a realistic approach to goal setting and #macros #stayfitmom #macrodiet #weightloss

Chasing Your Goals

In the 14 years with my husband, the times that we talk about the most and that have fortified us together are when we have been driving toward a common goal. We decided early on that our goal was for me to be able to stay home with our children. That season included a career change for my husband and returning to school. He was 33 when he started his pre-requisites. I dug in and moved my career forward as quickly as I could to cover the investment in our future. Those years were some of our hardest. When our oldest was almost 5 and our second was born, we jumped off of the cliff together and moved where the best opportunity was for his career. Thankfully, not all goals are this big or daunting, but all goals, small or large, share some common keys to get you across the finish line.

What goals do you have for yourself? Are your goals fueling your life and moving you forward?

It has been said that a goal is a dream with a deadline. Dreams are great to fuel your excitement toward the future, but if you never put an action plan together, those dreams will stay elusive. Are you putting in the effort and action to achieve the goals that you have for yourself?

Here are a few things to consider on your path:

Define Your Goal
Be Willing To Adjust
Stay the Path

DEFINING YOUR GOAL

When setting your goals, you need to ask yourself…what EXACTLY do I want? If we don’t take the time to define what it is we are working toward, it is easy to lose focus, feel discouraged without a logical assessment of progress, and quit.

SMART is a great format to evaluate your goals:

Specific: What exactly do I want to achieve?

Measurable: How will I measure my success? (Spoiler alert…if this is not measurable in a tangible way, you will not likely be satisfied with the outcome.)

Attainable: Is this goal something that you can reach with the resources that you are willing to invest?

Realistic: Are you being realistic about your limitations and what is possible?

Timely: Determine a timeline to achieve your goal. Checkpoints are an awesome idea if it is a longer term goal.

Have you considered these things when setting your goals while working with Stay Fit Mom? How are you evaluating your success? Can you reach this goal with what you are willing to invest? Are your goals personal and possible for you? Have you set a timeline and included checkpoints that offer you opportunities to look back and celebrate what you have accomplished so far?

BE WILLING TO ADJUST

Now that you have defined your goal in a way that is definable and trackable, let’s think of working toward your goal as a road to success. There will be times where the miles fly by and other times where it feels like everything slows way down. You may even encounter a detour. In our case, as my husband reached the end of his pre-requisites, he chose a different program that we had originally targeted. We had new information that we did not have when he started. The road signs were showing us a better route! We were still moving forward and still headed toward our goal, but we were not afraid to consider a change in the path to get there.

Are you taking the road signs into consideration as you work toward your goal or are you missing something potentially better because you refuse to look up? Sometimes we can become so blinded by the day to day that we forget what we are REALLY trying to achieve.

Are you so fixated on a number on the scale that you are missing amazing body composition and strength changes that will actually have you feeling and looking better than your “magic number” weight?

STAY THE PATH

As Tracy has often talked about, most things that are worth doing are HARD. Working toward goals is HARD. There will be times on the road to your goal that you may begin to drift off of the road and hit those little road turtles. You may have lost sight of the road, gotten distracted or even had an outside influence get you off path. When you realize that you have drifted out of your lane, you have to find a way to get back on track. Take control of what you can control, make the next right decision and get back on the path to your goal.

Some weeks macro counting is a breeze. Other weeks it can be a challenge…date nights, family functions, kids activities, crazy schedules, work stress, vacations, world wide pandemic…so many things can push us past those road turtles and toward the ditch. If you have a rough week and can feel those bumps telling you to get back on the path, remember what you are working toward and make the next right decision!

In the words of Jimmy Dugan in A League of Their Own, “It’s supposed to be hard. If it wasn’t hard, everyone would do it. The hard…that’s what makes it great.” My husband and I often reflect about what a hard season that was when he went back to school, but it really made crossing the finish line that much sweeter.

Put a deadline on those dreams and get them done. You can do hard, amazing things.