A Word About Goals

When it comes to physical preparation, most athletes don’t know where to start or what direction to take. They go through the motions of training, but they’re unfocused and rarely leave their comfort zones. If they want to get to the next level, however, their activities must be much more focused and intense.

I’ve found that setting goals for my athletes has really given them the direction they needed. If you have goals in mind, like playing your sport in college or professionally, you tend to organize your life so you can meet them. Here are six keys to meeting your expectations.

1 Write your goals down. Until you put them on paper, they’re just ideas, and everybody has ideas. Once you write them down, you can start taking the necessary steps to reach them.

2 Put them where you can see them. Write your goals on posted-notes and stick them on the bathroom mirror. Look at your goals every day when you wake up and before you go to bed.

3 Set long- and short-term goals. While tracking your progress from week to week, you should never lose sight of why you are working so hard in the first place.

4 Make your goals measurable. I hear a lot of athletes say, “I need to be better overall.” How can you tell if you are better overall? For a baseball player, the proof might be improving your batting average by 100 points, increasing your RBI totals or making better plays in the field. These things are actually measurable.
5 Do what is necessary to achieve your goals. If you can’t find time in the day to develop your skills, such as batting practice or dribbling a basketball, wake up earlier. You’re competing against millions of athletes for that scholarship. Make the time.

6 Stay focused and keep your goals in mind with everything you do. If you lose concentration doing something simple, like jumping rope, you’re going to lose concentration in a game.

Take Action Now!

Nothing is going to happen to your body if you do not take positive action. It doesn’t do you any good to have heard all of that information on how to build a good solid physical body if you don’t take action. You want to take care of your body. You want to live longer and you want to be a more active and powerful in your living.

You want to have more energy, more drive and more endurance. Why? Because you don’t want be a couch potato with no vision or no purpose in your life. There is a purpose in building up your body and that reason is to live a healthy life. Not only should you want to look good and live a healthy and prosperous life, but also you should want to live to be around the people you love the most as long as you can.

You must believe in yourself and you must employ the same power and force for your weight loss goals. You must take action.

Here are the 6 Common Reasons for Not Taking Action:

1. Confusion and not knowing where to get started - you may have a great goal, but sometimes no plan on how to really do it.
2. Procrastination - you won’t even try! You create excuses to put off your goal.
3. Lack of confidence - your main thoughts are about how you have tried this goal before but you failed.
4. Lack of motivation - the goal you set no longer has any importance for you.
5. Lack of support from the people around you - in fact, it starts to tear at you, because you start to believe you will not achieve it.
6. You! - ask yourself: "What is really stopping me from achieving my goal?"

Look at the weight loss you have set for yourself, the one you have let go. Then ask yourself: "What is really stopping me from achieving this goal?"Seriously, ask yourself: "What is stopping me from taking action and giving it my best shot?”

Keep asking yourself this question until you find the answer to what is truly stopping you from becoming successful in your weight loss goals and write down every reason! Whatever reasons you have for not taking action, whatever is stopping you from achieving your dream, you can do something about it.

For every reason that stops you, there's often an easy solution! Always remember:

“If you're walking down the right path and you're willing to keep walking, eventually you'll make progress.” – Barack Obama

Dont' Give Up!

Rochelle just step off the scale from three weeks of hard work. She had lost three pounds. She could barley hold back her disappointment, because she had been exercising and eating right for the last 21 days. She just can’t believe it. She feels that it doesn’t matter if she tries or not. Even when she exercises really hard, she still doesn’t lose enough weight. What is the use of trying?

I understand it feels very disappointing when things don’t work out the way you had planned in your fitness program; especially when you give it your best effort.

So how do you keep going when there is gradual progress? Will you give up and stop trying or will you stay on track and tell yourself, “I’m doing great, losing three pounds is better than gaining three pounds.”

Here are five simple ways to stay focus when it comes to shedding away those unwanted pounds.

1. Stay Positive and Know Your Outcome - Have specific goals. Get a photo (or several) of what you WILL look like when you reach your goal, and then focus only on that image. Quickly erase any negative beliefs or images that may enter into your mind during your day.

2. Train Your Mind - Listen to audio books while you exercise - Self-improvement and motivation books are GREAT here. You'll feel twice as productive, and highly energized, and the time will fly. As you are working out you are not only focused on feeding your body, but your mind. What a great combination to live by.

3. Begin an Accomplishments Journal - At the end of each day, write down what you've accomplished that day to move you closer toward your fitness and/or life goals. DO NOT WRITE DOWN WHAT YOU HAVEN'T ACCOMPLISHED. What matters is what you ARE doing; we all need a long-overdue, well-deserved pat on the back on a regular basis.

4. Record and Review - If you don't keep track of your workouts and improvements, how will you know if you're making progress? Whether it's fat loss, building muscle tissue, or just feeling better; keeping a log helps and motivates you to get there. When you see where you were, and where you are, you realize you're making progress! My Get Fit 4 Christ Fat Burning program http://www.getfit4chirst.com/ has a 40 day journal and will help you reach your fitness goals!

5. Family and Friends Support - When you are trying to lose weight, it is very important to have family and friends supporting you along the way. This means that they need to respect your weight loss goals and not tempt you into the wrong food choices or try and derail you from your fitness plan. Remind them how important this is to you and you need their support and encouragement.

Always remember to stay in the game. Don’t give up. Don’t quit. Keep working hard. Any dream worth having is worth persevering for! You have it inside of you to achieve goals! Go for it and make it happen!

“When life knocks you down you have two choices- stay down or get up.” – Tom Krause, Author and Coach

Get Motivated-Set Your 2009 Goals Now!

When I talk about motivation I am talking about giving yourself an incentive; moving to action; to drive forward toward a cause. Motivation triggers action to reach a goal.

Goal Setting is a way to energize yourself to achieve something or to become the person you want to be. Goal Setting is a very powerful tool for your fitness goals. Goal Setting acts as your team-mate for your weight loss program.

My next statement is upsetting, unfair and may not be totally true; however, it is an important statement to consider if you are starting workout program.

A person is out of shape because he has decided to be.

This decision may not be a conscious one, but at one time in life the decision was made and now a change must be made. Start to think about your goals and how you can achieve them.