Let’s touch upon a different topic today—one that you can apply to your fitness and health goals, as well as anything else you may want to achieve in life.
Goal setting and Discipline.
Goal setting and discipline are two man tools that you are going to need in your quest for better health, improved fitness, and, of course, in your pursuit of happiness, in general.
I hear a lot of people talk about the things they desire or things they want to do, without ever making a well-thought-out plan to get or achieve any of those things. If it is not written down, it is just a dream. Writing down your aspirations, ambitions, desires and dreams will fortify them, make them more visible, allow them to be more easily attainable, and will make them more permanent, like writing your name on a contract. It is imperative to come up with a detailed plan to succeed—a road map, if you will—because you need to know how you will get to your destination. You can’t just “wing it.”
How do you do this?
Each goal has to be SMART, that is, Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant and Timebound. Without these navigators, you are just shooting blank shots at a target you cannot see. And it simply will not work to help you attain your goals.
Once you have fleshed out your SMART goals on paper, you then must commit to them. To commit to them, you must initiate discipline to achieve them. That may often mean cutting out the old, bad habits.
You have your mission mapped out in front of you; now put it into action!
Experts recommend banishing old, bad habits, by starting with one, because to try to remove all your bad habits at once might be setting yourself up for failure. It simply is too much to ask. Therefore, attempt to eliminate the worst and most difficult habit first, and once you have gotten through three to four weeks without that bad habit, set your sights on eliminating the next bad habit. Continue to do this until you have reduced or eliminated most, or all, of the negative behavior that you once did so frequently.
Empty your cup so that you are able to be filled with a new you!
While cutting the negative behaviors, simultaneously add the good and positive behaviors (like working out!). Keep written records of the bad habits you are kicking, or have kicked, and write down the good behaviors you have added as new positive habits!
Goal setting and discipline may almost always mean that you will be breaking out of your comfort zone. Someone one said to me, however, “Get comfortable being uncomfortable,” because moving out of your comfort zone means you are growing!
So, you can have comfort, or you can have courage, but often, you cannot have both.
