Failing To Follow Through With Your Health Goals? – Here’s The Solution!

knowledge of how to achieve your goals may not be enough to get you there...

Let's talk about something that goes deeper than a weight loss tip or simple health hack. The knowledge of how to achieve your goals may not be enough to get you there, depending on what the goal is and why you set that goal for yourself in the first place. I’m sure you’ve heard of SMART goals before. These are goals that are specific, measurable, achievable, realistic (or relevant), and time-sensitive. It’s good to have goals, but setting goals can also be detrimental to your path to success if not executed properly. To be clear, I’m not talking about properly executing the goals you set, but rather the process of determining what goals you should and should not set for yourself in the first place. There are good goals, and there are bad goals. Setting bad goals will set you up for failure. Failing repeatedly will cause you to have limiting beliefs about yourself and what you are capable of. Once you get to that place, it becomes very difficult to follow through with the goals you set. The good news is, even if that’s where you are currently, you don’t have to stay there. The solution isn’t simply “trying harder.” I’ll talk more about the solution later, but the first thing we need to identify is the problem. What makes a goal bad isn’t necessarily the goal itself. While it would certainly be a bad goal, what I’m not talking about is something like trying to break the world record for the heaviest person alive or trying to eat McDonald's for a month straight. The kinds of bad goals I’m talking about are simply goals that:

Is the goal to run a marathon three months from now in under two hours a bad goal to have? It depends. Is it a goal that sets you up to succeed? That depends on many factors that will be different for each individual. Are you a runner? Have you ever run in a race before? How many times a week are you willing/available to train? Does it align with other goals that you have? If you’re hoping to also put on muscle, one of your goals will need to be put on hold. You will have to spend a lot of time training. Will that affect other areas of your life that are important to you? A conflict of interest will make reaching your goal very difficult. If you have no prior experience with running, how will it affect your body, specifically your knees? Why are you setting the goal to run a marathon in the first place, and why specifically in under two hours? Why three months from now? Would you be happy if you did it in under two and a half hours, or does it have to be under two? If so, why? I’m using an example that may or may not specifically apply to you, but you should still ask yourself the same kinds of questions with any goals that you set. There’s a lot I could say regarding goal setting, but I won’t go into more detail today. Instead, I'd like you to ask yourself what your goals are. Define them clearly and ask yourself if they are good or bad goals based on the 4 points I listed above. If you don’t have specific goals set for yourself, that’s okay. I don’t want you to make any up just to say you have goals. Instead, we’ll talk about how to set good goals for yourself. I’m all about goal setting and think it’s extremely important to have goals, but only if they are good ones for you. No goals would be better than bad goals. That may not be a popular opinion, but I believe I have good reasons for it. There are too many goals constantly flying around with a very small number of successes. I want to help you have more success, and the place to start is with your goals. By success, I simply mean successfully achieving the goals that you set and having few failures. Be sure to think your goals through and be honest with yourself. It would be best to write out your current goals or put them on your phone. Next, remove all of the bad ones.

One of the best things you can do is stop looking to social media or others in the fitness industry who are sharing what they do to "get xyz results”.

So, what are good goals to set, and are the ones you are left with on your list any good? First of all, your goals shouldn’t directly mimic anyone else’s goals. Part of the issue in the fitness industry is that there are a lot of people who have spent years achieving what a person just starting would like to, and they are misguiding those beginners by sharing their current routine, diet, daily habits, etc. I use this illustration often, but it would be like the marathon runner giving their daily running schedule to someone who is just beginning. Of course they’re going to fail. They will probably get injured as well. One of the best things you can do is stop looking to social media or others in the fitness industry who are sharing what they do to "get xyz results”. Erase all of the assumptions that you’ve had about what you need to do, what kinds of big goals you need to set for yourself, or what being healthy looks like. What’s healthy and harmonious for one person could cause mental instability for someone else. You need to set goals that:

Does this mean you should only set small goals and no big ones? No, but you should set it and forget it. Your greatest effort needs to go towards your smallest and most achievable goals first. This applies to all areas of life. People often do it the opposite way though. The deep desire to get to the destination becomes such a big focus that the daily tasks necessary to get there don't seem like enough. In the business world, most specifically amongst entrepreneurs, there’s something referred to as “shiny object syndrome”. This is when someone gets so fixated on the destination, usually of making money/building a profitable business, that instead of sticking with one tactic or business strategy long enough to see if it works, they bounce from one thing to the next. They are chasing the "shiny" object which is the result. Most people want a fast result instead of doing the daily, boring tasks necessary to get the result they desire. Another common mistake that many beginner entrepreneurs make is what’s called “analysis paralysis”. This means they overanalyze and plan out everything, but rarely take any sort of meaningful action. They overthink it. Taking action on those boring daily tasks day in and day out is what will one day result in the desired end product, not only in business but also in your journey towards being healthy and fit!

