Write Your Goals Down to Achieve Them

This blog post from Healthy-4Life's Linda Todd discusses the importance of writing your goals down...

In January, I wrote six training related goals on a post-it that I wanted my training to address this year. I stuck the post-it on my wall above my desk so that I would see them every day rather than hide them away in a book where they could be easily forgotten.

Here are the six things I wrote:

• Sore feet on bike
• Increase FTP
• Better bike handling skills
• Core work and strength training
• Run pace increase
• Reduce weight to below 70kg

I took the post it off the wall today as I am working on my 2019 training plan and took some time to reflect on the last 11 months and my achievements. 

I have managed to make good progress, ticking off five of my goals. The exception being number 6, which was to reduce my weight to below the 70kg mark.  My weight did get to 69kg for a race but it is not stabilised there and right now I am floating around between 71-72kg. While I am not worried about this, I recognise I will need to make it more of a focus and priority for me over the winter as I train for my first race.

For 2019 I feel I need to create smart goals.  Meaning I want to be more specific and accountable so rather than just writing increase FTP, I want to indicate by how much, and my run pace to what and so on.

But for this year, writing out these six basic goals was a good enough motivator for me. The fact they were visible daily, served as a regular reminder about what it was I wanted to achieve. That is why I believe that wherever you are on your health and fitness journey you do benefit from setting goals, being accountable and having support along the way.  Even if that support is simply someone to check in with each week, analyse your progress or provide new ideas and suggestions.  It is helpful to get continuous feedback and advice to keep you motivated particularly through that initial start-up phase when you are changing your behaviour and making new habits.

My Get Healthy 8 week plan is created to get your started and on completion give you the ability to move on, take back your own fitness and continue to achieve your goals.

Get started today, by writing your goals down and then think about who can help you focus on reaching them.