Why Setting Big Fitness Goals Can Backfire
It will be difficult for you to find someone in the gym who does not achieve some goal. Whether it’s putting on old jeans, packing six packs, or losing 20 pounds, the universal belief seems to be that tying your work to a goal will better direct your efforts. But what if goal setting can do more harm than good?
Setting big goals can destroy your motivation.
Let me be clear: there is a time and place for goals, but small, incremental goals that I will explain about later. The goals I’m talking about now are grand (and rather arbitrary) goals. The kind that almost everyone in the gym seems to believe in, with iconic dedication like “I’m going to be torn to shreds in three months” or “I’m going to lose three dress sizes in four weeks.”
Of course, there is a reason people set these goals: they are sexy. Let’s be honest, “I’ll look like a Victoria’s Secret angel” is much more likely to get you out of bed for your morning workout than “I’m going to eat one less bun at dinner.”
But the problem is that you do not live up to this ideal and will not do it for a long time. Once you set a goal, you create an automatic mapping between who you are now and the ideal scenario “ideal” for you. In fact, announcing this goal, ironically, may make you less successful .
Moreover, the way the body works, and not everything you do to achieve this goal, actually brings you closer to achieving the ideal image. It would be great to imagine losing an inch of your waist every time you step off the treadmill, but that just doesn’t work.
And this leads to disappointment. According to Dr. Boyan Kostevski :
A quick response is critical to providing positive reinforcement and keeping you on track. When practicing basketball shots, it is important to see which balls are going into the basket and which are not so that you can adjust them accordingly. Result-oriented fitness transformations provide a very abstract and delayed feedback system. Body changes are simply too slow and often non-linear and unpredictable. Basically, in traditional goal setting, you throw basketballs into the dark.
It turns out there is something more powerful, albeit less sexy, than goals.
Instead, strive to enjoy the process.
Instead of striving for lofty ideals, focus on the momentary and strive to enjoy and maximize every step of the process or create flow .
Borrowed from positive psychology, flow is a state of functioning in which you are completely immersed – mentally and emotionally – in the activity that is taking place. The idea behind this is that instead of focusing on some distant goal, you focus your efforts on what you can do now to lead you towards it, thereby helping you to work effectively and efficiently.
This is where small goals come in. If you’re looking to lose weight, set yourself a goal to reach your calorie and macronutrient goals within 5% throughout the day, or if you need larger arms, try to add multiple sets of biceps and triceps exercises after each workout.
While achieving flow is a highly individual process, setting mini-goals can help, just as they can help create the necessary emotional environment to induce a psychological state. It helps to establish a direct connection between the work you have done and the result of your actions, thereby helping you to emotionally justify your efforts. To find a great article that goes into more detail on goal setting, visit the link below.
Why You Need to Stop Setting Goals | Schwarzenegger.com
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