Focus On The Right Kind Of Goals For Fitness Success

One thing I’ve been working hard to articulate to my own fitness clients lately is the importance of knowing your goals on a deep level.

It’s not enough to say, “I want to get in shape,” “I want to lose weight,” or “I want to run a 5k race.”

Those aren’t terribly clear goals, and clarity is what is needed when adhering to a fitness program. Clarity informs the decisions on when, how, and to what intensity you workout. It informs the building of the processes that lead to the outcomes.

If the outcome isn’t clear, the processes can’t be well defined.

Many people get caught up in obsessing about the outcome, no matter how well defined it is. But unfortunately, the outcome is not always within your control. There’s lots of genetic, social, financial, emotional, and environmental variables that will contribute the the outcome of a fitness program.

But the processes, and the mindful execution and tweaking of those processes, are within your control. This is what should be focused on when it comes to fitness goals. Focus on process goals, rather than outcome goals.

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So, what’s the difference?

An outcome goal might be, “I want to lose weight.” Better stated, it might be, “I want to lose 10 pounds.” Better still, “I want to lose 10 pounds in 8 weeks.” Still better, “I will lose 10 pounds of body fat in 8 weeks while minimizing muscle loss and eating lots of nutritious food.”

Defining the outcome is important. Defining it in detail is important. But that isn’t an actionable goal.

Once the outcome is well defined, the process goals can be established. For the above mentioned outcome, the process goals might be something like.

  • Track my weight daily at the same time each day.
  • Track my macros daily.
  • Walk 10,000 steps daily as two walks in the morning and evening.
  • Review my journals weekly and make adjustments as necessary.

The things listed above may not be terribly exciting, but they are the process goals necessary to support the outcome in this example. It really is that simple.

There’s lots of self help information out there that focuses on clarity of outcome, manifesting this, setting that vision, etc… But none of that is useful without the process goals. So, that’s where one should focus their goal setting.

It’s much more useful to set a goal of “I will do a 30 minute full body strength training session and journal my workout at 6pm every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.” than it is to say, “I’m going to get in shape.”

My own current process goals have recently changed. That is completely normal, and yours will, too. Process goals change as outcome goals change and as environmental variables change.

Currently my process goals are:

  • Daily morning walks at 7am
  • Daily submaximal kettlebell swings and Turkish Get-ups after my walk.
  • Daily practice of the tai chi forms I know after my kettlebells.
  • Daily practicing new tai chi forms during breaks from work.
  • Daily evening walks at 7pm

As always, all of the above are tracked somehow so that they can be reviewed. I use an app for tracking steps, and a paper journal for tracking workouts and martial arts progress. But sometimes I’ll use a spreadsheet or other tools. The act of tracking itself is part of the process. And different tools are better suited for tracking different things. That’s a topic for another time, though.

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All of this is to say, it’s all well and good to have an outcome that you want to achieve. Just make sure that your actionable goals and processes are where your attention is focused. Let the outcome take care of itself.

What are your current fitness goals? What are your process goals that move you towards them?

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