It can be difficult to stay on track with your health and fitness goals. There will be many temptations to stray from the plan you’ve created for yourself, and it’s easy to deviate. In today’s article, we outline several strategies you can use to stay consistent in your plan to achieve your health and fitness goals.
Create a list of reasons that you are doing this
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In Charles Duhigg’s The Power of Habit, he discusses that when the going gets difficult as you’re working towards a goal, it’s important to remind yourself why that goal is important to you. Make a list of reasons that you are pursuing your health and fitness goals. Is it to be able to play sports with your friends? To be able to stay healthy for your children? Maybe to be a role model for them? Whatever your reasons, write them down and remember them when you’re tempted to stray from your plan.
Curate motivational content for yourself
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Another way to stick to your plan is to collect content that motivates and inspires you. Create a library of content that you can refer to whenever you feel like you lack the willpower you need. Use it to psyche yourself up as well and believe in the possibility of achieving your goals. The content you put in this library should resonate with you and be effective when you need it the most. It should be easily accessible; when you need it at a moment’s notice, you should be able to refer to it to help you stay on track. Is there a role model or someone you admire who would help you stick to these routines? Put their content in your library!
The content should help you manage the mental grind that comes with achieving fitness and diet goals. It can be a painful process to stay consistent, so it’s important to keep yourself motivated and focused in a way that resonates with you.
Reward yourself for small wins
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It’s so important to recognize yourself for the small wins you accomplish, because each of these leads to the larger health and fitness goals you have set for yourself. Trying to eat more fruit and salad? Count those wins when you get that in your diet. Trying to exercise more? Count the win when you fit that into your day! When you put in the work, keep track of the small increments of progress and reward yourself strategically for those accomplishments.
Celebrating the small wins is also very important for your willpower, which is finite. When you celebrate the small win, you also reenergize your willpower, because you relax the discipline and begin to see the progress you’re making. Repeatedly seeing the results helps motivate you to stay more consistent.
Surround yourself with people who have similar goals
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Find others who are pursuing similar goals. You’ll be able to help each other solve your problems and create a community that helps you keep pursuing your goals. Look for a community where members encourage each other and hold each other accountable to stay on track.
Depending on how serious you are about your health and fitness goals, it might even be worth it to find an accountability partner who you must pay and who must pay you if you don’t meet your goals or venture off track. This could be a community member or a health and fitness professional.
Don’t beat yourself up
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We can be our own harshest critics. Sometimes, we need to be, but sometimes, we take it to an extent that does us more harm than good. Understand that we all make mistakes, and it’s how we respond to them that really brings us the results we want. Is your criticism of yourself constructive? Have you asked for additional opinions? Criticism used well can help you reach your goals. Used poorly, it can hinder the progress you’re trying to make.
