How to Reach Your Training Goals

According to Aristotle: "Man is a goal seeking animal. His life only has meaning if he is reaching out and striving for his goals".

We find ourselves stuck in ruts, lacking the motivation and will power to pick ourselves up and do what is necessary to achieve what ever goals we've set for ourselves.

So, what is the best way to get ourselves on the right path to succeed in our training? Let's take a look at firstly how to set a solid goal in the first place.

Goals need to be SMART.

Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic and Time lined. Breaking this down further, we can look at each guideline separately.

SPECIFIC

A goal needs to have a very clear and concise outcome or desire. One of the most common goals in the fitness industry is to "lose weight". I would say almost 80% of people who go to gyms will have this goal in mind for themselves. But what does it actually mean? Are you simply wanting to be lighter, or are you trying to lose a particular type of weight? Will losing that particular type of weight make you as light as you think you want to be?

If you want to "lose weight", go sit in a sauna and sweat out a few litres of water and then jump back on the scales afterwards. You'll be lighter, so goal achieved!

This goal is not specific. Because you haven't actually specified what type of weight you are wanting to lose, any loss of bodyweight on the scales will be seen as a success to you and your drive to continually keep losing weight will diminish because you have technically already achieved the goal.

Usually, when people are wanting to lose weight, they are referring to the loss of body fat and the maintenance of muscle, but they don't really know it yet. They'll find themselves hopping onto the scales everyday to ensure weight loss while starving themselves in the process. This not only leads to less than maintainable results and muscle loss, but it leads to regaining of fat due to too much restriction and a likelihood of eating everything in sight.

The much better way to set this goal, is to say something like "my goal is to lose 6kg of fat mass from my body in 3 months, while maintaining all most of my current muscle mass". Not one mention of the word "weight" in that goal at all. This takes your focus off the scales, and puts it back into training, and proper nutrition. You should seek a professional who is experienced at taking accurate body fat readings to get a starting point and to track your progress.

Great, so now we've got a specific goal, let's move on.

MEASUREABLE

The next step in the goal setting process is to make sure it has some form of measurable quality to it. Is our above goal measurable? Let's recap:

"My goal is to lose 6kg of fat mass from my body, while maintaining all most of my current muscle mass".

The obvious answer is yes, it is. It has a clear cut numerical value in the amount of fat this person wants to lose (6kg) and you can get your body fat and muscle mass measured in order to keep track of your progress and results.

If you take the weight loss on its own goal, it loses it's measurability because you don't know what type of weight you're looking to lose, therefore making it very difficult to determine if you're being successful or not.

ATTAINABLE

Is your goal actually attainable? Losing 6kg of fat while maintaining muscle mass is 100% attainable. If proper training and nutrition are adhered to, then 6kg of body fat loss in 3 months shouldn't be too much of an issue for most people, especially if you are a beginner or have a fair bit to shift.

The other side of this coin comes down to your current state of mind, and what your priorities are. If you aren't truly dedicated to this goal and to taking the necessary steps to get to it, then it may not be attainable for you at this stage and you might need to set a more simple goal, one that will still lead you to the ultimate prize eventually without being the total focus yet. An example might be "my goal is to lift weights with a coach 3 times per week to build strength, for the next 4 weeks". Taking care of one thing at a time that will build you into focusing on the ultimate goal and is a good way to build solid habits that will make the transition into more serious training easier later on, when you're fully committed to losing the 6kg of body fat.

If you're 100% there already, then you are ready to start chasing the dream.

REALISTIC

Looking back over your goal, is it truly realistic? Is it going to be something that you can achieve in the set amount of time that you've set for yourself?

6kg of fat loss in 3 months is realistic. It averages out to around 0.5kg of body fat loss per week over 12 weeks (assuming 12 weeks covers 3 months in our example). If we'd said we wanted to lose 12kg of fat over 3 months, there's a possibility that despite perfect food and training that we might not reach that much fat loss. Also, someone who doesn't need to lose 12kg of fat in the first place may not find this goal realistic because it could be detrimental to their health, unbeknown.

Make sure you have a clear understanding of what is realistic or not. There's nothing wrong with aiming high, but it's vital that you experience success along the way so you stay motivated and invested in the process, too.

TIMELINED

A good goal has a determined length of time in which it will be achieved. Our goal example has a 3 month running time, which means that the individual who is embarking on this goal knows that they have 3 months to prove to themselves that they can achieve it. If we left it hanging like "my goal is to lose 6kg of body fat", then we could technically take years to get there, and it defeats the purpose of having this goal to begin with, most likely.

Having a timeline also allows us to realise whether or not we have the dedication to achieve this. If 3 months suddenly seems too long or far away, make the same goal shorter. Cut it down to 2kg of fat loss over the next 4 weeks. Once that's ticked off, either think about maintaining this result, or go again for another 4 weeks until your 6kg is achieved. Even though it's taken longer than a calendar 3 months, you still achieved the 6kg fat loss in 3 months of dedicated practice.

FIND COMPELLING REASONS WHY: THE MISSING LINK

"If you're struggling to find the motivation to achieve a goal, then is just isn't compelling enough for you". - Unknown

This quote is perhaps the most important thing about this article. WHY do you want to lose 6kg of fat mass in 3 months?

For a lot of people, they don't truly know why or don't want to admit why they actually want to achieve a certain goal. For someone wanting to lose 6kg of fat, their reasons why can differ greatly depending on what stage of their lives that they're at, or how they're feeling about things at that time.

For person A, who might be a 21 year old team sport athlete, their why might lie deeper than just wanting to look good. If they keep asking themselves why it's important, they might eventually come back with something like "I want to lose 6kg of fat mass because I felt like I was letting my team mates down last season because I was too slow around the field, and this season I want to be a better athlete for them and myself so we can do better as a team". This reason goes beyond them. They not only want to achieve the fat loss for personal reasons, but for other peoples benefit, too. This will compel them.

Person B might be a 35 year old parent to a 5 year old, and their why might also lie deeper than wanting to look good. After asking why it's important to them to lose body fat, they might say something like "It's important to me because I want my child to be able to rely on me to run around with them in the yard everyday, and I want to be a strong role model and teach them good habits around fitness and nutrition because we were unhealthy growing up and I don't want the same for my kids". If they are having a rough day and are feeling flat, this reason will compel them to get to the gym or eat nutritious foods more often.

Remember, if you're thinking about your goal and you still can't bring yourself to take steps towards it, then it just isn't compelling enough.

So, with all of that being said, let's put the final piece of the puzzle together with our example SMART goal: "My goal is to lose 6kg of body fat in 12 weeks while maintaining muscle mass by heading to the gym 3 x per week to gain strength with a coach. I want to achieve this because I want to look good, feel strong and be a great leader and role model to my kids as they look up to me to guide them in the right direction, and I don't want to let them down".

You can take these guidelines and put them toward ANY goal you have, be it fat loss, muscle gain or a performance/rehab goal with your own unique and compelling "why" tagged along with it.

Now, set your goal, find your why, and get to work.