Take the best advice you’ll get
You have an 8% chance of reaching your New Year’s goal, according to the research department at the University of Scranton in Pennsylvania. If this is the case, then why do you waste all the time and energy on trying to improve yourself?
According to another research article by Dr Gail Matthews at the Dominicans University of California may have the answer into why you have a “whim of chance” in acquiring your newly written down goals. She states: “My study provides empirical evidence for the effectiveness of three coaching areas tools: accountability, commitment and writing down goals.”
Simply put, it is not just about writing down your goals because that alone has an 8% chance of working. If you follow Dr Gail’s steps, you have a great chance of success in reaching your goals.
Writing down your goals isn’t effective enough. You need to commit to the goal by having “concrete actionable steps” in leading up to achieving your goal. Another world for actionable steps is milestones or mini achievement phases.
This is where you involve a person you can be accountable to like your wife, your coach or your boss. Let’s say you are looking for a promotion to a managerial position. Your boss agrees it is possible but lays out a road map to what he thinks you need to fulfil the position you want. For example, strategic management courses, implementation and tracking of management strategies and one-on-one sessions with him. Basically, you become accountable for your milestone through actionable events which gives your boss the confidence to promote you.
It is mandatory to check into your accountability partner weekly, as this allows you to stay focused and keeps your finger always on the pulse. If you only check in every month then you have 30 days conjuring up the world’s most useless excuses to why you didn’t achieve your milestones.
The main reason for setting small goals for your big goal is that you put yourself on a journey for success. How you get there will be the adventure, but you have committed. You are in your car, you are packed, you are driving and committed to achieving your milestones.
People often look at an attractive woman and say, “she is fit, healthy and probably was born that way”. People do the same thing with professional athletes, they idolise their heroes and wish they had their skill and fame.
When you dig a little deeper into their lives, you will realise that to be fit, healthy and firm takes an incredible amout of hard work and dedication to a clean lifestyle filled with daily exercise training. To become that pro athlete has taken thousands of hours of specialised training, sacrifice and probably obsession to get where they are.
Since weight loss is the biggest thing on the “New Year’s Resolution Menu” at the moment, I am going to give you an actionable sequence to how to try and lose some weight based on part of Dr Gail’s model for achieving goals apply sports science. Goal 1: I want to lose 7-10 kilograms in three months Actionable Steps: Start the day with a high protein, high fibre and small complex carbs breakfast Increase my water intake by six glasses or more Focus on a bigger breakfast, smaller packed lunch and dinner Introduce a salad with dinner and aim for a carb-free homemade dinner I will prepare my lunches at home and refrain from buying
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takeaways Decrease my plate portions by 25% per meal No fried food, only grilled, baked or boiled Increase my fruit and vegetable intake with meals I will only eat out twice a month and choose a healthier option I will substitute all sweets for 60-80% good-quality dark chocolate I will commit to a penalty of giving myself five push-ups, five squats and five burpees every time someone catches me moaning about my goal I will reduce my alcohol consumption to five units a week I will exercise for 45-90 minutes which will include high intensity training five days a week.
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Actionable Steps: I will involve my best friend, my spouse and my family in my new lifestyle choice of a healthy me and a healthier family I will hire a trained Fitness coach at least two of the five days of training to motivate me to move. I will send a WhatsApp message to all my close friends to call me out every time I moan about
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how I feel, my training and my nutrition Actionable Steps:
I will take a weekly photo of myself and pin it to the fridge to help me see my weekly progress and keep me from temptation
My fitness coach will track my weekly health goals and make sure he adapts the programme as I get stronger and can do more
I will keep a weekly count of how many times my friends or family catches me moaning about the new lifestyle programme
If I am not happy with my meals after two weeks of trying, I will consult a modern-aged dietician to help me become more accountable weekly with my nutrition
As you can see, we have broken down your goal of losing 10kg into actionable steps. Over the past few years, I have written how some of the milestone benefit your waistline backed by research, methodologies and common sense.
You have 12 actionable steps to reduce your calorie intake and the thirteenth steps is design with exercise in mind, to boost your mood, self-confidence and assist in making you look healthier and sexier in the mirror. This is by no means a DIET, this is a lifestyle. If you abide by these simple rules, you will continue to feel better, have more energy and drop to your desired weight.
Good luck and send me your success stories in three months’ time.
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