How to Create Your Fitness Mindset and Goals

Creating the mindset I have been reading an eye-opening book called This Year I Will…: How to Finally Change a Habit, Keep a Resolution, or Make a Dream Come True by MJ Ryan.  She says that in order to complete your goals, you need to have the right motivation for you.  Some people need negative inspiration while others need positive.  I took one of her lessons and made my own affirmation: This has been a very different experience because I usually use the negative approach to obtain my goals.  According to Ryan (and various other authors I have read or listened to), people tend to see and think in frames.  What I mean by that is that there is an image or a picture that someone will see in their minds eye of what they want or how they want imagine their life to be.  If we can make that image very strong and believable, we can achieve it! In some cases this has worked for me.  “I am a triathlete.  I am an engineer.  I am a great speaker.  I am a great example.”  When I would say these things to myself, I would find a very vivid picture in my head that showed me achieving these things with out any problem.  I believed in my self that no matter what happened, I was going to accomplish the goal that I had set out to obtain. Chunking it down Another aspect that Ryan talks about is that sometimes goals are too big for your mind to wrap around.  It is very easy to get overwhelmed and tend to procrastinate because you don’t know where to start.  This is the perfect time to “chunk it down.” Chunking in down is when a big goal is taken into small bite sized pieces.  That way you look at the small task as an easy to accomplish goal.  [Put the quote in here – inch by inch it’s a cinch, mile by mile it’s a] As I’m writing this, I am seeing how training for anything comes down to your daily activities.  Each day of training is a small step toward your final goal.  Each bite you take is a bite in the right direction (if you stay on course with your diet plan). When I first started training for my first triathlon I was in very poor shape for swimming.  The first time in the pool I only lasted about 5 minutes before I was out of breath gasping for air.  I had only swam 2 laps and had taken 2 minutes of rest between each lap.  Over time I had conditioned myself to go a little longer and little farther.  The 5 minutes turned into 10, turned into 15, and finally 45 minutes.  It took several months of constant increases in effort, but I was finally in better shape!  My body was starting to transform and not only was I seeing the results, but my wife was seeing the results as well.  Not only were the results physically good, but mentally good.  I had increased my self-confidence and walked with my head held much higher than it had a few months earlier.  I felt great! Get Fit or Die! With this new affirmation and being able to see the goal as a bunch of small tasks, I feel as though I can take this thing on make it happen!  A marathon is no small foot, but taken a little bit a time, day by day, it is very doable! Now it is time to Get Fit or Die!!  Get out there and chunk down your goal.  Start your small task today and figure out your motivational tag line, fitness mindset, and goal.  Visualize it, listen to it, write it down, live it!!  Live the life you meant to have…