By Naomi Rabon, NW Fitness Team Trainer
One of the most important things you can ever do for yourself in life is…do what you say you’ll do. It sounds so simple. On the one hand, the very concept of keeping your word can be so profound that it will help you trust yourself and give you confidence, 🤝 or it could break you down and make you feel like giving up.
YOUR WORD IS YOUR BOND
The phrase “Your word is your bond” dates back to ancient times. In the context of your health and fitness journey, it can be relayed to setting your goals and either following through with the daily tasks and habits to reach those goals, or not following through and, therefore, not reaching your goals.
DON’T PROMISE MORE THAN YOU CAN DELIVER
I believe that following through or not following through will have much more of an impact on your psychological and emotional well-being than any momentary excitement or disappointment. When you set a goal but have doubts, fears, and hesitation that you will actually do it, you may be setting yourself up for a downward negative self-talk loop. This may create a habit of expecting to fail. 😣
That’s why it is so important – at least in the beginning – to set achievable goals.
LEARNING HOW TO REACH GOALS
Some people are so used to failing that it is actually a part of their comfort zone. Achieving something, even a small feat, and experiencing success are foreign concepts. Subconsciously, the expectation of failure is so ingrained that to succeed might be uncomfortable.
When you set goals that you know are achievable, you push yourself just a little harder. You trust yourself to do what you say you’ll do because you’ve developed this pattern of behavior and have a good track record. Then you can start setting goals that may be just slightly out of reach, forcing yourself to be more disciplined and stretch your goal-reaching skills.
Be a rookie achiever first before moving on to intermediate, then proficient, then experienced, advanced and, finally, mastering the art of keeping your promise to yourself, or achieving your goals. 👍
KEEP YOUR PROMISE
Here are 4 tips to help set yourself up for success:
1. Don’t Bite Off More Than You Can Chew Start small so that you know you can achieve the minimal. For example, if you haven’t worked out in 5 years, don’t promise yourself that you’ll go to the gym 5 days per week. Start with one or two days per week. The same is true for changing eating habits. Start small, and when you have achieved your small goals, then take on another nutritional habit-changing goal.
2. Know Yourself If you are the type of person who, when felt deprived of something will want it even more, then small steps is your best strategy. For example, if your goal is to stop drinking Diet Coke and you’re currently drinking 5 cans per day, then cut back to 3 Diet Cokes per day. That is an achievable, realistic goal, and it’s better than going two days without any Diet Coke, then drinking seven the next. Or maybe you are the type of person who needs to be completely cut-off and would do better if you go cold turkey. Know your tendencies and how best to proceed with setting goals.
3. Don’t Compare Goals Or Progress A big mistake that could set you back into a negative feedback loop of insecurity is comparing your goals to someone else’s. If you know someone who goes to the gym and works out 5-6 days per week, looks fit and seems like they have it all together, maybe they were once overweight, unhealthy and started by going to the gym once or twice per week for 2-3 months, then after a few years, graduated to a “Master Promise Keeper/Goal Achiever.” Your progress is your progress, and if you set out to go to the gym 2 days per week when you weren’t going at all before, then that is a huge leap in the right direction!
4. Celebrate Your Progress In order to keep pushing forward down the progress road you need to be able to see how far you’ve come and recognize when you’re keeping your word to yourself. You are doing it! You are doing what you said you’d do. That is a huge deal! 👍
There are three simple, but incredibly powerful, words that can echo in your mind which will help build you up in ways that nearly nothing else can: “I did it!” 🙌
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ABOUT NAOMI RABON
One of the trainers on Nicole’s elite NW Fitness Training Team, Naomi is a certified Personal Trainer and Fitness Specialist through the National Academy of Sports Medicine. She is a NPC Figure competitor who has been involved in the health and fitness industry for over 12 years.
Go here to find out more about training with the NW Fitness Training Team!