How in the world are you going to achieve anything without establishing a proper goal and a plan? We all know this, but often we fail to establish a plan and just establish the goal.

With this post and the following post How to Set a Dietary Goal, much of what will be said is remedial and comically easy to follow. The thing is we all know how some of the simplest things to follow are also the hardest. So, I will break the goal down to manageable parts and follow with actionable steps to achieve those goals.

What is a Fitness Goal?

Joel Runyon laid this out extremely well in his post Why Physical Fitness is a Terrible Goal. He states that physical fitness is a bland approach and measurable aspects need to be applied to actually see results. I couldn’t agree more.

A fitness goal should state two things:

1. Measurable Result (i.e. marathon, 200 pound bench press, summit Mount Everest)
2. Establish Time of Desired Completion (i.e. by March 1st, in 3 hours, within 6 months)

Once again, Joel states is well so I definitely suggest checking that article out.

The reason these two factors are critical to a proper fitness goal is that they make one accountable to something tangible. “I want to be strong,” is too vague to actually achieve. What does strong mean?

Where People Fail at Fitness Goals

Time and time again, I talk with family, friends, readers, and so on who say, “I want to run a marathon in under 4 hours,” then, maybe, complete a few training runs before throwing in the towel. People fail immediately if they don’t establish a proper goal as stated above. However, they more often fail because they don’t develop a highly detailed plan to achieve said goal.

There are very few people that can state a fitness goal of a marathon, mindlessly run some mileage leading up to the race, then complete their goal. If you are one of those people, you probably don’t need to be reading this. However, if you are like me and need an established plan, then this is your place.

See, I can state a fitness goal without a plan and get close to accomplishing it, but rarely fully reach my desired potential. Why? The plan makes completing the goal manageable. I guarantee you that if you asked 100 people who have completed marathons, at least 95 of them would say that they took it mile-by-mile in training and during the race. They established their fitness goal then broke it down to manageable parts.

The following is how I suggest you break down your plan for completing your fitness goal.

• Take the time between now and when you plan on accomplishing your goal and divide it by three (i.e. 3 months divided by 3 equals three 1 month increments).
• Break each third into 6-12 different parts. (i.e. 1 month into 2-3 training sessions per week).

Just by doing that you have gone from 1 fitness goal to up to 36 smaller goals and/or action steps. This has done wonders for not only my running training, but most physical feats i have accomplished as well.

How You Can Set a Fitness Goal

Simple. Follow the two previously stated factors of a measurable result and established time of completion.

I suggest doing one, a few, or all of the following to actually see the goal through:

• Buy the Commit app and set up your tangible goal today.
• Write your fitness goal down on paper and post it where you will see it daily (i.e. fridge, front door, bathroom mirror)
• Tell three people who support you what your goal is and ask them to support you, but also keep you focused.
• Tell three people you don’t really care for, but see almost daily, what your goal is. They will probably love to see you fail so you will definitely not want to satisfy their urge to “down you”

That’s It

I could probably blab on and on about the million ways to establish fitness goals properly, but you’d probably just skim the 3,000 word article and reads these bullets anyways. Plus, my goal is to have you succeed, not be bored or overwhelmed.

Good Luck!

photo credit: kaneda99 via photopin cc