Why I feel setting goals is important
As you start your fitness journey, most people's’ goals include either losing weight or putting on some muscle. The Want Factor to achieve these goals can usually pull people through to achieve them, but the problem lies after the goal is reached. People will often lose as much weight as they wanted or put on enough muscle that they are pleased with the way they look, but they fail to plan any further. So once they finally hit their goal, many times people will fall back into old habits because they haven't set a new goal to strive for. Therefore before you reach your current goal, you should already be thinking about what you want to accomplish next. Now you may not want to lose any more weight, but I can guarantee you don't want to put back on all the weight you just worked so hard to lose. Other goals could be to try a new sport or activity, try a new hobby or activity with your kids, start working toward strength goals, basically anything that will help you keep from becoming complacent.
Short vs Long
Even though I may be setting goals for myself a few years out, it can become easy to stray from the course when your goals are so far away. Therefore I believe it is important to set both long term and short term goals for yourself. I personally like to work backwards, and what I mean by this is start with your long term goal, then think of all things you will need to do to get to that point. By breaking down a big goal into small chunks, it helps keep you accountable along the way.
Don't be narrow minded in fitness
When thinking about what you want to pursue for your long term goals, don’t write anything off. When I first started training I never cared about how strong I was, it was all about how I looked in the mirror. I never cared to even try squats or deadlifts and even thought to myself I’d never be doing them. Then when you jump a few years into the future, squats and deadlifts have become some of my favorite exercises and I am trying to increase those lifts as much as possible. Because of this, I’ve totally changed my perception around and got rid of the “I’ll never try that attitude”. There is no reason to write something off because you don’t seem to care for it in the moment. As you grow and change you’re going to have to continually try new things to help facilitate this. Sometimes this might include doing things you never thought you would.
Actionable Steps
Set a big long term goal for yourself. Even if it means looking 1,3,5 years out.
Rather than get overwhelmed by the huge goal you set for yourself, work backwards creating smaller shorter term goals.
Then continue to break them down into smaller ones until you feel like you can accomplish them, even if that means breaking it all the way down to a weekly or daily list.
Lastly, before you fully reach a goal, start preparing yourself for the next one. That way you never become complacent and are always moving forward.