3 Things People Do to be Successful with Health and Fitness
Everyone has their own recipe for success when it comes to health and fitness, and everyone has a different view on what that success might look like (see point #2). Different things can be important for different people, depending on where you are at in your journey, your personality, etc. The three things we’ll focus on are recognizing that your small efforts add up, setting appropriate goals, and putting yourself in the environment that will best set you up for success.
1. Small things matter.
First thing to realize is that this doesn’t mean we need to obsess about the small details. It's not about having the exact “PERFECT” workouts, diet, supplements, etc. It’s about the small things that add up over time, breaking your big goals into small manageable things that make us 1% better over time. It’s realizing that the small incremental changes will add up over time, and are often FAR easier to build into sustainable habits vs trying to make massive overhauls in your lifestyle overnight.
Start with the goal of drinking more water every day, adding a vegetable to each meal instead of changing the entire meal, drinking one less glass of wine a week instead of trying to give it up completely, or getting to the gym 2-3 times a week instead of immediately trying to go for 5. These are the small habits that people who are successful with health and fitness layer into their lives until it becomes a lifestyle. Once things become a habit, then we no longer have to rely on motivation, which can be fleeting. Instead, our habits become so second nature that it's weird to NOT do it.
2. Setting appropriate Goals.
Setting goals is all well and good, but making sure they are appropriate is key here. This isn’t saying that you can’t set big goals, and that would definitely be encouraged, but we have to keep a few things in mind.
Does your goal take into account where you are starting from, or is it just the ultimate end goal? Can the goal be broken down into mini goals, or steps to take to get you there? “A goal without a plan is just a wish”. This is intricately tied into our first point made above. Being able to identify the small steps that we can take to move closer to our goal little by little will allow us to be much more successful than just having a big goal with no way to get there.
Another thing with goal setting is to write it down, as well as to tell someone/ multiple people.
A coach can be an invaluable tool here. A coach can help with ensuring that your goals are appropriate, with helping you form a roadmap to achieve your goals, and in helping you stay accountable.
3. Put themselves in the right environment for success.
This can come in many different forms.
First one would be putting yourself in an environment that will help you. It could be as simple as finding a gym community/sports team/etc. that will help you stay committed. It’s far easier to stick to a healthy lifestyle when you are constantly exposed to people who are all working towards the same thing, holding each other accountable.
The second form this could take is removing yourself from a negative environment / or removing negative influences. This could be specific people, social circles, or just general stress. If these things are constantly causing you to make poor decisions, then having an honest look at them and removing the negative influences could be something that will help you. Not that you need to overhaul your entire friend circle or anything, but if you always find yourself skipping workouts, making poor diet decisions, or doing things that move you away from your goals instead of towards, then maybe a change to these things could be what you need.
There’s many things outside of these three points that can help bring us success with health and fitness, but these three very broad tips will help set us up for the ideal path to success. The specifics of any plan will be different for everyone, but a lot of the basic framework stays the same. The last thing to keep in mind is that some of these things might not be comfortable or easy in the beginning, but not much good comes from always staying in your comfort zone.