called "the theater of imagination". If you could not imagined yourself to be in a certain state you wish to achieve, all those logical thinking or positive thinking or even willpower is not going to overcome all the barriers such as bad eating that sabotages your fitness goals. You need to able to visualise yourself to be in the desired state you want to be. If you can't see yourself in a situation, it's never going to happen. To engage you right brain and program your subconsious mind, practise mental imagery in a quiet place everyday in a relaxed state. Visualise with as much detail as possible in the way you want yourself to be.  

Let your goals serve you and act as if you are already reached your goals.

Happy New Year!

Don't be a Quitter in 2009

TC

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