Many people use New Year resolutions to set weight loss goals. I am not big on New Year’s resolutions because they usually are impulsive. Successful weight loss goals are not set on the first day of January. I am big on carefully thought through goal setting and feel it’s one of the keys to success.

However, most people go about goal setting the wrong way and as a result, will fail to achieve their weight loss goals.

Every person who wants to lose weight has an ultimate goal. It’s usually something big and will take quite a bit of time to achieve. Let’s say your goal is to lose 50 pounds, and when that is achieved you plan to reward yourself with a new wardrobe or a vacation.

You put everything you got on achieving that goal. As time passes, frustration sets in because the progress may be slower and harder than you imagined when started. When this adventure started, your motivation was high. Now it’s hard to keep up. What went wrong?

The Journey to reaching your weight loss goals

While it’s great to keep the end goal in mind, you have to remember it’s the journey that leads to the end goal. You have the end goal, or destination, but if you don’t have a map the journey to the weight loss goals will be longer and more challenging. Many just want to get there but don’t know how. They don’t have a plan. It’s great to have weight loss goals, but you also need an actionable plan to reach them.

Without a plan, weight loss goals are nothing more than a dream. (Tweet Me)

The true kicker is after you’ve reached the weight loss goals. You’ll realize that it wasn’t the final destination which was important. It turned out to be your journey in the process. Your journey is where you’ll learn and grow.

If I could hand a person a magic pill that would strip off the 50 pounds, chances are the pounds would be back on within a year.

You have to go through the journey and learn the process and accept this if you want to reach your weight loss goals – and maintain your results afterwards.

The SMART Formula to weight loss Goals

The best way to do goal setting is to use the SMART formula. The formula says that for goal setting to be effective, it has to be:

• Specific: Get specific by asking: who, what, where, when, why and which.
• Measurable: You can’t improve anything you don’t measure. How do you know you’re making progress when you don’t measure? The more tracking you do the faster you will progress.
• Attainable: When you identify your weight loss goals, you begin to figure out ways you can make them come true. You develop the attitudes, abilities, skills, and financial capacity to reach them. You begin seeing previously overlooked opportunities to bring yourself closer to the achievement of your goals.
• Realistic: A goal has to be realistic and represent an objective toward which you are both willing and able to work. A goal can be both high and realistic; you are the only one who can decide just how high your goal should be. But be sure that every goal represents substantial progress.
• Timely: The goal must have a timely deadline. “Some day” won’t cut it. With no time frame tied to it there’s no sense of urgency.

Reward weight loss goals successes.

One of the ways to keep motivation high along the journey to your weight loss goals is to remember that success is cumulative and every success, no matter how small, should be celebrated.

A way is to split up your overall goal in to smaller goals that accumulate up to the final weight loss goal. Don’t just celebrate at the final goal. Celebrate when you reach each mini goal. This keeps motivation high to keep moving forward. Also use the SMART formula when you set up your mini weight loss goals.

A progressive set of mini weight loss goals with deadlines could look something like this:

Week 1: Set up weight loss goals with deadlines. Setup training and nutrition plan (I highly recommend you seek out a plan that has a proven record instead of trying to figure this crucial part out yourself). Start journey to your weight loss goals.

Week 3: 10 pounds lost

Week 6: 20 pounds lost

Week 9: 30 pounds lost

Week 12: 40 total pounds lost

Setup rewards that means something to you with the biggest reward when your ultimate weight loss goals is reached. The reward needs to be proportional to the goal – you shouldn’t celebrate your success with a vacation for losing the first 10 pounds

As you get closer to your goal the rewards gets bigger.

Since the rewards are becoming bigger and since the subsequent mini goal seems far more achievable compared to the final weight loss goal, you are much more motivated to keep going forward. Doing it this way is much more fun and motivating than simply attempting to achieve the big weight loss goal that at the start can seem so far away. You get to the final destination one mini goal at a time. It’s impossible to reach the ultimate weight loss goal without going through the mini goals first.

Of course there is a lot more to goal setting like the simple plan I outlined above. You need to arrange the weeks so that you have a clear map of what you need to do every single day to bring you closer to your weight loss goals.

I cover this in great detail in my free body transformation you can get at the end of this article.

The time has come to jot down your goals and set up a plan of your journey. Don’t forget, it’s the journey that gets you to the final destination. Have fun with the journey, get your mini goals in place and celibrate your success as you go along.

Get the free blueprint now and let Fortius Fitness show you the fastest way possible to reach your weight loss goals. Watch the video below for more information.

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