You also shouldn't set more than one big goal at a time... if you're already having trouble following through it's not a good idea. You will have plenty of smaller goals to focus on once you reverse engineer your one main goal.

Another thing that’s often done in the business world is reverse engineering the end goal down to the daily and even hourly tasks that need to be done to get there one day. This is a very good practice and one that I recommend you implement. Start by determining your ideal end goal. Make sure that your end goal aligns with points 2 and 4 from the list above. Your end goal most likely won’t align with point 1 at this time, which is okay, but you also need to recognize and accept that. Remember, don’t expect to run the marathon on day one. If point 3 doesn’t currently align that’s also okay as long as your end goal can align with point 3 eventually. Set a realistic timeline for your end goal. If it’s a weight loss goal, make sure you calculate how much weight you would need to lose per week. Let's say it's 50lbs. You should try to average around half a pound per week. That means 25 weeks would be a realistic timeline to reach your goal weight. You can lose more than half a pound per week, especially if you take things in phases, but again you want the goal to be very realistic and achievable. The more aggressive it becomes the harder and less realistic it is to stick with. If it happens faster, great, but don't put that expectation on yourself. Also, don't forget point 4 and ask yourself why you want to lose specifically 50lbs. What if 40lbs were actually healthier for your body makeup? What are you basing your end goal on? It shouldn't just be completely random. On the flip side, your final goal doesn't have to be final either. If it changes in time that's okay! If your main goal isn't a weight loss goal, just make sure it’s still measurable. You also shouldn't set more than one big goal at a time. Many people make this crucial mistake. They set several goals that are completely independent of one another. You may be able to do this eventually, but if you're already having trouble following through it's not a good idea. You will have plenty of smaller goals to focus on once you reverse engineer your one main goal. Having a goal like “eating less sugar” and “losing 50lbs” is okay because they are not independent of one another. Eating less sugar fits with your main goal and can be a part of the reverse engineering process, but as you break your goals down further they should get even more specific. The more specific and practical the steps are, the more likely you will be to succeed. The next step is to continue working your way backward until you work your way to just a few daily or weekly habits you can follow that fit well into all 4 of the points above. It’s very important to narrow your list of daily habits down to just a couple of things at first. These won’t usually be destinations. In other words, they probably start over every day or week. Once you lose 50lbs you’ve lost it, but the habit of eating 4.5 servings of vegetables every day restarts every single day. This makes choosing when to add in a new habit a little bit difficult, but you shouldn’t add new habits until you are consistently accomplishing the first couple of habits that you set for yourself. 

Throughout this process, you must stay true to the “set it and forget it” rule regarding your main goal. Focus on accomplishing the daily and weekly goals. If you aren’t achieving those, make the necessary adjustments. If you can’t get the simple daily habits done, you won’t reach your bigger goal. If you are failing more than you’re succeeding at the small goals, you may need to narrow them down even further and make them even easier. I should also mention that while daily habits are important for reaching your goals, there still needs to be a measurable goal to tell you whether the habits are moving your progress in the right direction. The measurable goal also needs to make sense. If the first few habits I set for myself are to go to bed by 9pm and to drink 3.5L of water each day, I can't expect to lose 1lb by next week from those things alone. Those things however may be necessary steps to take towards my greater goal. The results of these habits aren't very measurable on their own, but I need to consider that. Instead of having the goal to lose a pound in week one, I may need to extend the time expectation to fit the habits I'm currently implementing. Once I start implementing a few more habits that more directly impact fat loss, like hitting a specific calorie goal, I can more easily measure the results and make sure I'm progressing. I know, it may seem like it will take forever to reach your goal this way, but trust me, it will be faster than getting discouraged and giving up!

Remember to celebrate the small victories! There’s no sense in being hard on yourself when you are doing better than you were the day before!

As you accomplish the small goals and milestones you set for yourself, remember to celebrate! Too often I see people be hard on themselves when they should be celebrating, but then giving themselves a pass when they probably should be a little harder on themselves. You don’t want to accept pure laziness, but remember, accomplishing the goals you set will build trust with yourself and confidence, and eventually you will be able to set even bigger goals and make even greater accomplishments. If the person just starting training for a marathon is supposed to run 1 mile on their first run and they do it but get discouraged because it was more difficult than they hoped, they are starting with the wrong expectation and mentality and may quit even though they are doing exactly what they are supposed to do! That’s getting into another territory though. We’ll talk about patience and trusting the process another time but remember to celebrate the small victories! There’s no sense in being hard on yourself when you are doing better than you were the day before! I hope this can help you in taking some further practical steps toward reaching your main goal, and more importantly, being someone who accomplishes the daily and weekly goals they set which will result in reaching bigger and bigger goals! Life’s a marathon, not a sprint. Train appropriately!

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