4 Top Tips to help you hit your goals and avoid Quitters Day
There are 4 Top Tips to help you hit your goals and beat Quitters Day on January 19th. According to an analysis of over 31 million global activities on Strava, January 19th is the day most people are likely to give up their New Year’s Resolutions.
What does the worlds’ biggest online fitness community have to say about beating Quitters Day? Sticking to resolutions is hard and there are a lot of pressures in January about getting fitter and being healthier. Strava’s 4 Top Tips to keep your motivation from wavering once the rush of ‘new year-new me’ energy subsides are completely aligned with what I talk about with my coaching clients all the time.
All is not lost if you find yourself in the ‘resolution quitter’ category, check out the 4 Top Tips to help you hit your goals and to move yourself forward or contact me here at Emerge for a FREE coaching exploration to help you set a great 2020 Goal.
Set a goal.
Of athletes who set a goal, 92% are still active 10 months later. In his book, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, Stephen Covey says, ‘To begin with the end in mind means to start with a clear understanding of the destination.’
Without a goal, you’re likely to drift or quit and you’re not in control. Wouldn’t you rather shape your own direction of travel and help your life change by design rather than by accident?
A great goal requires some thought and there are different acronyms you can use to define a goal well. Here are two to consider
SMART
- S – Specific – what is the outcome, in as much detail as possible, that you want?
- M – Measurable – how will you know you’ve succeeded or are moving towards the goal?
- A – Action Oriented – the goal must be tangible and require you to take action, not to just think or ‘decide’
- R – Realistic – even big hairy audacious goals need to be grounded in reality. It’s okay if it’s ambitious or needing to be broken down into smaller chunks, however it still needs to be realistic
- T – Time Bound – setting a deadline gives you something to work towards and to be accountable for
Three M’s
- Meaningful – a goal should be congruent with your core values, be something of value that motivates you, or else why would you bother?
- Measurable – the same as above, what are your measurements of success and how will you know you’ve arrived?
- Manageable – another take on realistic, aiming to get you thinking about what you can really manage, or how to break it into smaller bite sized chunks
Start easy and connect change to an existing habit
Behaviours that we want to become habits should take minimal effort, mentally or physically. Try breaking down the change into smaller behaviours that you can link to existing habit you have and hook them together.
For example, what about a kitchen workout whilst you wait for the toaster? That’s 2 minutes of lunges for medium well-done toast.
Most people take 4-6 weeks for a habit to form, so whilst a little will-power and motivation is needed up front, there are other ways to keep you focused.
Check out this excellent article from The Coaching Academy on how to form a new habit.
Find an accountability partner
Setting a SMART or 3M goal is a fabulous start, but we all have days where the motivation falters or you need a slight kick up the bum to finish a task. That’s me, full of great ideas but a terrible completer/finisher. Thanks to the team at Companion Consultancy PR for keeping me on the straight and narrow!
Strava suggests having a workout buddy increases the amount of activity by 22% and even better, joining a club increases activity by 46%.
As a coach, I can help you find triggers to keep you accountable. The simplest one is to share your goal with a friend or relative and then ask them to check in on your progress at specific times. My coaching clients will often admit that most of their accomplishments come the day before their next coaching session!
Track your progress towards that goal
It’s natural for a GPS and workout tracking platform such as Strava to advocate using technology to track your performance over time, but it’s also a coaching tool.
If you’ve set a goal that is time bound, then working backwards from the deadline gives you a timeline to work to. Most people work naturally in a 90-day cycle, which breaks down into three obvious monthly cycles. In tech companies these are called sprints; focused periods of activity to achieve a specific part of a project, building over time to the whole project being completed.
What tech can you use to help keep you on track? Your smartphone is loaded with tools for just that purpose. If it’s a fitness goal, check out Strava.
At the end of each 30-day cycle, or sprint, you can run a reflective cycle, turning the progress into insights and them using them to push ahead.
If you missed my last blog on how to undertake a reflective review- check it out here
Use a free coaching exploration to help set your 2020 goals
Ok, so I cheated and added a 5th top tip. What’s stopping you clicking THIS LINK and arranging a FREE coaching exploration with me here at Emerge? I’ll talk to you about what kind of goals you want to set for 2020 and how coaching can make a difference in your year ahead.
Contact me now! It might be the best move of your year.
