Let’s face it, exercise can be difficult and exercising on a regular basis even more challenging. The good news is that everyday people are getting fitter and accomplishing amazing goals. You can be one of those people by setting an amazing fitness goal that excites you.
Fitness goals can provide both intrinsic and extrinsic motivation to exercise. Meaningful and exciting goals can make the process of pursuing the goal (aka exercising) both enjoyable and fulfilling. Goals and motivation are closely related, harnessing the connection can help maintain a consistent exercise routine.
Motivation has everything to do with our mindset. Combining exercise with a fitness goal you are excited about is one of the best ways to exercise consistently. Read on for tips on finding a goal and how to use it to fuel your workouts.
Keys to choosing a fitness goal
- The goal should be something you cannot accomplish today or tomorrow, at least not without risk of injury. There are people who will go out and a run a marathon with no training, but it certainly isn’t fun and there is a high risk of injury
- It needs to be something you are completely stoked about.
- It should be something you can realistically accomplish in the next few months if you train consistently.
- If the goal is huge, meaning it will take you a year or longer to accomplish, set some smaller goals as targets to keep you on track for the larger goal.
Examples of Goals:
- Running a half marathon or marathon. These have become so popular that you can likely find an event near you in the next 6 – 8 months.
- Running a half marathon or marathon in an exciting location. This works for me. I’ve run a half marathon on the Great Wall (see my story here) and an Ultra-marathon at the Matterhorn in Switzerland (video here). I had planned to run a marathon in Alaska, but just weeks before was unable to. I ended up running the 26.2 miles around my neighborhood the weekend I was to be in Alaska.
- Walking a half marathon or marathon (some races may have cut-off times so look for this when deciding on a race to enter). This is doable! During the half marathon seminar to review the course for event, I was sitting next to these two older women (looked in their 60’s) who traveled the world walking marathons together.
- Enter a Triathlon. I haven’t done this one yet, but may in the future. Not quite excited about this one yet.
Weight loss exercise goals – warning!
Spoiler alert: weight loss goals are not likely going to be accomplished primarily through exercise. Yes, exercise will burn more calories, but it will also make you hungrier which usually offsets those calories burned.
Do not be discouraged, as exercise has a lot of benefits to support your weight loss goals. Exercise can help promote more fat-burning, give you more energy, and boost your confidence to reach your goals.
Let’s be clear, weight loss goals are primarily achieved by diet. Just look at any gym or the next running race (non-elite that is). You will see people of all shapes and sizes. Exercising regularly, like many gym goers and marathon runners, may help you slim down some without making dietary changes, but it will be limited.
One of the books I read about a slightly overweight woman who became a marathon runner, didn’t lose a pound! However, she did note that during her training, she was able to eat just about anything she wanted and never gained a pound.
Volumes can be written on nutrition and diets. There are so many programs, plans, and so many different recommendations it can be quite confusing.
The healthiest and most successful plans focus on a plant-based diet with little or no processed foods and sugar. Even small changes like swapping out your favorite drink with water or flavored water can make a big difference.
I have learned to drink tea and coffee without any sugar several years ago. I also almost never drink any soda or juice. Water is the best hydrator and most people don’t drink nearly enough of it.
One of the best plans I’ve seen for jump-starting a healthier diet with dramatic weight-loss results is the 6-week plan by Joel Furhman in his book Eat to Live. There is also a PBS special on the plan that you can find on YouTube here.
How to reach your goal
Motivation and desire are greatly affected by our goals. Think about the goals you’ve set for yourself in the past. I’m sure the ones you were excited about and looked forward to doing were the ones that you accomplished.
Think about a child for example. How motivated would a child be to walk 15,000 steps or 7 miles in a day? Not very… Now tell him, he’s going to Disney Land for the day which will require him to walk about 7 miles. The right goal makes all the difference.
Write your goal down! Put that goal where you can see it regularly. The more you see it, the more resolved you become to actually doing it. It will keep you motivated for each workout session you know you need to do to accomplish the goal.
Invest in your goal. Most adults find that investing in your goal (usually with money) is one of the best motivators to making a goal a reality. Signing up for a race usually involves money as there are cost for supporting the race. Your time and energy are also investments so the longer you train towards your goal, the more likely you are to achieve it.
Tell others about your goal. Setting exciting goals will naturally lend you to tell other friends and family about your goal. Once you’ve voiced your goal to other, you now have some additional motivation to accomplish it. In addition, if you set an exciting enough goal, you may have a friend or family member join you! Added bonus.
Visualize your goal. If you have chosen a goal you are genuinely excited about, then you want to think about reaching this goal while you are exercising. You get way more milage out of an exciting goal by spending time visualizing it.
Studies show that visualizing accomplishing your goal can increase your motivation, present happiness, and your chances of success. You will enjoy your workouts so much more and may even look forward to them knowing you are another step closer to your goal.
Use Fear to you advantage
Don’t let fear of failure keep you from setting a goal or visualizing your success. I totally get it, no one likes disappointment, let alone failure.
If your goal terrifies you (I know mine did) than leverage this fear to your advantage and over-prepare. Fear of failure can also be a great motivator as you do everything you possibly can to prepare for success.
Think of the last time you had a big project, test, or other event coming up where the risk of failure scared you a bit (or a lot). I’ll bet that you put more effort and energy into preparing for it than you would have if you didn’t have any fear attached.
In addition, use the fear of failure to train sensibly as you won’t succeed if you get injured. You may need to re-evaluate your goal as your progress to ensure it still make sense for you. For more on goal setting see my article here.
Key Takeaways
Setting a fitness goal that will excite you can be the key you’ve been missing to finally establish an exercise routine. Goals and motivation are closely related, so the more excited you are about the goal, the more motivated you will be to accomplish it.
Be sure to set a goal that may be a stretch, but realistic with consistent training. While the achieving the goal is the reward for all the training you’ve done to get there, be sure to enjoy the journey. For more on the immediate rewards of exercise see my article here.