By: Randy Herring

Goals

Goals are the main reason we work harder. Goals are clearly defined and measured by comparing ourselves now to then.

1. Goals that are not written are merely wishes. Written goals that are reviewed regularly become reality.

2. Goals must be your own and with reasonable expectations.

   

3. Goals must be positive. The two most common goals in America are to quit smoking and to lose weight - both negative. Rather than have the negative goal to quit smoking, someone who want to stop must have a goal to become a nonsmoker. Imagine losing 20 pounds. What are you going to do? Instead of a negative goal in pounds that need to be lost, the goal must be to achieve an optimal weight and to maintain that weight once it is achieved.

   You must be able to visualize the goal, and the only way the goal can be visual is if it is positive. The mind rejects negative goals; they are hard to visualize.

4. Goals must be measurable and specific. Definite goals produce definite results.

5. Goals must be measured in something you can see.

6. Goals must have a deadline. If you do not have a deadline, you do not have a goal. Goals must say how much, how many, and by when. Deadlines are the foundation of commitment. Deadlines are the adrenalin boosters.

7. Goals must allow for personality changes. You must first set those goals to become before you attempt to set goals to have. The goals to become are the intangible characteristics that make winners what they are. You cannot, for example, become a great skier if you have a strong fear of injury.

8. Goals must contain an interrelated statement of benefits. Ask yourself, "What's in it for me?" How do you want to reward yourself?

9. Goals must be realistic and obtainable. Having goals means having desires. We cannot get unless we have.

Scorekeeping

Progress is based on our ability to improve measurement. After all, "If you can't measure it, you can't manage it." People play and modify their behavior based on the feedback of their progress against an acceptable standard - their own scorecard. Winners keep track of results (and failures). Losers keep track of reasons. The elimination of uncertainty through scorekeeping increases the ability to take calculated risks.

1. Scorekeeping must be simple and objective.

2. Scorekeeping must be administered using the same measurement standard.

3. Scorekeeping must offer a comparison between current accomplishments, past accomplishments, and an accepted & realistic standard to meet.

4. Scorekeeping must be dynamic. The players must be allowed to review their accomplishments during the game!

Comparing your NOW to THEN is motivation! Every serious fitness enthusiast keeps score. You feel great because you are measuring yourself against your previous standard and you are WINNING! You feel like a winner because you are not comparing your expectations to an unrealistic one.

Feedback

When performance is measured, performance improves. When performance is measured and reported back, the rate of improvement accelerates.

1. Effective feedback is accompanied by its own set of terms. The most important term is the Results to Resource Ratio - how much is being accomplished with the resources available.

2. Frequent feedback is necessary because you know where you stand every time. People wanting to improve want to win. If you do not think feedback is important, go count the mirrors in your home!

Choice

Having a choice keeps our enthusiasm up and progress re-occurring. Choice drives us to our goals. If whatever we do is not our choice we are bound to fail. It is, therefore, important that we be committed to what we freely choose in order to succeed.

Winners seek to understand the rules well enough to win. To win is to have a game plan, a set of rules and a blueprint of what to do and how to implement it to help us succeed. Like rules of a game, they must stay the same in order to help us to accomplish our designated goal.

1. Choices are our behavior. We cannot change the result without first changing the behavior.

2. Attitude is our thinking. The way we think determines the way we will "act." Attitude is formed by an emotional event and conditioning.

3. Conditioning influences our actions.

4. Repetition builds the habit of conditioning.

Success is the result of behavior determined by attitudes formed by conditioning, which takes place through Spaced Repetition. Repetitive learning modifies conditioning, which alters the attitudes that control our behavior - producing the results, we want. (Advertisers say it takes eight repetitions before the consumer will even notice their product.)

Winners understand the importance of conditioning as it relates to attitudes, behavior, and eventually achieving success or results. Winners are constantly conditioning themselves by reviewing their written goals, reading good books, surrounding themselves with other goal-oriented individuals, and inviting spaced repetition of positive thoughts while pushing negative thoughts to the way side.

The certainty of progress is when you know where you stand, when you know the score - if you are winning or losing. When expectations are clearly defined and uncertainty minimized, it is easier to have the satisfaction of meeting expectations toward the goal of winning.

Motivation

Motivation is drive, incentive, and desire, go-power! Motivation is a "motive" for "action" - a reason to do something. There is no such thing as an unmotivated person. Everybody is motivated.

The BIG QUESTION is how to get more motivation in the areas we desire, how to get ourselves and those around us more motivated in their fitness and goal pursuits. Peoples' behavior is conditioned by acting on one or more of these forms of motivation:

1. Fear-motivation

2. Incentive-motivation

3. Self-motivation

The most effective motivation is self-motivation because it entails individual involvement freely and answers the question: "What's in it for me?"

Why Personal Training?

Personal trainers (read my personal training articles - Personal Trainers Teaching Success and Personal Trainers Teaching Failure - to help make your 'personal trainer' choice) are fitness professionals paid to help people train smart to get results. The client's enthusiasm and the power of involving him/herself in personal training come from the elements of the game and applying them to WIN.

Thanks,

Randy Herring

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