Living Your Desired And Inspired Life : Choose the RIGHT Fitness Goals for YOU Right Now
Do you set fitness goals?
Setting the right fitness goals based on your lifestyle, circumstances and desired outcome is an effective way to up your fitness level and improve your performance, health and overall wellbeing.
Here’s why…
Every BODY is different.
In order to live the life of your dreams, you need a body that can meet life’s challenges, as well as support you in attaining your personal wants, needs and desires. I often remind clients that every BODY is different. We all also have different ideas about what it means to live our most Inspired Life.
Without setting and achieving fitness goals that are in alignment with YOUR life as a whole, you risk finding yourself without the capacity to meet both life’s challenges and life’s peak moments physically.
Physical embodiment goals are a key empowerment tool for ensuring that you are physically capable of living your Desired and Inspired Life.
Over the years I have taught, coached, mentored and trained all types of people. Some clients are professional athletes with fitness goals that mirror their professional ones. Others are business professionals who see physical health as a resource for success—in that the healthier and more resilient they are, the more vibrant and motivated and confident they are in their career. I also coach many individuals navigating a life transition, in which fitness goals support building confidence, a sense of identity and cultivating stability during a challenging time. As an example, I’ve worked with several new mothers, giving them the tools to strengthen their pelvic floor post-pregnancy and labor, while also working on setting and achieving creative fitness goals designed to help them reinvent themselves and embrace their new role in the world. Conversely, I’ve worked with retirees who finally have a chance to focus on their health and what truly lights them up after decades of other priorities taking precedence.
Whether you are trying to push yourself to accomplish new physical feats or working to establish or reinvent a fitness routine that works for your particular lifestyle, fitness goals help you build a solid foundation for a lifetime of personal growth, physical strength and vitality.
Choosing YOUR Fitness Goals
When it comes to setting and accomplishing physical fitness goals, the difference between success and failure is fairly simple. Success is most often achieved by setting and framing a specific goal in a way that is consistent with your current priorities, lifestyle and personality.
Where one individual would be motivated by a specific performance goal, like placing first in a race, another individual would be far more motivated by the desire to look or feel a certain way, gain or maintain the physical ability to play with their grandkids or avoid health issues that run in their family.
Setting the right goal is all about figuring out what benchmark in the future lights you up, keeps you motivated and has the capacity to get you to your desired result efficiently and effectively.
With the rise in obesity, heart disease and mental illness, now more than ever it's important that we each identify what keeps us moving while living a happy and healthy life. Fitness is not a one-size-fits-all program, but rather an invitation to “know thyself and respond accordingly.”
I personally love to work out, and I believe that is because I’ve found the activities that feel good for my body and I’ve developed the appropriate conditioning to enjoy them on a regular basis. I experience great joy in supporting my clients in finding the right activities at the correct intervals that support them in feeling their best. Through honest inquiry and consistent effort, frustration and apathy toward fitness transforms into enthusiasm and joy.
For those of you who feel like you need support, coaches, like myself, can help you ask the right questions, supporting and guiding you in uncovering and defining the perfect goal(s) for you.
The Power Of Utilizing Your WHAT, WHY And HOW
As a high performance athlete, teacher, mentor and coach, I’ve learned over the years that choosing (or not choosing) the right fitness goals can make or break attaining your dreams.
In order to determine what your fitness goals should be, the first step is to get clear on WHAT it is you want to achieve. The second is getting clear on your WHY. People underestimate the power of knowing why reaching a certain goal is important. When goal setting, I spend significant time asking why a particular goal matters, HOW attaining a specific goal will make a client feel and what longer-term effects accomplishing this goal will have on their overall quality of life.
What do you want to achieve physically?
How would reaching a certain health, wellness or fitness goal enhance your life?
Why is reaching this goal important to you?
Does working toward reaching this goal inspire you and light you up?
Coming back to your why over and over again is a powerful force in maintaining your commitment and can be the difference between success and failure.
