Introduction
Goal setting is important because, without it, what is being accomplished besides floating through each day?
This information applies to anyone who has a plan for their life, anyone who thinks they may have an idea but does not know how to reach it, or anyone who does not even have a plan.
This post is the first of two goal-oriented informational posts.
In this post, we’ll define goal setting, talk about why it is so important, how to do it properly, and how it is important to nutrition, physical activity, and mental health.
What is Goal Setting?
Goal setting is the act of motivation and planning to reach a desired outcome. Without it, you would be stuck doing the same thing you have done since you were very little.
Most everything you have done in your life so far has been through the development of goal setting, whether you realized it or not.
When you were in middle school, it was a goal to get to high school. When you were in high school, it was your goal to graduate.
Maybe it was a goal to go to college or start working for a certain company. Maybe, at this point, you did not have very many goals in sight. This point in time is where a problem can occur.
Why is Goal Setting Important?
Goal setting is important because it will be your driving factor on how to reach new levels in your life. It is how you can and have progressed yourself through life, whether you have thought about it.
With goal setting, people can start to get stagnant. They do not have an idea or objective that they are chasing and go through the motions.
Without this drive and motivation, they tend to receive dopamine rushes from other sources, such as alcohol or drugs, instead of being driven to achieve a harder task (Locke, E. A. 1996).
With the drive and motivation of goal setting and having a goal that you are trying to achieve, you have more purpose in your life and something you are working towards to better yourself.
Three Important Tips and Reminders for Goal Setting
For goal setting, make sure you are implementing the SMART goal format. While it may seem redundant for some after learning about SMART goals so often, they are very useful.
A SMART goal means it is specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, and time-oriented.
Make sure it is specific enough that you know what you are trying to achieve.
Have it be able to be measured in some way, shape, or form.
In these instances, make sure it is something you think you can actually attain to keep striving. In the same category, make sure it is realistic in your situation, i.e., if you are living in Alaska, it may not be realistic to get a tan.
Time-oriented then means that there is a time stamp on when you want to achieve the goal.
Have small goals along the way
Having small stepping stone goals along the way will help you stay motivated toward achieving your overall goal.
I like to have three small goals, often behavioral, to help. Such as changing your sleep behavior to more sleep or putting your phone down 30 minutes before you want to go to bed to help you fall asleep.
Take it one step at a time.
To reach your goals. You can’t let a little setback end your drive toward achieving your goal.
Likewise, your end goal may seem very far out of reach. If you take it one step at a time, you will slowly but surely get closer to your goal. More opportunities will arise.
Two Real Examples of Goal Setting: Nutrition and Physical Activity
Goal 1: You have a goal of losing 10 lbs in 10 weeks. In order to do this, you will lose one pound per week by eating 500 kcal lower each day by adding more seasoned vegetables to replace some of the excess sweets you always eat.
Goal 2: You want to increase your cardiorespiratory endurance by mid-summer (8 weeks), so you are not tired as quickly for the family get-together. You will do cardio training four times a week, starting at just 30 minutes a session, with it being a mix of jogging, biking, and interval training. To measure this goal, you will be testing your RPE (rate of perceived exhaustion) during an equivalent workout each week and your heart rate.
Both of these goals are specific with data information you are trying to achieve that you can measure. They are not just generic goals that one “hopes to accomplish.”
They are both realistic to achieve with a time set to accomplish them.
These goals are very useful for information related to nutrition and physical activity. By setting them, you can have a path laid out as to how you will accomplish the certain task, vs. just hoping and wondering how other people are at that point in their accomplishments.
By doing this, you help yourself get out and stay out of ruts that can affect your psyche and make you feel better each day by knowing what you are striving for.
Closing
From my personal experiences, the act of actually achieving a set goal is almost always still less than I thought it would be.
Instead, I have realized that it is the journey along the path to reach the destination that is the best part of the trip.
No matter what goal I have reached, completing a triathlon, marathon, or getting into graduate school, once I reach it, I may be happy for about fifteen seconds, but then I think, “Okay, so what’s next then?”
The real joy, the pleasure, and the pain come from the journey towards reaching the goal. This journey is why having such a great goal planned out with specifications on how to achieve it is so important.
If you approach each setback or progression as a positive vs. a negative, or as it is like a glass half full view, you can surely accomplish the goal you have set out to reach.
At The Athletes Health, we strive to make each person feel the best they can and believe that can be accomplished by combining all sorts of aspects of health together.
That is why we are making a new path of health. Mental, physical, and nutritional health are all interwoven, and creating great goals for them are just a step along the way in the journey.
Call-to-Action
Find ideas that you have always wanted to accomplish in your life
Make great SMART goals for these ideas
Know there may be setbacks, and that is okay!
Crush the journey towards these goals
Find yourself living a fulfilling life.
Citation
Locke, E. A. (1996). Motivation through conscious goal setting. Applied and preventive psychology, 5(2), 117-124.