Let me make a prediction... 96.8% of subscribers who actually are reading this have wished they had more passion in the gym. And a full 99% of those still reading, do not have their goals written down anywhere. Why is motivation so difficult? How come the #1 question I receive is from somebody who asks, "I know what to do, but I just need somebody to motivate me to do it all year round." So let me ask you... Can you clearly see your goals that you want to obtain? No really. Can you SHOW me what you want to accomplish in the next 6 months? Personally I always thought that writing down your goals and to-do's was crap. Until I took a sticky yellow post-it and wrote down 4 things I wanted to accomplish on my website over the weekend. Nothing fancy at all but clearly the things I wanted to do. They were specific, simple and realistic. Needless to say... I did them all over the weekend. And here I'd thought about them for 6 months! Look... goal orientation is the key element in establishing strong motivation. Let me say that again - Knowing what you want to accomplish is key in establishing the desire to actually do it! A goal is nothing more than a stepping stone from one goal to another. It's the bridge between wanting to achieve something and actually achieving it. So let's being with the Six Steps you must do to go from thinking about it, to actually doing it. :: A Goal Must Be Well Defined :: If you've seen those Red Cross thermometers or any place that shows some type of chart with the money received and the ultimate goal.. that is pretty well defined. Just think about it... What sounds best to you? a) I want to lose weight b) I want to destroy 15 lbs of fat and get to 10% body fat with a year Please tell me you picked B. B is clearly more defined and therefore more obtainable. :: A Goal Must Be Stated In Writing :: Life gets in the way. My story of wanting to do just 4 simple things to my own website that I had the ability to do just kept getting buried under the complexities of life and schedules. Once it was a simple post-it note on my desk, it had a magical way of getting done as I checked off each item. It didn't require any more work on my part but it was defined and clearly visible. Everybody says this right? Even Tony Robbins, Tom Venuto, Jon Benson, Jeff Anderson, and the rest of them. But guess what? Those guys are right. That is their secret to success. They write down what they want and once it's in writing, it gets done. The rest of us think about it forever and never really get around to doing it. Heck, if you don't write down a grocery list of what you want, you'll forget things at the store, get distracted and make 4 more trips that weekend. Opps... maybe that is why I should take a list to the store. Saves on gas too. My point is, your goals MUST be written down. :: A Goal Must Be Stated In The Positive :: I'm not a medical doctor of some Neuro-Linguistic Programming, but I know enough about the subconscious to know it doesn't understand negative goals. Use a positive mindset when creating a goal. "I won't eat junk food" is better stated as "I will eat healthy foods eat day." Even better is "I will enjoy eating healthy foods each day." Now your goal is an affirmation which can be used to kick- start some action! Rather then state what you won't do, start telling yourself what you will do. :: A Goal Must Have A Deadline For Completion :: How many of you get excited about payday? Or an up-coming vacation? Or even a UFC fight in Las Vegas? Simple. It's something to look forward to and think about. It creates a sense of urgency in ordering tickets and getting the hotel if you know you are leaving on a specific date. If there's no real goal for completion, there's no sense of urgency after a bit and hence, most people quit the gym after 6 months. Not only did they not have a clear goal most of the time but they had no deadlines for obtaining anything. After a bit, it's just a routine, gets boring and since there's no deadline to accomplishing anything, they get back to life and out of the gym. :: A Goal Must Have Sincere Emotional Appeal :: So let me ask you... If you don't really care, how much passion do you have for that thing? Creating a goal should be a sincere effort with something tied to your emotional desires. Heck if you don't even care, trust me, your mind will find a quick way to end that gym session. An emotionally charged goal will have a sense of urgency and that leads to passion to complete something specific by a certain deadline. Passion is the fuel you are looking for and only you can create it. Sadly, it's not available in any gas stations that I know of... yet. :: A Goal Must Be Difficult, Yet Realistic :: With that said, if it's too easy, it's unlikely you'll give it enough attention to really focus on it or care. "I'm going to make it to the gym tomorrow," is hardly an earth shattering revelation for most. To make matters worse... If it's too difficult, you'll get frustrated with the lack of progress and your confidence in actually doing it will be compromised. That means... You need to create goals in such a way that with a continual, concentrated effort, you know you can get the job done. Imagine a mountain top with a red flag at the very top. That is your long term goal (specific too). But it's unrealistic to think you can achieve that in 2 months. But if you had little yellow flags along the path to that red flag, those would be short term, achievable goals you could look forward to with a sense of urgency because they could have a shorter deadline and time to completion. How about losing 1 lb a week of fat? How about gaining 2 lbs a week for those who are on a bulking cycle? How about writing one question and answer a day for the Beginner's Guide to Fitness and Bodybuilding? (That's how I got all 250 pages of my first book done.) Short term thinking but with long term results. If you know you can get the job done, your passion for doing it will rise. Now go get some yellow sticky notes! Copyright 2006 Marc David |
