Goal Setting Relating to Fitness

What Is the Most Important Aspect of a Fitness Plan?

If you ask someone in the fitness industry “what’s the most important part of a fitness plan?”, you’ll receive answers like “your protein intake of course!”, “Calories, calories, oh and more calories”, “movement every day! Movement is medicine!”, or “LIFTING HEAVY WEIGHT!”

While all of those are essential in their own right, the most important part of a fitness plan is having a goal, and making it specific. Most people start their journeys by saying “I want to lose x amount of pounds” or “I want to run more”. When you have a goal that is too vague, like those previous examples, you’re more likely to fail or give up long before you start to see results. Keep reading to learn how to set achievable goals and an action plan on how to achieve them.

Why Setting a Goal Is Crucial for Success

Having a goal is one of the most important parts of any fitness journey. If you do not have a goal set at the beginning of your journey, the odds of you quitting the moment you encounter any obstacle are very high. 

Just having a goal does not mean that you will be successful either. Research from the University of Scranton indicates that only around 8% of people actually achieve their goals. There are several factors that contribute to this high failure rate:

• Poor Goal-Setting Practices

• Lack of Specificity and Actionable Plans

• Insufficient Commitment and Passion

• Procrastination and Lack of Persistence

• Inadequate Support Systems

Let’s go over each of these factors and how to overcome them

Poor Goal-Setting Practices

The cardinal sin of goal setting is being too vague. Many individuals fail to define their goals clearly or develop concrete, actionable steps to achieve them. When you set a goal that is too vague, you are much more likely to quit because you won’t know whether or not you are even making progress.

Vague goals sound like:

• I want to lose weight/I want to lose belly fat

• I want to lose this right here (grabs some spot on their body like the lovehands, back of the arm flab, the flabby inside of their legs)

• I want to make more money

• I want to run more

• I want to read more

• I want to get jacked

How can you overcome this?

The tried and true method for myself and many others in the Legion of Lawler community is following the S.M.A.R.T. Method which stands for 

Specific - Be clear and specific so your goals are easier to achieve. This also helps you know how and where to get started!

Measurable - Measurable goals can be tracked, allowing you to see your progress. They also tell you when a goal is completed

Actionable - Are you able to take action to achieve the goal? Actionable goals ensure the steps to get there are within your control

Realistic - Avoid overwhelm and unnecessary stress and frustration by making the goal realistic

Timebound - A date helps us stay focused and motivated inspiring us and providing something to work towards

So what do SMART Goals sound like?

• I will lose 50 pounds before the family Christmas party

• I will run the Chicago Marathon in 2026

• I will read 12 books in the next 6 months 

• I will eat the amount of calories and protein prescribed by my Nutritionist at least 5 days a week for the next 3 months

• I will put $1,000 in my savings account in the next 6 months 

You may be now saying, "Okay you have your SMART Goal, but it seems so big and scary and ambitious. Now what do I do?"

Lack of Specificity and Actionable Items

Now that you have your SMART goal, let’s break it down into smaller, actionable items. As the age old proverb goes, how do you eat an entire elephant? By taking one bike at a time

If you want to lose weight, don’t look at the 50 pound goal. Instead tell yourself "I want to lose 3 pounds this week", now figure out how to achieve that. Eat at a caloric deficit, eat protein, and walk every day

If you want to run a marathon, start with a 20 minute light jog without slowing down. Trust me, it’s harder than it sounds. “But Brendan, I get bored running!” Cool me too! If I run on a treadmill, I watch Netflix shows or Anime (HIGHLY recommend Solo Leveling.) If you want to read more, just read 10 pages a day. If you read 10 pages a day every day for a month, that’s about 300 pages in a month! Some books are only 150 pages so you could potentially read TWO BOOKS!

If you want to save more money, $1,000 in 6 months comes out to saving $38.46 per week. If you cannot save $38.46 per week, then you NEED a financial goal like this. If you live in a big city like Chicago, like me, $38 is 3-4 drinks at a bar on a Saturday night. 

Okay! SMART Goal is set, you’ve broken the goal down into smaller actionable steps. Now for the first real challenge. Do you really want this goal?

Insufficient Commitment and Passion

A lack of genuine desire and commitment can lead to giving up when faced with challenges. Knowing your "Why" will be crucial in succeeding in achieving your goal. I’m not talking about why you want to do it, but Why you’re doing it. This is a tough one for a lot of people, and usually the answers they give are GASP too vague! 

