Goal Getters - setting goals and how to reach them

Whenever someone new signs up with me for my help to reach health and fitness goals, the first thing that I always want to do with them is teach them how to set some goals for themselves. This not only helps me to keep them accountable and make suggestions on how to reach their goals but it helps them start to believe what is possible for them.

My goal (lol, see what I did there) as a health and fitness coach is not simply to sell you a product and walk away, I want to help you to succeed. I am not a personal trainer or a nutritionist (yet) but I personally have used the products that I provide my clients for the last three years and have seen HUGE results in not only my physical body but my mind and soul as well. I have learned about and gained many tools for my tool box on how to deal with various challenges and am always happy to share my experiences of strength and hope.

For as long as I can remember, I have always set goals for what I have wanted to achieve or manifest in my life. I don't always achieve them, but I learn a lot along the way and sometimes I realize that what I was actually aiming for wasn't something that I was meant to be or have. It is sometimes a disappointment or a heartbreak but I have never once walked away from something upset that I didn't get there because the learning process along the way is actually what is important.

As we set goals, we start to work on them (I will get to how you work on them in a minute) we start to learn about our mindset. All of a sudden, all of these patterns of thought and old ways of behaving come out of the woodwork because your negative ego wants to create some way to discourage you from change. We have thousands of egos in our mind and depending on our upbringing, experiences, teachings, hurts and trauma... the reality that we make up in our mind is usually not real life. Those ego voices are the voices of other messages you have received along the way about who you are, what you can do, why you are where you are, where you need to be, etc. So our negative ego will tell us that we can't do something or we don't have the time or we don't deserve it and we make the biggest mistake we could ever make... we believe it. And then we give up on our hopes, dreams and goals.

It is UNCOMFORTABLE to change, your brain does not want to change because it's main function is to be efficient and to transmit information quickly. The brain doesn't care about how you feel or what you want to do, the brain wants to stay efficient. The best way to stay efficient is to stay on the same old neuro pathways that it has always taken. When we set a goal and start working on that goal, we are getting uncomfortable because it's something new and we aren't sure if we are going to achieve it, negative ego starts to throw fears and self doubt in there and in order to change the path that we have always taken is to keep moving forward. Getting uncomfortable and doing it anyway. Hearing the negative ego voices but not listening to them. Facing fears and breaking through them. This starts to build that new neuro pathway (quite quickly actually because remember brain is efficient) and you are well on your way to changing mindset, habits and reaching those goals.

It is really quite fascinating what our minds can convince our bodies to believe (if you want to read more about this, look up psychophysiology or psychological physiology- a branch of behavioural neuroscience that studies the neural mechanisms of perception... sorry totally geeked out there for a second!)

To set your goals, I encourage you to sit in a quiet place if you can and just picture what your best life would look like in 3 months, 6 months and a year from now. When you are visualizing what you want, start to actually FEEL the emotion that you are experiencing as though you are living your best life RIGHT NOW. How do you feel? The reason we do this is because if we can attach an emotion to a goal, we are way more likely to get to that goal because we usually want to FEEL better, happy, calm, peaceful, etc. And now for a Jedi mind trick. Create an I am statement from that emotion. I am happy. I am calm. I am loving. I am fulfilled. Once you get your statement, write it down, post it everywhere in your house (on your bathroom mirror, on your fridge, on the doors) so that you see it. When you see it, say it out loud. This will help your brain to not only think it, but say it and hear it as well. The more you say it, the more you believe it, the more you believe it the more chance you have to become it. If you don't believe me, I challenge you to try it for 30 days and then send me a message about your experience.

Anyway, that is the first part of goal setting for my clients, and now you as well haha... it's obviously a bit more personal and a different type of experience when we do this together but I am willing to help improve your life in any way I can.

Next, you set up an action plan (small baby steps toward your goals) with a timeline. Maybe a reward system is something that motivates you, so if it does, add a reward for completing each action step. Set a reasonable timeframe to reach each baby step... but not giving yourself forever to accomplish. Challenge yourself but don't overwhelm yourself with pressure. Remember this is for your own good to live your best life so creating unnecessary stress by setting unrealistic timelines for goals is not what we are doing here. Some stress is ok because we have to stress ourselves out a little bit to break down old habits and ways of thinking so that we can build back up a new habit and new way of thinking.

Remember that the JOURNEY to the goal is where the most growth happens, actually reaching that goal is cool and all but what you have learned about yourself along the way is where it's at because you can take this into the next goal for yourself and just keep levelling up every time! You can achieve anything you want. You just have to push yourself a little. You are worthy and deserving of all the beautiful things you dream to have in your life. I hope this helps!

Thanks so much for reading, I hope I have given you some ideas on how to set goals for yourself and I am always open to your questions and comments. Feel free to share with family and friends who may benefit from this post. Have a great day!