As you dig deep and look at the what, why and how of your fitness goals, also ensure that your plan and goals are specific, actionable and trackable. A goal such as “to feel better” will be difficult to track. Without a benchmark, it’s hard to evaluate success. More than that, without something specific to do each day to work toward feeling better, it becomes easy to put off until tomorrow what should be done today. Rather, a goal that includes specifics, such as maintaining a certain pace for your daily run, being able to accomplish a certain physical feat by a particular date or having enough energy to play with your kids at the end of a work day is much more likely to lead you to success.
The Four Categories Of Fitness Goals
Below you will find four categories of fitness goals that I often use to motivate clients and myself. These include “performance,” “activity,” “body-centric” and “health and wellness” goals.
As we walk through each of the four categories, brainstorm at least one goal that you might set for yourself that is consistent with your current life circumstances, priorities and schedule. By “trying on” a variety of goals, you may be surprised by which one FEELS the best and is ultimately the right fitness goal for you.
Performance Goals
Performance goals are often utilized by athletes and those training for a specific race or fitness event who want to experience the satisfaction of accomplishing a specific physical feat. These goals are appropriate for individuals who consider fitness a top priority and are willing to mold their life around their workout schedule. They are great for people who enjoy striving for something in the future or who have bucket list items they want to accomplish in the area of sport or fitness, such as accomplishing an Ironman Triathlon.
A few examples of performance goals I’ve helped clients achieve include: qualifying for the Boston Marathon; biking 40 miles non-stop, nailing a handstand in the middle of a room; swimming a mile non-stop in open water; breaking six-minutes in a mile sprint; biking across the state of Iowa; and finishing their first sprint triathlon. Other examples of performance goals could include doing 10 consecutive pull-ups, hiking a 14,000 foot mountain, touching your toes or walking up three flights of stairs without stopping.
The intensity, duration and effort involved must be designed to support your unique wants and needs.
When setting a performance goal, ask yourself:
Is there an event, activity or physical feat in the future that will motivate me consistently over the next days/weeks/months?
How will it feel to accomplish that event, activity or action?
Do I have (or can I recruit) the resources necessary to plan a strategy to accomplish that event or action in a clear amount of time?
Activity Goals
Activity goals are great for individuals who enjoy crossing things off of to-do lists and/or find fulfillment in living a life full of meaningful moments and healthy habits. Activity goals are a commitment to a certain frequency of a specific activity within a certain amount of time. They are not about a single, final accomplishment, but rather about showing up consistently and moving your body. However, depending on your life circumstances, they may also include a commitment to a certain duration or intensity level.
Activity goals are also a great choice for individuals who want to maintain their current level of health and fitness or want to return to a previously experienced level of fitness. I’ve utilized this type of goal setting with clients who are recovering after an injury or navigating a significant life transition, such as having a baby, changing careers or healing from a break-up.
Activity goals reinforce healthy habits through consistency, dedication and follow-through. They also allow you to meet your body where it is—pushing yourself or going easy depending on how you feel each day. Consistency is one of the most powerful ways to improve, however, it’s important to remember that not every chapter of your life is benefited from “striving” physically.
You can either set aggressive activity goals, such as running three miles at a seven-minute pace three times per week. Or you can create a more flexible and responsive goal, such as going to the gym four times per week, leaving open the possibility for what you do when you get there.
A few examples of activity goals I’ve helped clients achieve include: Five hours of cardio every week (choose activity based on what seems fun that day); integrating a core workout and stretching into a daily morning routine; attending three cross fit classes and/or yoga classes weekly; walking the dog every day after work; and working with a personal trainer once a week.
When setting an activity goal, ask yourself:
What activity or activities, if done consistently, will allow me to maintain or reach my desired health and fitness level?
Based on my current life circumstances, how strict or flexible should I be about the intensity and duration of my goal?
Body-Centric Goals
Body-centric goals are designed to help you make a specific physical change that you want and/or need to make to your body. They can be based on how your body looks, functions or feels. It’s important that you make these goals very specific, create a timeframe in which to accomplish them and that there is a strong connection to your why. For instance, you may want to lose one inch around your waist or mid-section or fit into your favorite old pair of jeans so that you look and feel better and more confident and comfortable in your clothes, body and in the world.
