Be Better

          Welcome to afitnewyou!  This week I want to help you establish a healthy lifestyle by setting realistic and attainable goals.  Setting a goal is paramount to achieving any sort of task.  And setting the right type of goal is often just as important as the end result.  Look at it like this, if you set a goal that easily attained, you most likely will not benefit much from it and/or develop a true sense of satisfaction.  Similarly, setting a goal that is way too ambitious is nothing more than the perfect way to set yourself up for a very discouraging failure.  We all have a goal that centers around us reaching a healthier state and/or level of fitness; maybe you are trying to improve your body composition, reach a new personal best in the weight room, or improve your cardio endurance.  And these goals are fantastic...if they are focused on your own self improvement.  The key here is the term improvement, it doesn't mean becoming the best.  If you want to reach your optimal state of health, you need to start by simply becoming better.

          Motivational speaker Les Brown has a saying "Shoot for the moon. Even if you miss you'll land among the stars."  While this is truly motivational and optimistic, the problem I have with it is that it already acknowledges the chance of failure.  Motivated optimism is great, after all I am here trying to motivate you, but you also have to be realistic.  Trying to be the best at anything is certainly a noble aspiration.  I agree that you will never go past second place without striving to be number one.  But when it comes to your own level of health and fitness, often the best goal is simply to be better...not the best. 

          One big stumbling block I find people face when striving to reach their fitness goals is discouragement.  And this discouragement is often self-imposed.  One form that it takes is discouragement from not bring the best.  People often never start a routine or stop a routine because they aren't one of the fittest people in the gym.  It is a fact that we all have to get used to at some point in our lives...there is always going to be someone faster, taller, richer, stronger, whatever.  We are all made unique and all have our own strengths and weaknesses.  But just because we have a weakness or struggle in one area doesn't mean that we cannot improve on it.  So what if you will not be the strongest person in the gym? You can still be stronger than you are now?  Who cares if you aren't the leanest person there either?  You can improve on your own body composition.  Yes, you can strive to become the strongest and/or leanest person there, but just don't let that discourage you from becoming the better version of yourself.

         Another common cause for the discouragement that often leads to failing to reach fitness goals is when the goals set are too lofty and hard to attain.  Setting yourself up for defeat is self-sabotage.  Again, goals set can be centered around an outside target or even a former level that you yourself had at one point.  But, the goals still need to be realistic.  You can strive to perform the same way you did when you were ten or twenty years younger, and you can compete with those who are ten or twenty years younger than you...it can be a healthy for of motivation.  It is when it becomes discouraging to the point that you give up due to failure that it is a problem.  There are many people that I train who have started exercising later in life and are now at the fittest shape they have ever been.  But conventional wisdom will tell you that the body does break down over time and you will, as they say, "start to lose a step."  I am not saying this to discourage you from the start, I am saying this so you know it is OK to have goals that revolve around you and your current lifestyle.  And I am certainly not saying that no matter where you are that you cannot improve...just the opposite, anyone and everyone can become better!

          Think about all that you would need to do to become the fittest person in the gym...the diet to follow, the number of days and hours you would need to put into the gym, the genetics that you may not have, etc.  I'm not saying it is impossible, but it is not as possible as simply reaching a better level of fitness.  Just think how even one small daily change can affect your current level of fitness...how would going for a walk after each meal change your current level of health?  How would adding one day of exercise per week than you are already doing (even if your number right now is zero) improve your health?  Now also think how much better you would feel both physically and mentally/emotionally with that small change?  Reaching the pinnacle is a feat that not everyone can do for one reason or another.  But being better is something that we can all do right this very second.  And when you reach the next better version of yourself, you will be motivated, not discouraged by not being the best, to be better and better and better.  Aim to be the best, but setting goals for each of the steps along the way is the better way to reach a fit new you!