Eating an Elephant One Bite At A Time: Step 4 Short term goals

Parkinson's Law states "A task takes as long as there is time to do it." Or basically, "Work always expands to fill the time allowed."

Without the pressure of a deadline you will justify missing workouts, and cheating on your diet. You'll tell yourself you have plenty of time. Which is exactly why you need short term deadlines to motivate you. This is what Step 4 is for. With the pressure of a deadline in front of you, you'll know you can't miss workouts or scarf that pizza!

You've set your BEST BODY goal and you've set your time line, now it's time to lay out the check points on the road map to your destination! You will need these checkpoints to keep you motivated, focused, and most importantly, on track. I'm sure that for some of you after Step 3 you are a little discouraged, intimidated and annoyed that your best body is going to take longer then you wanted. DON'T BE! This is a JOURNEY! It is not just a physical one, but also a mental one. You are going to be overhauling a lifetime of bad habits. Hopefully, if you have learned one thing so far it's that this is NOT a quick fix, but a LIFESTYLE change. This is the step that will make your journey a lot less daunting, and more manageable. If you are only looking at the "big picture" it can be unsettling to realize how much farther you have to go. This step is designed to alleviate the stress of your transformation.

12 MONTH GOAL
For some of you your 12 month goal will be the same as your ultimate goal (BEST BODY). For some of you it will be close to the last check point in your journey. If your goal is to lose over 100lbs that is going to take at least 12 months. Don't even attempt to do it faster (or expect it to happen faster.) The 12 month goal point should be based off your calculations of where you should be after doing the homework of Step 3. If it's not done, what are you waiting for? Go back and finish it. This goal point for a few of you will be a maintenance point. I know a year is a long ways away, but we're working backwards from farthest to shortest to maximize your results!

90 DAY GOAL
This is probably the MOST important of your short term goals. It's the best time frame to motivate you. It's short enough that it's tangible (vs. a year from now), but long enough that big changes can happen. As you learned in Step 3 you can make a lot happen in this time frame. To recap (if you weren't paying attention in Step 3) in 90 days you could lose up to 6% body fat and 12-24lbs! That would definitely throw some gasoline on your fire! Most people never even give themselves this much time to succeed. It usually is 2-4 weeks and then they haven't gotten the results desired so then its Quitsville! How sad that they never gave themselves a real chance to change and see results. This a very important goal point. So please take the time to really think about what you can accomplish over 90 days. This will come into play heavily at the end of the next and final step. So if you didn't get that there might be a final project at the end of all of this I'm telling you now you will want to have all the steps completed when we wrap up with Step 5.

YOUR WEEKLY GOAL
There are several reasons why having weekly goals is important. For starters you will be able to have immediate feedback on a weekly basis on if you are doing the right things. You will also be able to adjust quickly if you are not producing the results you want. This also means if you are getting good results you keep doing what you've been doing. Setting your weekly goal is very simple. When you look at your 90 day goal take the totals for those 3 months and divide them out by 12. This will be how much weight and body fat you will need to lose weekly. Having weekly goals will also keep you getting in the gym and eating right. It is a short time line. In 7 days you do not have time to miss a workout, or cheat on meals. It will reflect on your weekly weigh ins, measurements, and body fat tests. It will be the 2nd most effective point of focus for you. Which leads me to the most effect short term goal to staying on track!


YOUR DAILY GOALS
In order to stay on track to your weekly, 90 day, 12 month, and your BEST BODY goals it all starts with what you do EVERY day! That is why your daily goals (which will become your daily habits) are the foundation of all that we've talked about. You need to have daily habits that will keep you on track. I realize that your 12 month goal and even your 90 day goal can see very far off and seem like a whole lot of work ahead. Your daily goals are the ones that will keep you the most focused on the here and now. It's said that 99% of our daily actions are habit. This is where you should write out what daily habits you want. If you want to get up early, prep your food for the day, or make sure you get that cardio session in this is where it all starts. Write these things down. Trust me it helps. I tell my clients all the time to look at today. I often advise people to be in the moment. If you're at lunch with friends, before you stick that fork of food in your mouth ask yourself, is this hurting me or helping me right now? You will stay way more in tune to your goals this way. If you look at eating clean as giving up cake forever then you will really, really want cake NOW. But if you were to look at it in the way of your daily goals, you only have to eat clean today. It makes a difference if in your head you can still see the possibility of that piece of cake in the future. If you make a to-do list of daily things to accomplish it will ensure that you reach your weekly, 90 day, and 12 month goals.

Your homework (if it isn't obvious yet) is to write down on paper: Your BEST BODY, 12 month, 90 day, weekly, and daily goals. Get it on paper, or an index card, just make sure it is down, it's readable, and real. Step 5 will be the final piece of the puzzle. I promise you after you read Step 5 and apply it to the other steps you have completed you will NOT fail to reach your goals! Be prepared to look deep and honestly into yourself. Step 5 will be the most personal part of all the steps. No one will be able to answer or fill in the blanks for you in the next step. I will be posting Step 5 no later then Tuesday! So puppets till then as always DANCE!


Mr. J