Getting Started - Goals

Welcome to My Core Balance!

You’ve made an important decision, one that could change your entire life. You’ve decided to put your health first. You’re on the road to healthy living.

We have a lot of work to do to get you up and running in your program. In this orientation, we’re going to walk you through three steps: setting goals, food choice, and your workouts. Let’s get started.

Part I: Goals - What Do You Want?

Reaching your Goals is Like Taking a Road Trip

Say, for example, you were starting in California and you wanted to go to New York. The process of planning, packing, and driving offers a good analogy for your process of setting goals, getting ready, and taking action.

The first step is just deciding where you want to go, your goal. This seems obvious, but often when people set goals they forget this important step. Setting a vague goal is like telling the taxi driver to take you to "somewhere better." Which is often the vague health goal. "I'm sorry," says the driver, "I don't know how to get there." It's the same with goals. First we need to know where we're going.

You've decided on your destination, so now you need to pick a vehicle. You could fly, drive, take the bus or train, or even walk if you're up for it and you have enough time. The point is that all of these vehicles can get you to New York, but they will get you there at different rates, and you're going to have a very different experience depending on what you choose.

Let's say that you decide to drive 3,000 miles to New York. You would begin with at least a general idea of what roads you're going to take. You probably have no idea what those roads look like, or what the speed limit is, but that doesn't matter. You understand that there are a lot of things that you'll just have to wait to experience when you get there, but that's not going to stop you from beginning your trip.

What if, after a few days of driving, you found yourself in Miami? You are completely off course. You don't want to berate yourself about getting to Florida. Instead the more productive alternative is just to turn north and keep driving. Maybe you want to figure out where you went wrong so that it doesn't happen again. You're going to make wrong turns in your quest for your goals. Just change directions and keep going.

You may have to stop and ask for directions. You may run out of gas. Your car might die and force you to hitchhike. But if you are determined, eventually you will reach New York.

So remember the map metaphor when you feel like you've lost your way. Remember that driving on a trip is a goal, and you know how to do that. Achieving your health goal is no different.

Creating More Hours in the Day

A common excuse is that I don't have time. In reality it's that you don't have motivation. Everybody has the same 24 hours in a day. That is the one equalizer. “I don't have time” is an excuse that something deeper is going on. Really it’s that you haven’t made it enough of a priority.

Change your thinking about time. Remember, you do not need much time every day. What you do need is a little bit every day.

The way that I found the most time in my day is by waking up an hour earlier. Some people go to sleep an hour later. Or you can exercise during your lunch break. There are many different practical strategies you can implement, but first you need to commit.

Finding Motivation by Creating a Bridge

Every activity that you participate in requires you to move from where you are.  Sometimes the activity can seem overwhelming, so it's important to provide a bridge.

A bridge can be something you tell yourself. It could be a vision that you see yourself completing the task.  It could also be seeing the task is small and manageable.

Sometimes thinking about how good you'll feel once you're in the task helps. For example, sometimes it may be hard to get up out of bed to begin your workout, but if you think of how great you'll feel once you're doing it that can be your bridge to your workout.

Another great bridge is to visualize where you are and visualize where you want to be as different sides of a cliff, two sides of the Grand Canyon. Then zoom out very far so that the Canyon looks like a crack in the sidewalk and simply step over the crack. This visual representation will tell your brain that this is not a big task, it's small and manageable.

5 Ways to Be Sure You Reach Your Goals

Unfortunately, most people quit within weeks of declaring a new goal. I hope you don't. And to help you achieve your goals, here are my 5 best pieces of advice:

1. Write down your goals. If your goals are no more than vague ideas floating around in your head, you will never reach them. Write down exactly what you want, why you want it, and when you're committed to achieving it. Next you need to look at those goals two times per day.

2. Keep an accountability journal. By keeping tabs on your goals, you're very likely to know whether you're going in the right direction or not. Without a record, you don't know when you're off course. My Core Balance clients have access to the online portal, which has a place where you can write notes on your progress, road blocks, and successes.

3. Break up your big goals into smaller ones. Big goals are really nothing but a bunch of small items that you could put on a to-do list. For example, if your goal is to lose 15 pounds in 3 months, then your small goal is 5 pounds each month, or just over a pound a week. Then take this further and come up with exactly what you're supposed to do on a daily basis, and check it off like it's a to-do list.

4. Re-Assess after a month. Sometimes you might have to change your direction in order to achieve your goals. Being flexible in your approach is important. It's like sailing a boat toward an island, sometimes you may be too far left or right but you just make small adjustments and you'll finally get there. Your path may look like a zig zag line, but you'll get there.

5. Congratulate yourself. Sometimes it seems like we are much better at finding what is not working than what is. But sometimes we really need to see what is actually working in our lives. It re-assures yourself that you are making progress.

These 5 steps are built in to the My Core Balance program. You’re on your way to achieving your goals! 

You Can Achieve Your Goals

More than anything you need to realize that you can change. You can achieve your goals. You can do anything set your mind to. Eliminate all limiting beliefs because they will only stop you from achieving all you want to achieve. The only thing stopping you from achieving your dreams is whatever story you tell yourself as to why you cannot achieve it.

Goals are fragile things. There are some goals that you want to tell friends, whereas there are others that you do not want to talk to people about. If you have any doubt about whether or not somebody will support you with your goal sometimes it's safer to keep it to yourself.  Also find a support network of people who believe in you. It's not necessarily true that your friends don't believe in you. It's that they're living based on your past. When you started to dream about the future and what if what if all the things could happen. Try to surround yourself with people who understand that you can change anything. You can accomplish what you want to accomplish.

So let's start now and declare your life you want. Not the life somebody else wants for you. Too often were influenced by our family or our peers. Then our standards drop. We start to change our lives, but then begin to lower our own standards in order to fit in.  Standouts stand out. If you want to go along with everyone else then you're going to be one of the statistics: overweight, out of shape, needs serious medical attention. But if you want something better, now is your time to declare that.

What do you want that you want so badly you've never told anyone? You cover it up, laugh it off. What do you want that is so important to you that if you were old and looking back, you would be proud that you accomplished that? What is it that if you don't achieve it you would feel bad about it?

The great thing about goals is that it doesn't take any more energy to dream a huge goal than it does to set a small goal. And the great thing about setting a huge goal is that it motivates you. It scares you a little, but fear and excitement are actually the same emotion, we just given different labels. So get excited about those goals that you used to consider “scary.”

Write down your dreams. What is it that you want? What you want to accomplish?

What do you want your physical body to be like? How do you want your energy levels?

HOMEWORK #1: Write down your most important goal. Be sure to include:

- What you want (be specific: “I want to be fit” is vague. “I want to weigh 155 pounds and have 12% body fat” is specific)

-  By when? An exact date.


Next Step: Nutrition >