What is a Realistic Goal to Set for Fitness?
It’s essential that you set goals when it comes to your health and fitness. They help to keep you motivated, and they hold you accountable. If you’re struggling to get yourself to the gym, keeping your goal in mind can give you that extra boost to get out of the door!
Whatever fitness goal you set yourself in life, it needs to be realistic. Otherwise, you’re never going to reach it.
If you set yourself an unrealistic goal and you don’t reach it, you can be left feeling even more unmotivated and frustrated. This only sets you back even further than when you first started working towards your goal.
But how can you ensure that your goals are realistic? What steps should you take to create reasonable goals for yourself?
Take Things One Step at a Time
Often, goals become unrealistic when we try to set too many all at once. You only have 24 hours in a day, and you only have a limited amount of energy! So, make sure that you are spending your time and energy well.
Consider which goal you want to achieve first. What’s your main aim when it comes to your fitness journey?
Maybe you want to improve your endurance to eventually run a 5k race. Or maybe you want to hit a new deadlift personal best.
Whatever your main goal, focus on reaching it before you even think about what else you’d like to achieve on your fitness journey.
Make it as Specific and Measurable as Possible
Some of the most important aspects of any goal are specificity and measurability. Your goals must be specific and measurable. These are two of the factors that are referred to in the SMART goals framework.
When you have a fitness goal, make it as specific as you can by including lots of detail. Your goals should also be measurable so that you can track your progress.
Being able to measure your progress towards a goal means you can identify what’s working well and what you need to adjust in order to reach it.
Give Yourself Enough Time
Setting yourself a time frame to reach your goals helps you to stay on track. It is also important to to give yourself enough time to successfully complete your goal. It’s a common mistake to be so excited about the new goal that we think we can accomplish far more than is realistic in too short a time. For example, only allocating one month to prepare for a long race will not be sufficient time to train. Try breaking down your big goal into smaller, time-specific chunks and reevaluate your progress on a regular basis.