One needs to have goals in order to stay motivated. These goals can be anything from a long-term goal, such as running a marathon, to a short-term goal, like being able to run 5 minutes with out stopping. These goals give us something to strive for. A reason to keep moving forward. By having both a long-term and a short-term goal one insures that they can stay motivated. Long-term goals take a long time to reach so it is easy to become discouraged, especially if we doesn’t see results right away. This is why we set short-term goals for ourselves.
My personal Long-Term Goal is to be able to run a Triathlon by the time I am 40. For someone who’s method of exercise is what ever exercise happens to her, such as walking to the store for food, this is a lofty goal. So I’ve set a couple of Short-Term and Medium-Term Goals. In the Short-Term I want to be able to run for an hour without having to stop or get sore. My Medium-Term Goal is to run in the local 10K Marathon next May without stopping or walking.
In order to reach these goals I needed an action plan that would be do able, but still changeling. Action plans help in keeping motivated as well. Like the name implies they are the actions we take to reaching our goals.
Step One in my plan is doing the Couch to 5K program. It’s slow going but I am seeing improvement. Both my short-term and medium-term goals help me reach my end goal of the Triathlon. As I near the end of the C25K I intend on working some Swimming into my training.
What about you? Do you have any long-term and short-term goals you’re working on? What is your action plan for achieving these goals?
Hey Katrina! I admire your goals and think they are reasonable. I started running this spring, which is something I have never been naturally good at but decided to make a commitment this year, especially since my job requires me to be on my ass most of the day. I have to say, as someone who started quite fit to begin with, it has taken me longer than I thought to see real improvements! It's worth it but sometimes I have felt disappointment that I am not improving fast enough. So what I am trying to say is be kind to yourself and patient because what you are doing is a great thing!
ReplyDeleteJen H.