Common Mistakes I see with Goal Setting in Health and Fitness

When it comes to setting yourself up for success, it often helps to start things out right by establishing goals you want to achieve within a set time frame. That way you will have a tool by which to measure your success or progress you are making along the way.

This step is where many people go wrong, and here are just a few of the ways I see clients ruin their chances of success from the start:

Having Too Many Goals Without Prioritizing Them

The first and most common thing I see in people is having too many goals without prioritizing them. Someone will come in and say "I want to build muscle, lose fat, decrease my blood pressure, get off a medication, get abs, and rehab an injury from 10 years ago."

Those are all great goals, but you can easily get side-tracked by skipping from focusing one to another and so on. That method leaves you with little progress and a lot of frustration along the way.

Instead, you should list your goals, then go through them and prioritize them until you have one or two main goals. Focus on those for several months or more, and only move on once you are sufficiently satisfied with your progress in those areas.

It is possible that success in one of those areas will lead directly to success in another, but the resilience and determination you build in being persistent with the pursuit of a singular goal will aid you in the further accomplishment of another.

Expecting Too Much Too Soon

Another mistake I see commonly associated with proper goal setting when sitting down with new clients is their timeline. It is our nature as humans to overestimate what we can accomplish in the short term. I see too many people wanting to move heaven and earth in eight to twelve weeks.

That approach isn't necessarily wrong for the right person, but it doesn't leave a lot of wiggle room for life to happen. Illness, holidays, events, travel, etc... can completely derail your chances of success with a shorter timeline like that. One or two bad weeks can make it seem like you barely did anything at all!

Focusing on the Long-Term Process

On the flip side, clients who commit to the process with a long-term vision will almost certainly get the results they are looking for.

I'll share this with you, as a coach who has now worked with hundreds of clients at this point: Every single person who has worked with me for at least a year has had tremendous, life-altering results! And many of those have included injuries or surgeries sidelining them for months at a time.

That doesn't mean that I guarantee results if you work with me that long, it's just a product of becoming the kind of person who commits to themselves in that way.

If the first question you ask when we sit down to discuss the process of training and working towards your goal is "how long is this going to take?" then you've missed the point, and likely you won't have the patience for results that you need to achieve what you are looking forward to.

I encourage all of those I work with to be impatient in taking action and patient for results. The rest tends to take care of itself.

Having Too Many "Buts"

All too commonly, I see the mistake of what I call "too many 'buts'". Someone comes to me wanting to achieve a goal. They have a good sense that it is going to take a while to accomplish their goal, but they are unwilling to compromise their current lifestyle to do so.

They want to do the work, but they don't want to feel tired or sweaty, so they can never push hard enough in a workout to create substantial adaptation. They want to improve their nutrition, but not track their food intake, so they don't have data to support their decision-making. They may even want to build strength and muscle, but are unwilling to purchase equipment or a gym membership to do so. They want to work out, but will prioritize it over other things, so workouts become inconsistent at best, and nonexistent at worst.

This problem is simply an unwillingness to prioritize health and fitness and what it requires. I have coached many of my clients through several of these roadblocks to success, but this issue falls down to evaluating what it is you want and what you are willing to give up to get it.

If you are unwilling to sacrifice or prioritize something to improve your health and fitness, it may be that right now is not the right time to make changes, and that's okay.

Lacking Clarity About What You Want and Why

This is where the last mistake I see comes into play when setting goals for yourself with your health and fitness: Not having clarity about what you want and why you want it.

If you've ever worked with me, you've probably shared some things with me that you've shared with few other people in life. That's the "personal" aspect of personal training. Motivation to improve your health and your body comes alongside thoughts of how you view your self and how you value yourself, and those are very personal thoughts that rarely get openly shared.

My job as a coach is to get to the heart of WHY you want to change, and WHY that change would make a difference in your life. Once you can understand that for yourself, motivation becomes simple. It may not be easy all the time, but it is straightforward.

The mistake I see so often here is beginning pursuit of a goal without sufficient knowledge of what it is you really want and why you want it or why it makes a difference for you.

The ones who can communicate their goals clearly and understand why it means so much to them are usually successful, sometimes even without much help at all. Those who have trouble verbalizing those things, even with a great deal of assistance, will struggle to maintain their motivation for long enough to accomplish meaningful change.

Start With Why

If you are someone who is struggling to maintain motivation for long, I would challenge you to examine why you are seeking to make a change and what difference it will make in your life. If you find that the reason that matters to you is trivial or doesn't seem as fulfilling as you thought it might, then it's likely you need to spend some time thinking through your personal values a bit further and your view of your self (I know: easy, right?).

If, however, you feel rooted in your motivation, but you are just struggling with developing a simple and effective plan to move forward, I'd love to help you talk through the specifics and get you started on your way. CLICK HERE to book a call with me to discuss exactly that.