Right about now, everyone is starting to think about their Health and Fitness Goals for 2021. They’re thinking about losing weight, getting their blood pressure under control, or just making better eating decisions. They’re planning their “New Year, New You.” And some people are talking about resolutions or not.

Whatever your health and Fitness goals are and whatever you want to call them, let’s talk about what you should be thinking about in order to meet the goals that you have for yourself.

The Secret to Successful 2021 Health and Fitness Goals

Your health and fitness goals are about you. They aren’t about your spouse, partner, parents, or children. They aren’t about your employer. And most importantly, they aren’t about what society thinks you ought to look like or what you ought to be doing with your health.

Your health and fitness goals belong to you, and in the end, you and your physician are leading the way regarding what’s right for you.

Now, this is not to say that your spouse or partner shouldn’t be involved or that you shouldn’t want to take care of yourself because you have children. You should definitely have those conversations. But you are the only person who knows how you feel, and you are the one who will have to live with your choices.

Other people in your life come and go. Sometimes in a good way and sometimes in a not-so-good way.

But let’s talk about how to make those health and fitness goals for 2021.

Here’s What Your Personal Trainer is Not Telling You About Your 2021 Health and Fitness Goals

First, what is it that you want to accomplish with your health and fitness goals, and why?

Maybe your doctor has told you that you are pre-diabetic. Maybe you feel like you could just be in better shape. You’ve noticed your weight creeping up, and your clothes don’t fit the way you want them to fit. Maybe you’re stress eating or you’ve stopped going to the gym. Whatever it is, make that list first.

And then, take some time to understand why that’s a goal for you. What are your motivations for your goals? It’s only when your motivation is strong enough, when your reason is great enough that you’ll make goals and stick with them.

And here’s the other thing. There are going to be days when you’re not going to want to stick with your plan. Life will get in the way. Other people will get in your head. Or maybe you’ll just be tired of having to do the work to be successful with your goals. It’s that motivation…that reason why that will keep you going.

You’ll be able to tell yourself, “I’m doing this because.”

Just remember, if your motivation is not strong enough, you probably won’t succeed. Or you’ll succeed, but that success will be fleeting.

Think back to how many times you’ve read about someone losing weight for a wedding or their high school reunion. They have a strong motivation and a date that they have to meet. But after the event, the motivation is gone, and some of them go back to their old ways. Why? The event has passed and so has the reason that had caused them to change their ways.

So, the take away is that you have to know what you want to accomplish and your reason why.

Meeting Your Goals will Require Resources

Second, what are the resources that you’ll need to accomplish your health and fitness goals and how do you plan to access those resources.

If your goal is to work out more, what resources will you need for that? Are you planning on joining a gym and paying for a gym membership? Do you have a certain amount of body fat that you want to lose, but you need to understand nutrition better? Do you want to walk outside at least three times a week, but realize that you don’t have the sneakers you need? Do you want to purchase a Peloton or rower or something, but need to figure out which one you want and plan to save the money?

You can’t just decide that you’re going to work towards to new goal. You have to figure out what you’re going to need for it. You’re going to have to plan.

For me, right now I’m asking myself some of these same questions.

I want to make better food choices in 2021. But how am I going to do that? Well, I haven’t figured it all out yet, but it would start with having a better grocery shopping list, having planned meals that I can rely on, that are quick and easy to make. It involves getting rid of those foods that I know I probably eat too much of.

So already I’ve been cleaning out my refrigerator and cabinets.

But here’s something that sounds like it’s totally unrelated. I’ve also been decluttering my life and my house. I’m getting rid of physical things that I don’t need. Right now, there’s a whole bunch of stuff in storage. I’ve also decreased my time on some social media platforms. For instance, I’m just not on Facebook like I used to be.

So, what have been the resources I’ve needed so far and what resources will I need. Here’s one example.

I got a storage unit. Who would have thought that spending money on a storage unit would increase the likelihood that I would make healthier health and fitness choices? But it did because it helps decrease the stress of having a bunch of stuff around.

When I’m less stressed, I make better health and fitness choices. So, there you go. My resource need was a storage unit. There was also the money related to paying for the storage unit and the packing boxes that I bought and the gas and the time that it takes to get stuff out of my home and into the storage unit. But now I feel soooo much better.

One last thing about resources. They can be people too. It might be a physician or a personal trainer. It might be a psychologist that you virtually meet with twice a month. It might be medication. So, think outside the box about what you’ll need and how you plan to get it.

Third, at this point, you have your list of goals. You now have the resources that you will need to help you accomplish your goals. But what’s your timeline.

For most of us, we’re thinking that yesterday would have been good. We’re saying to ourselves, “I want to accomplish this already. I wish I were there right now.” But that’s not the way it works, and we know that.

Setting a realistic timeline is essential. If we’re too aggressive and don’t take into account all of our other responsibilities and stuff that pops up, for instance, like a pandemic, then we’re going to run into trouble with our timeline.

So, you know how this works. Get a calendar. Put things on your calendar. Action items. Tasks. Whatever it is that you are going to do. Have a plan and then work that plan. I know it’s a cliché phrase, but it’s true. If you plan for nothing. Then that’s what you’ll get…nothing.

I’m here for you. You made it through 2020…the year of the coronavirus pandemic. But this year, we’re going to continue to work on our health and fitness goals. Because if there’s one thing that we learned in 2020, it’s that we have to take our health and fitness goals seriously. We have to make them a priority.

The post How to Stay Focused on Health and Fitness Goals in 2021 appeared first on What a Movement.