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Planning. In my experience you either love it or you hate it. Or maybe you just love to hate it, I don’t know. One thing I do know is that it is essential in helping you succeed at a goal and do what we all want—win. Having a plan can free your mind to concentrate your energy on the things that are truly important. It will save you time and energy, and help you move forward with confidence.
If you fall into the hate-planning category, listen, I get it. I have been there myself and I know how tedious even thinking about planning can be. Let me tell you a trick though. If you hate planning, but want the BENEFITS of planning—find someone who excels at it and enjoys it and have them help you!
Ta-da!
One category where planning really helps you succeed is in health and fitness. Having a definite, easy to follow, and realistic plan can help you succeed and meet your goals. Making a plan to help our clients reach their fitness and wellness goals is exactly what we do at Individual Fitness. It is what we excel at. It is where we shine. Creating a custom plan built around our clients unique needs and geared towards accomplishing their unique goals is THE THING THAT WE WERE BORN TO DO. And we are doing it all day, every day. We freaking love it.
Here are five planning tips that we use to help our clients get such amazing results (here are some amazing results that you can read about if you are curious).
1. Get clear on the goal.
I am sure by now you have heard about SMART goals. If not, we always tell people to make your goal SMART. Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-specific. Setting goals that are unique to each client is the first thing we do. We find out what is the most important thing for them, their reason for doing what they are doing, and we go from there. So come in and know your why, and be ready to set some SMART goals.
2. Divide your big goal into bite sized goals.
Take that big, hulking, maybe intimidating goal and break it down into little bite sized goal chunks. Set a monthly goal, a weekly goal, hey maybe even a daily goal. This makes it a lot easier to swallow (and succeed at!) your big goal.
3. Keep your goal in front of you.
This is one that begs you to have some creativity. One of our favorite ways to do this with our clients is to have them create vision boards. Not only is this wicked fun, but it also will serve to keep your goals in front of you, remind you what you are working towards so that you don’t lose sight and stray off course. Which leads us to our next point…
4. Stay on target.
Achieving a goal can be hard. It takes a lot of self-discipline and hard work. Something that can help you stay on target, besides the vision board we talked about earlier, is surrounding yourself with people who will cheer you on and encourage you. This is another thing that you will most definitely find at Individual Fitness, an entire team that has your back and supports you in your striving to achieve your goal and follow your plan.
5. Celebrate your wins—especially the little ones!
Some people get too fixated on achieving the big goal and think that they will save any celebration for when it is achieved. The problem is that it may be a distant future. Stopping to acknowledge and celebrate the little wins along the way can encourage you to keep striving and bolster your confidence and well being.
These are just a few ways that you can plan to succeed. And know that you are not alone! If one of your goals is better health and wellness then Individual Fitness is a great place to go to find people who LOVE to plan to help you succeed in your goals and achieve the results that you want.
So, tell us, are you the type of person who loves to plan or loathes it? We would love to hear from you.