Goal setting – If you come to think about it, setting resolutions on the first day of the year, is probably not the best idea. While it has become a ‘thing’ and the idea has an appeal to it, it is often made out of impulse when we hit the last day of holiday stress!

Everyone is setting goals at the beginning of the year, be it to start hitting the gym every day, losing weight and coming down to their appropriate body weight, or even to start eating healthy. However, these ‘resolutions’ are often vague, and more often than not, they are forgotten way too soon. 

We, at Invictus Athletic Club, have coined three ways to help you achieve your goals, inside the gym and outside of it. 

The primary difference between a resolution and a goal is that the former is an idea and the latter is an achievement. With proper ‘goal setting’ and ‘goal targeting,’ there is nothing this year that can be left unachieved. 

The first and foremost step towards setting achievable goals is to make sure that they are not vague. If one is to say that their goal is ‘to lose weight this year,’ or ‘to quit smoking,’ chances are these are going to be left unachieved. The appropriate way of setting your goals is to establish a process, keeping the target in mind. The only way to bridge the gap between where we are and where we want to be is by identifying measurable steps. ‘To lose weight this year’ needs to be translated into a form that has a time limit and a figure – To lose 5 kgs in 3 months, by hitting the gym at least four times a week and adopting healthy eating practices – Now that is going to happen! 

Now that we have identified practical steps, the next thing on the line is to track progress. At Invictus, we always log our workouts – the repetitions and sets we do, the weight we are able to lift, the distance we are able to run. The reason behind this is to ensure we’re making progress and improving each week. Tracking progress helps us look back at where we started and how far we’ve come, which firstly, motivates us to move forward and secondly, ensures we are doing the right thing, every step of the way.