Excuses or Goals?

For those of you who know me probably know that one of my favorite quotes is "Losers make excuses, winners make goals." When it comes to working out this quote is spot on. It is so easy to make excuses, I am guilty of doing it, but avoiding those excuses and reaching goals feels so much better. I think the question we all need to ask ourselves is what drives you? As February comes to an end so do a lot of peoples new years resolutions. People become very motivated at the start of a new year, they have goals that they want to reach and lifestyle changes they want to keep, however, for many people it lasts pretty close to about a month or two. Why? Let me ask again, what drives you?

Working at gyms it was always interesting to see at the beginning of a new year the gym was packed full. As weeks went on it would slowly get less and less busy and I would say by the end of February it was back to what it was before the new year began. I believe a lot of it has to do with goals. As I would work with clients I would ask them what their goal was, some would tell me they wanted to lose 30 lbs, some said they wanted to "look good naked", some said they wanted to run a 5k or a 10k, and my response would be the same, what is your plan to get to that end goal? A lot of them wouldn't have an answer. We make the mistake of making goals without making a plan to reach that goal. The best way to reach an end goal is to make smaller goals that you can accomplish on your way. I gain confidence the most when I accomplish something I set out to do. Accomplishing something hard is what drives me.

My goal when I started college was to be able to run 6 miles. As I have posted in previous posts is that I used to hate running, with a passion. When I made the goal to run 6 miles I new I had to make smaller goals before I could reach my end goal. My first goal was to be able to be on the treadmill for 20 min and running for 15 of the 20 min. Once I reached that I pushed myself to run the entire 20 min. Each week as I would reach my goal I would make another one for the next week. I remember the day I reached my 6 mile goal, I remember where I was, the treadmill I was on and most importantly I remember how I felt. I accomplished something hard. The confidence in myself and in what my body was capable of doing began to grow. I felt so good and so proud of what I was able to do I wanted to keep pushing myself because I knew with hard work anything is possible.

I ran into an article in Women's Health that was talking about the effects of working out on the brain and one of them talks about goals. I thought this was pretty interesting.

"It helps you stick to your goals: In the same University of Iowa study, researchers concluded that, since cardio requires such long and consistent effort, doing a lot of it may help you develop an ability to follow through with tasks. That, in turn, can help you stick to other (non-exercise-related) goals that require long-term effort."

For those of you who made new years resolutions, whether it was in the category of health or not, don't give up. Start making smaller goals to reach that end goal. For those of you who are intimidated by working out and eating right, or are nervous to start, I promise from personal experience it is life changing. Stop with the excuses and start with the goals.