Some careful thought is all you need to set yourself down the right path.
Plans are crucial to success in any endeavor. Without planning, even the most well-intentioned goals can hit a roadblock or even stop altogether. Developing a success plan takes time and effort. It also requires a certain level of experience, and newcomers to goal setting can unfortunately be hit with this realization only after they start on their journey, assuming progress will be linear and becoming discouraged with setbacks.
The key is that you must be willing to put in the work. You have to get rid of that negative “head trash”, identify your goals, and become totally dedicated to achieving them. To be successful, you have to take action! So what sets the viable success plans apart from the amateurish ones? Below are some tips for planning for success and implementing that plan.
1. Prioritize
What are your goals? What are your priorities for this year? You can only do so much – and you can't do it all at once! Break up your goals into actionable steps. This method is guaranteed to help you succeed throughout the year.
For example, if my goal for the year is to lose body fat, I would prioritize my nutrition as it supports fat loss and cycle that with periods of rest or muscle building. But for part of the year, I might want to focus on the reasons I am struggling to lose fat and consider whether I can improve my food choices or if I need to look at potential health issues as the root cause.
2. Time Block
It's crucial that you make sure each day, each hour counts. How you spend your time during the day will reflect in your week and later, in the outcome of your year.
So, you need to set weekly and daily priorities and time blocks in order to make sure that you accomplish them! If you want to eat better, you have to set aside time to plan, prepare and make it happen (the answer isn’t in processed diet food, a magic bar or shake). If you want to add more activity into your day, you have to make it a priority to accomplish that regardless of what the day brings. If you want to be more consistent with your workouts, you have to schedule them and treat that time as you would any other appointment throughout the day.
It’s always a good idea to break your plan down into smaller, more manageable parts. You may begin to feel overwhelmed if you’re looking at a massive goal with no real end in sight. However, if you break it down to smaller goals, you can slowly see your plan come to fruition. Taking this step will also allow you to track your progress and make future plans or change your plans as you progress toward the bigger goal.
3. Keep a Journal and Reflect
It's crucial that at the end of each week, you set some time aside to reflect. What have you learned this week? Are you satisfied with your habits? Where can you improve? Have you helped anyone this week? How can you help others in the future?
Sometimes, if we let ourselves run on autopilot for too long, we lose the ability to appreciate our daily lives and the connections we have. We lose the ability to notice where we can improve, or even where we've made improvements. This is especially difficult to reckon with since the coronavirus pandemic, but if we take time to appreciate our relationships and the little things that bring us joy, we can more easily see the progress we've made.
Ask yourself these questions and make sure that if you feel off, you try your best to reconnect with your true purpose.
Take notes. Don’t trust your memory, but write it down, to find one place to gather the information that affects change. Record the ideas and inspiration that will carry you from where you are to where you want to be. Take notes on the ideas that impact you most. Put down your thoughts and ideas. Brainstorm with yourself on where you are going and what you want to do. Record your dreams and your ambitions. Your journals are a gathering place for all the valuable information that you will find. If you are serious about becoming healthy, gaining muscle, improving performance, etc. write it down. Two people will listen to or read the same material and different ideas will come to each one. Use the information you gather and record it for further reflection, for future debate and for weighing the value that it is to you.
Create time for reflection—a time to go back over, to study again the things you’ve learned and the things you’ve done each day. Also called “running the tapes again” so the day locks firmly in your memory and serves as a tool. As you go through the material in this plan, you will want to spend time reflecting on its significance to you. Take a few minutes at the end of each day and go back over the day: who you talked to, who you saw, what they said, what happened and how you felt. Every day is a piece of the mosaic of your life.
Next, take a few hours at the end of the week to reflect on the week’s activities. Also during that weekly time, take a few minutes to reflect on how this material should be applied to your life and circumstances. Take a half day at the end of the month and a weekend at the end of the year so that you’ve got it, so that it never disappears, to ensure that the past is even more valuable and will serve your future well.
4. Ask for Help
Sometimes, we may need a little help with planning for success or figuring out our priorities. If that's the case, it's crucial that you find an expert advisor, mentor, or coach that'll help you achieve your goals. While writing a success plan, reach out to other people who can support and hold you accountable to those goals! It’s all too easy for us to focus individually on our own steps to success and forget that leaning on co-workers, family and friends for support is the best way to get there. A helping hand could push your goals over the finish line and provide resources you didn’t know you had.
Nutrition consulting is one way to achieve this. If you have been stuck on a plateau and not able to break through or you simply need someone to hold you accountable, this is a great option for you. Simply coming in every 4-6 weeks for a BodPod is a great way to receive some advice or suggestions based on what your test results show. Sometimes we simply need a second set of eyes looking at our problem with us to offer other potential solutions.
5. Tune into Your Purpose—What is your Why?
Remember, you need to stay in tune with your true purpose for working so hard – otherwise, you'll easily become disconnected and unhappy!
Always include the “why.” Sometimes you get so inundated with all the hard work it takes to achieve your goals that you forget why you are working so hard. Everyone focuses on the tangible goal and timeframe or deadline but they forget why they are working so hard to get there in the first place. This “why” is the fuel that gets you there when you lose steam or focus.
While planning for your success, consider taking a moment aside to list your reasons for setting such ambitious goals. What is your why? Every day, you should recite or look at these reasons in order to motivate yourself to accomplish the work ahead. When things get difficult (and they will), look at your why and remember why you started.
Kelly Sherman, MS, NC, CGP, CPT, is a holistic sports nutritionist specializing in athletes transitioning from high school athletics to college athletics. She has a master’s degree in nutrition and is degreed in exercise science as well as a certified personal trainer. With over 20 years of experience in the field, she combines the best of both nutrition and sports sciences to best help her clients reach their potential. To nourish is to flourish!
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