Goal Setting And Weight Loss Inspiration

Imagine you are going on a trip with several stops. On your map, you make several marks. These are your waypoints. Think of goals as waypoints on your road to weight loss success. You define your route and the waypoints help you get there.

Without these waypoints you will eventually lose your way. Maybe you will make a wrong turn. Maybe you will turn off onto an interesting side street. Whatever happens, you will waste a lot of effort and time by taking an indirect route to your destination.

Why are clear, written goals so powerful?

- Goals give you focus. Having vaguely defined goals is like looking through an out of focus camera lens. The landscape in front of you is blurry. Setting goals is like adjusting the focus of the lens until the picture before you is sharp and crisp.

- Goals improve persistence. When you know exactly what you want, you have an easier time getting it. Think of goals as the specific steps to helping you get exactly what you want.

- Written goals provide a daily reminder of your destination. When you look at your written goals every day they stay in your mind. They become harder to ignore.

Why is setting goals so difficult?

Many people have trouble meeting their goals, and many more do not have goals at all. Several factors prevent people from meeting their goals.

- Lack of knowledge. People are not born knowing how to set goals; this is a skill which many people never have the opportunity to learn.

- Fear of failure. Goals can seem challenging and failing to meet them would be discouraging, especially if they are big, long term, weight loss goals. Fear of failure prevents some people from even trying.

- Unwritten goals. Dr. Gail Matthews, a researcher from Dominican University of California, found that people who did not write their goals on paper were least likely to achieve them.

How to start setting goals.

In a 1981 review of laboratory and field studies, it was found that 90% of academic research showed that specific and challenging goals led to higher performance than easy goals, do your best goals, or no goals at all.

- Define your goals clearly and write them down. This is one of the most important factors for success. Clearly defined goals improve task performance and enable you to receive feedback on your progress towards your goal.

- Make yourself accountable to someone else. Tell a supportive friend or relative of your goal and give them weekly reports. Dr. Matthews found that people who did this were more likely to meet their goals.

- Do not worry about failure. Failure from time to time is normal. Everyone fails. The people who find success are those who learn from their failures.

- Set realistic goals. You cannot build a castle in a day; to attempt to do so would be frustrating, chaotic, and disappointing. At the same time, your goal should not be too easy. You will not receive satisfaction if you do not have to work for it.

- Define and refine your goal. Sometimes we try to set realistic goals but we soon learn that they are too difficult to achieve. Adjust as necessary as you travel down the road to weight loss success.

- Look at your goals on a daily basis. Post them somewhere you will see them, like near your computer or on your refrigerator. This will help your weight loss inspiration.

Goal setting does not have to be difficult. Reaching your ideal weight goal is just a matter of setting the waypoints on the road to success. With these tips, you can set your waypoints today and arrive sooner than you ever imagined.