Goal Setting

I encourage my personal training clients to set fitness goals. When you set a goal, you're more likely to achieve it. Here's how:

1. Decide what your goals are, and write down specifically what they are. For instance, if you want to lose weight, decide how much you want to lose, and write down your target weight. Be specific about why you want to achieve your goal. Write a list of your motivations to lose weight. And visualise how you'll look and feel when you've reached your goal.

Visualisation is what builds emotional intensity into your goal: Close your eyes and imagine you're standing naked in front of the mirror, having achieved your goal. How does it look and feel? Now for each of your reasons why you want to achieve that goal, close your eyes and imagine how you feel in that scenario. Repeat once a day, every day. Emotional intensity is a source of energy, a potent motivator, and boosts your belief that you can achieve your goal.

2. Your goal must be measurable over a specific timescale. If you set a goal without a deadline, you're unlikely to achieve it at all. But with a deadline, you can monitor your progress, and take corrective action if you fall behind. For instance, if you want to lose a stone, set a goal to lose it in 7 weeks, at a rate of 2 lbs a week. And monitor your progress by weighing yourself at the same time every week. A deadline gives a sense of urgency and reality to your goals.

3. Make sure your goal is achievable and healthy. For instance, a goal to lose a stone in a week would be unrealistic and very bad for your health.

4. Once you've set your goal, take action until you achieve it. If you fall behind, or lose motivation, remember point 1 above. It's easier to take the necessary action when you focus on your reasons why you want to achieve your goal. 'Want-power' is more powerful than 'will-power'. Put another way, if you have a big enough 'why' you can achieve any 'what'.

As a personal trainer in London, I know how powerful goal-setting is. When my clients embrace goal setting, they reach their goals faster. Clients who don't set goals, or who set them and don't stick to them, find that it takes a lot longer to lose weight, or gain muscle, or boost their cardivascular fitness. I encourage my clients to keep their goals at the front of their minds, to stay focused and take the necessary action. Setting goals is not enough in itself, you've got to take action too.

Do you have clear goals? Can you visualise your desired end-result? Do your goals have specific deadlines? Are you taking the required action on a regular basis? Are you on track?

I might not always be popular with my personal training clients all the time, but it's part of the service to push clients to achieve their goals. That's why I hold the client to account with regular progress checks, and encourage the client to keep taking the actions necessary to reach the desired target. That means exercise action, nutrition action, and healthy-lifestyle action too!