4 minute read
Fitness Update - Court Waters
by Focus
FITNESS UPDATE
with COURT WATERS
FROM CLUB LIME
Forget about setting grand goals for 2022 and focus on this instead!
Prevailing wisdom suggests that to achieve great things in life – be that health and fi tness related, business-related or personal – is to set specifi c, measurable goals. This is fl awed. While goals are crucial to provide direction, the systems followed to achieve said goals are more important!
If you want to lose weight – your goal might be to reduce your clothes a size or two. Your system is how you plan your meals, overcome cravings and manage your time to exercise.
If you want to get stronger – your goal might be to deadlift 100kg. Your system is how you plan your workout sessions, manage your recovery and nutrition.
If you want to get fi tter – your goal might be to complete a 10km trail run. Your system is how often you train, which surfaces you run on and how often, and how you choose strength exercises that will be most benefi cial to your running.
Here’s a question to ponder: if you ignored your goals and focused entirely on your systems would you still succeed? If you wanted to lose weight and you ignored your goal to lose 10kg and focused only on your food choices, and managing your time to exercise, would you still get results? We think you would!
The goal is to lose weight, but it would be ridiculous to stand on the scales and wish the number lower. The only way is to do a little bit each day and stick to the systems. Some problems arise when you spend too much time focusing on your goals and not enough time planning your systems.
1 – Those who succeed and those who fail often have the same goal.
Often, we hear stories of people succeeding in their weight loss goals of dropping 10kg, and we mistakenly assume that their ambitious goals lead to their success when really many others had the same goal and didn’t succeed. The difference was the systems they followed to achieve one outcome or the other.
2 – Achieving a goal lasts only a short time.
Imagine you want to exercise more often, and you set a goal to get stronger. You muster the energy to go and workout. But if you maintain the same lack of planning that got you to needing to exercise more, you will be back on the couch days later thinking again that you need to exercise more often. You are left chasing the same burst of energy that got you there before. It’s inconsistent because you never changed the system behind your goal.
3 – Goals can create a yo-yo effect.
People may work super hard in an 8-week challenge following a meal plan to the letter, achieving their goal of dropping two dress sizes only to stop training after they have succeeded. The 8-week challenge is no longer there to motivate them. When your focus is centred on one thing, what is there to motivate you after
e goal is to lose weight, but you have achieved it? Many it would be ridiculous people fi nd themselves to stand on the scales reverting to past habits once and wish the number a goal is achieved. lower. e only way 4 – Goals put restrictions is to do a li le bit on your ability to be each day and stick to happy. the systems. A common statement is ‘once I reach my goal, I will be happy’. The problem with this mentality is that you can never be happy because there will always be another goal to achieve after the one you are currently striving for. You are continuously putting off happiness until the next milestone is met. Likewise, goals create confl ict as you are either successful or you are disappointed. This narrow fi eld of happiness boxes you in mentally. It is unlikely that your path will follow directly what you had in mind when you set out to achieve. It makes no sense to limit your happiness to one path when many paths can lead you to success. Instead, fall in love with the process rather than the product, you don’t have to wait until the end to give yourself permission to be happy! If you want the results, rewrite your goals, then push them to the side and focus on having great systems instead. I’m not saying not to set goals; just that goals are better to set your direction and systems are better for making progress. If you need help setting up your systems to achieve your 2022 Health and Fitness Goals, come and see our crew of Personal Trainers Court, Jen & Leanne at Club Lime Moonee and let us help get you in for the long game.
