The Oxford English dictionary defines the word 'Lifestyle'  as the way in which a person lives. As we enter 2023 and we review our lives and set goals for the year it might be important to consider that when we set a physical activity/fitness goal(s) for the year it may worth considering that the pursuit of physical activity/fitness goal(s) is a lifestyle. 

People often come to me in January with a lifestyle or physical activity goal looking for help reaching it. Most people understand the work involved. The awareness they lack is usually in fitness terms frequency, intensity, time and type. Nutritionally they will usually be unfamiliar with their food habits, food labels and energy balance. Education will help them here. That is in many respects the easier part of my job. Telling someone what to do is easy. Getting them to implement it of their own free will and desire is the hard part. The excruciating part is shedding light on ways a client may be inadvertently setting themselves up to fail. I have sat across from clients with the very best of intentions and asked when would you like to act on this plan each week? Where will we put training or meal preparation in your diary? And then the vacant expressions come followed by sheer desperation as they realise they haven’t put their goal into their daily life at all.

Goal setting is not a one size fits all venture. Circumstances matter. I’ll offer a personal story to illustrate this point. I didn’t run a marathon in 2022 because I was getting married. I had a rollover entry from the Dublin Marathon 2020 but my circumstances have changed dramatically since 2020. I went weightlifting 3/4 times a week at 6 am to make sure I fit into my suit. I didn’t have the time to commit to training for a marathon. Motivations matter. In 2022 my 10/10 on the priority list was looking strong for my future wife on April 22nd 2022. Finishing a Marathon was at a 1/10 on the priority list. In 2023 my life had changed I lived, bought a house and worked in Dublin full time. Marathoning came back on the menu we welcomed our first child Edward in May 2023 so goal setting was very different. I finished my third fastest marathon in 2023 and for clarification I bought a house, welcomed my first child and ran a marathon in one calendar year. For most that would be enough for a decades worth of achievements but I also finished a qualifaction in artificial intelligence, helped Julie get promoted and I didn’t miss a day at work. My overall point is none of the above just happened. Julie and I set goals, we followed the actionable steps to achieve those goals and we had set backs but every time they happened we kept getting the actions we needed to do back into our diaries. I hope the below advice helps you achieve your goals.

It’s important to realise exactly what type of goal you are pursuing.

 Physical activity/fitness goal(s) fall usually fall into 3 categories

1. Process Goals

2. Outcome Goals

3. Performance Goals

Process Goals : Personal Control - High 

 With a process goal the amount of effort applied by the person who sets the goal will be directly linked to reaching the goal. For example if you focus on the technique of your Deadlift during a strength training session at the gym the amount of weight that you will be able to lift will slowly increase and your risk of injury during the session will be reduced. You will have a high degree of control over this goal. The more times you work on the Deadlift the better your technique will become. The same could be said for running, cycling or a step count. The more you lift, walk run or cycle the more comfortable you will feel during these activities. A process goal is nice because it lends a high degree of control to the individual setting the goal. It promotes a linear version of success. More effort equals success. The pitfalls are that most people who set a process goal don't realise that the process may be endless. For example in running you may want to run 5 km continuously. You may work up to this through multiple workouts then you may want to maintain this level of fitness and so you restart a process to maintain your desired goal.

Finally on process goals, you should be aware that you may become bored or disinterested in one process and look for other methods to maintain/reach your goal. They exist and using them is advised. Like I said the process/processes may be endless. This does not mean inevitable failure more that you should be aware that the process goal also involves thinking and rethinking possibly over years. The good news is that you have all the power and you can this effort went in and that outcome came out. The most powerful thing in a process goal is ability to gain feedback and spot correlations for example using a fitbit to track your steps target and seeing that when you hit that tyour weight begins to decrease. This type of goal invites effort. The effort yields progress. Progress leads you to close in on your goal. This helps your confidence, lets you take back control and might even invite you to put in more effort. Your coach will usual monitor this effort and advise you at times to be patient and rest such that you avoid injury or overtraining. The danger is that you keep increasing effort exponentially. This is unsustainable at some point you will need some down time or a maintenance period.

Outcome Goals | Personal Control - Low

Outcome goals are gauged by comparison with others. Personal trainers/Coaches often steer a client away from setting these goals as they leave the client with a low degree of personal control over the results at the end of the effort. A person who sets an outcome goal may love competition. Many people play competitive sport and many more thrive on competition. They feel that competition between others helps push them to greater heights. I find that competition brings out the best in me. In a road running race hearing the tapping of feet behind me in the last 400 metres of a race is great. I know I will have to dig deep to finish ahead of this person. I know my mentality is about to be tested and I know I am about to learn a lot about myself. Is my mental training on point? Am I working hard enough in training? Do I have a reserve that I can call on when my race hasn't been great but I'm still within a whisker of a PB? The thrills are endless to me. More than just these questions often times you will lose. This can devastate many people. They have worked so hard and by the the judgement of the 'hurlers on the ditch' they have achieved nothing. You have to be willing to accept failure with an outcome goal. If you're competing against someone you can only guarantee your effort. You can't control your opponents effort and they might be better on the day or worse the weather or some other uncontrollable circumstance might get in your way. Finally, if you set an outcome goal and you fail to reach it. Learn why? develop yourself and forget the failure. Your day of success will come and in time you may even consider that success has come because you were always actually competing with yourself.

Performance Goals - Personal Control - Intermediate

When you set a performance goal you are trying to improve yourself physically or mentally. For example you might set the goal of running a 5 km in under 20 minutes. The challenge is self improvement. You may build up to your sub 20 minutes 5 km performance by using a periodized training plan. The upper limits of your goal may become more clear as you train and you analyze your performance after each session. Bear in mind the upper limits of your target performance are projections. In our example if our upper limit is projected as 19:59 for a 5 km race we should also bear in mind that this might also require ideal conditions ie low wind or a tailwind, optimum weather conditions, flat course with few corners and our mood may also need to be considered? Do we run better when we're stressed out and need a release? Do we prefer to be relaxed? Do we need to be slightly angry? I definitely prefer slightly angry. Anger to me is an energiser but even then it's how and when I wield it during a performance that matters most. With a performance goal you have turned the competition in on yourself but even with all your effort uncontrollable things can still go wrong but if you succeed you have conquered the most important challenge of all .....YOURSELF

Conclusion

What ever type of goal you choose to set is up to you. It should reflect your personality and circumstances. It is nearly impossible to set a goal that won't be challenged by other factors. Trade offs are inevitable. Personally, I find that the more my Physical Activity/Fitness goal fits in practically with my life the easier it is to pursue. Setting a goal and following it through to it's conclusion still requires resilience and perseverance but practicality helps a lot. Finally, setting a goal should not be seen as an absolute or only measure of yourself and your achievements in life. Setting a meaningful goal is as much about challenging yourself and learning about yourself as it is about achieving a result. Your goal should be about 50% possible, a stretch but not impossible.