Jul03Break Big Goals Down to Achieve Them
Big goals are often like staring up at a huge staircase from the bottom: it looks insurmountable, with so many steps to climb. The problem is that you’re staring at the entire staircase, instead of breaking it up into chunks.
How much easier would it be to climb a staircase if you focus on each step? The same goes for any goal. The key is breaking up the ‘big’ goal into manageable segments that allow you to achieve small wins.
First Define Your Big Goal
What is it that you want to achieve? Lose Weight? Gain muscle? Get stronger? Find what it is you want, and define it. If it’s weight loss you’re after, get specific on the number of pounds you want to lose. If you want to get stronger, what is it you want to get stronger at specifically, or why would you like the extra strength? Defining these goals will help you create a plan of attack to achieve them.
Breaking it Down: Find The First Step
Let’s say you have a defined goal to lose 20 lbs. The first step is finding out the necessary steps to get there. Let’s look at what steps most people come up with:
- make better food choices
- exercise more
Seems simple enough right? For some, this works. Eat better, move more. And technically, this is what you need to do. But we can still break these two tasks into smaller tasks that are more easily achieved. Now we break down those two steps into smaller tasks that achieve both of those steps.
For making better food choices, what would that look like? We could add in more whole foods, aim to eat a specific amount of protein each day, and add a serving of veggies to each of our meals every day. It could also mean identifying our “bad food habit” triggers – the things or situations that cause us to eat in a way that is a hindrance to our goals – and replacing them with good ones.
For exercise, it could mean that we get on a clear training routine that has set workout days. That could mean strength training 3 times a week, and doing some form of cardio 2 times a week. Maybe you take it a step further and enlist the help of fitness professionals like us at H4 Training. The main idea is identifying the steps necessary to reach your goal, then taking those steps and breaking them down even further into easily achievable action steps.