When the reason you are striving for a goal is too vague, as soon as the first obstacle comes your way you’ll quit. If you want to lose weight, and you set yourself the goal to lose 3 pounds a week, maybe you hit that goal the first week but then the second week maybe you lost only 1 pound or hell maybe you even GAINED weight back. If your Why is not strong enough, you’ll likely say “welp, I tried! Guess this just isn’t for me!”

When you have a strong Why, once that first road block hits you’ll say "psh this is nothing. This is just a speed bump in the middle of the road. That doesn’t mean I’m stopping, I just have to slow down and keep going forward" How do you find your "Why"? A simple way is to ask yourself why repeatedly. Pretend that you are a 4 year old in the "why"? phase, where they ask you why about EVERYTHING, and for every answer you give yourself, ask yourself why again. I’d recommend writing everything down as you do this exercise so that you don’t lose your train of thought (being a fellow ADHD dude, I understand how this…SQUIRREL). Ask yourself why enough times until you can no longer answer the why question. 

I’ll use myself as an example here: I want to lose 30 pounds by Thanksgiving

Why do you want to lose 30 pounds? 

Because I want to look good at the beach and the pool when I take off my shirt.

Why do you want to look good when you take off your shirt? 

Because I want to feel confident

Why do you want to feel more confident? 

Because not feeling confident has been weighing on me lately and it has been impacting my work and relationships

Why have you not been feeling confident lately? 

Because I used to be 30 pounds lighter when I was training for the Tough Mudder Holy Grail

Why did you lose your confidence? 

Because I stopped working out and focusing on my nutrition after I achieved my goal

Why did you stop working out and focusing on nutrition? 

Because I didn’t see a reason to anymore.

Why didn’t you see a reason to workout anymore? 

Because I didn’t have anything to work towards so why bother working out? 

So, why do you want to lose 30 pounds by Thanksgiving? 

Because I want the confidence that I get by relentlessly working towards a goal. 

Once you know what your "Why" is, it does not matter what the obstacle is that comes before you. You WILL overcome it because you know why you are trying to reach this goal. And your "Why" is more powerful and stronger than any obstacle that comes your way. 

Procrastination and Lack of Persistence

Procrastination and a tendency to give up easily when faced with obstacles are common reasons for not reaching goals. I’ll keep this one short and hit you with some Tough Love. 

YOU

DO

NOT

HAVE

TIME

If you have a goal, stop making excuses. You make time for the things you want. Every day you don’t take a step towards your goal, you’re taking 3 steps backwards. Every day, hour, minute, second wasted takes you further from achieving your goal. Stop procrastinating and get after it. If you’re procrastinating on a goal, ask yourself if this goal is even something you actually want. 

Inadequate Support Systems

A lack of accountability or support from others can make it harder to stay on track and motivated. Find a friend, a partner, or join a group of people who have similar goals as yourself and hold each other accountable. Regardless of your goal, there will always be challenges. Without a support system of some sorts, those challenges are even more difficult. 

Sometimes all you need is just one person in your corner telling you "I believe in you". When I started my fitness journey, I would tell people my goals of losing weight and I would get a lot of "oh…well that’s ambitious", "wow! Good luck dude", "that’ll be tough man, think you got this?" I finally spoke with one person that when I told him my goal, he said "FUCK YEAH DUDE!! You got this, I know you do! How can I help you get there?" After that, I proceeded to not just reach my goal, but greatly surpass it. 

Find a group on Facebook, a Lifestyle Coach/Personal Trainer, ask your inner circle to support you and tell them what support looks like.

Summary

Having a goal to work towards is important. Without a proper plan or systems in place though, you will be just another statistic. You’ll be a part of the 92% of people that never achieve their goals. 

However, if you set yourself a SMART goal, find your Why, and have an accountability partner(s), you increase the odds of you succeeding exponentially.

Set a goal that is Specific, Measurable, Actionable, Realistic, and Timebound

Take your SMART goal and break it down into smaller, actionable steps

Figure out Why this goal is important to you

Stop procrastinating. YOU. DO. NOT. HAVE. TIME. 

Find a buddy/group of people who are going to help push you towards your goals