Good morning, friends! I hope you had a great weekend. I was fighting a head cold the whole weekend, but did manage to get outside on Sunday, if anything because the weather was just beckoning me!

I went out for a walk to listen to a podcast, and ended up running a bit and soaking up the sunshine.

So today I want to talk goals, but not the kind of goals you might be thinking.

Whenever we set out to make a change with our fitness or nutrition, we need to first do two things: figure out where we are, and figure out where we want to be. That latter lends itself to be the goal itself, right?

For example,  I currently do not fit into the jeans I wore last year. I would like to/my goal is to fit into those jeans.

or, I currently cannot do any chin ups. My goal is to do 5.

Outcome Goals

These are called outcome goals, because it’s what you want to happen. It’s very important that you have a clear idea of your outcome goal, and set parameters around that are doable, specific (to a point,) measurable, and set to a deadline.

However, once you come up with this goal, it’s time to forget it, in a sense.

When I’m working with a client, we set some goals to achieve, and a timeline by when to achieve them. But then – I assume the the responsibility of the goal as we move on – to behavior goals. At this point, I work with my clients to come up with a sound plan for behavior goals that, if completed consistently, will lead to their outcome goal.

Behavior Goals

After a couple outcome goals have been set, it’s time to move onto behavior goals. These type of goals are just what the name suggests – based on behavior.  They are action-oriented goals that will help the client reach their outcome-based goals.

For example, I will strength train 3 days a week and do cardio/conditioning 2 days a week

Or, I will eat 90% of my meals based on the nutrition program created for me.

Or, I will do a negative chin up every time I walk past my pull up bar (this is actually helping out one of my clients BIG time in increasing her pull ups, along with our training sessions.)

When setting up your behavior goals, first – look at your outcome goals. What is it that you want to achieve?

Then, think of areas in your life that you could improve or change in order to better support your goals. Now, this is extremely dependent on the individual, your lifestyle, personality, schedule, etc. However, some good places to start to look for ideas would be your kitchen/pantry, food choices and meal habits, your support system and accountability, social life/dining out behaviors, mental/self-image behaviors, and exercise habits. 

Then, you want to think about what hurdles or limiting factors are in your current diet/fitness/lifestyle that prevent you from reaching your goal, and come up with three or four behavior goals based on those factors, your outcome goals, and your lifestyle.

Now that you’ve set your behavior goals, I want you to no longer think about your outcome goal. This is because we tend to put TOO MUCH power in our outcome goal, when we should be emphasizing our compliance and consistency toward the behavior goals that will eventually lead to reaching their outcome goal. When we keep our focus on the outcome goal rather than the behavior goal, it can lead to poor self-image (obsessing over your weight, etc.) and impatience. Both of these qualities are NOT good for persistence and resilience.

[Tweet “Focus on the Behavior Change Instead of the Goal Itself – via @TrainerPaige”]

This is also why I do my best to come up with a plan with behavior goals that my client also gets excited about. If they have the confidence that these actions will accomplish the goal, and the confidence that they can adhere and comply to these behavior goals, then the outcome goal is almost ALWAYS reached.

I’d also make sure to set at MOST four behavior change goals as to not overwhelm yourself. You also want to ask yourself that on a scale of 1-10, that your confidence level is a 9 or 10 that you can complete it if you work hard enough.

Focus on the behavior change moreso than the goal. How are you doing on your goals right now? Is what you’re doing working for you? I hope this was helpful to you in brainstorming goals for the future!  If you have any questions, please leave them below, or email me at yourtrainerpaige@gmail.com XO

What’s one of your nutrition goals at the moment?