A few examples of body-centric goals I’ve helped my clients achieve include: alleviating chronic back pain by increasing overall strength and correcting spinal posture; losing 15 pounds and toning arm muscles in 60 days to look fabulous at her wedding; developing a 6-pack by a 40th birthday’s beach vacation as a personal gift to Self; and lowering blood pressure in order to stop taking medication by an annual physical.
Other examples may include things like building leg muscle in order to bike faster or losing belly fat in order to feel more confident while also supporting heart health.
Body goals are not for everyone, and, like all goals, it's important to have a solid strategy to accomplish these goals that feels inspiring and motivating to you.
I explicitly do not recommend a focus on body goals based on appearance if you have any history of eating disorders or body dysmorphia.
When setting an body-centric goal, ask yourself:
What is the physical change I want to make?
Why do I want to make this change and by when?
How will I feel and how will my life be improved once I meet this goal?
Health And Wellness Goals
Health and wellness goals are focused around how your body functions or feels. I often ask clients how they want to feel in their body and what needs to change to live their Inspired Life.
I firmly believe that reaching and maintaining a baseline of health and wellness is foundational for optimal living. Nearly all my coaching clients spend at least some time articulating fitness goals, even if health isn’t their top priority nor the circumstances that led them to work with me.
Health and wellness goals are often set by individuals whose priorities are centered on things beyond fitness, yet recognize that they are more likely to reach their primary objective if they feel vibrant and strong and have sufficient endurance. For example, you may be driven by the desire to start a new business or have more time for your family and realize that in order to succeed there’s a need to have more energy at the end of the day, experience less anxiety and stress or alleviate pain and discomfort.
Most health and wellness goals are broad and speak to a general sense of “being.” A few examples of body-centric goals I’ve helped my clients achieve include: increasing focus; waking up feeling refreshed; increased confidence; increased stamina; and managing emotions with more ease and grace.
When setting an health and wellness goal, ask yourself:
What are my top priorities at this time?
What fitness activities or goals would support me in meeting my broader life goals at this time?
What is holding me back from living an Inspired Life and how might I improve my health to overcome these challenges?
Once you’ve earmarked a health and wellness goal (such as “having more energy”), how can you make your goal quantifiable and specific, ensuring that you know how and when you’ve accomplished it?
Now it’s time for you to set the RIGHT fitness goals for YOU!
Choose You And Start Living Your Inspired Life!
If you find yourself struggling to determine what goal is right for you, consider working with a coach. We all need role models and mentors—people who have already done what we aim to do—in order to take any aspect of our life to a higher level. We also need strategy to get where we aspire to go. It can be challenging to both design a path for yourself AND have the energy necessary to make it come alive. This is especially true if you’re embarking upon something entirely new or seeking to reach a new level of being. Coaches offer the support necessary to efficiently and effectively uplevel. Coaches also help you save the precious time and energy needed to focus on becoming the next version of you. Look out for next month’s blog, in which I’ll discuss the importance of creating the right strategy to reach your goals.
Your immediate and long-term health, wellness and vitality start with you choosing to invest in you. If you’re ready to set the right fitness goals and develop a solid plan to achieve success, I’m here to support you in any way that I can.
Blessings,
Katie
P.S. I just opened six spots for one of my favorite programs, JUMP START!
Jump Start Your Fitness Goals
Jump Start your growth and reach your goals through Inspired Living’s 8-week customized wellness and workout plan!
Designed to meet you where you are, Jump Start begins with a comprehensive health assessment and on-boarding call. I use my knowledge as a personal trainer, yoga instructor, performance coach and competitive triathlete to design a workout plan that fits your schedule, priorities and overall lifestyle.
Whether you’re a high performance athlete, running your first marathon or want to lose the tire that is beginning to form around your waist, Jump Start helps you achieve a new level of fitness, reclaim your health and develop healthy habits.
You also receive 1-on-1 coaching sessions and direct Voxer access throughout the 8 weeks to assure you have the support needed to remain committed and overcome any obstacles that arise.
Jump Start’s innovative, multi-faceted and customized fitness plan is designed to support you in developing the healthy habits and daily fitness routines that help you feel stronger, more stable and connected to your beautiful body—whatever that means for YOU.