Regarding our health and fitness goals we often find that we are either "all in" or "all out". Have you ever been on a diet plan and then went out to dinner and ate something not on plan? Did you just give up until Monday or did you give up completely? The moment we are not 100% or make a "mistake" we often throw in the towel. We think we need to make big sweeping changes and it needs to be hard in order for it to work and to get results. Sometimes in pursuit of being perfect on a plan we fail to recognize just how much progress we are really making. I'm not talking about losing 1lb out of your 20lb goal. I'm talking about the daily process of establishing new habits, mindset shifts, and acknowledging mini wins. These are the little things that we often don't notice while we are pursing our big goals. It's these daily goals or you could really call them habits that are the small steps that propel us toward our ultimate goal. Individually they don't seem like much but when you start to string them together over a period of time, they are huge.
Here's 4 simple steps for you to evaluate your progress daily:
1 - Write out your daily goals for the next day each night. You are 2-3x more likely to achieve them just by this simple act!
2- Look at them in the morning, put in a visible spot, or set a reminder on your phone
3- Do It!
4- Review your progress every night. Ask yourself these questions and write it down:
Did you hit your goal?
How much did you do?
What did you learn? or What do you need to change?
What wins did you have today?
I also suggest doing a similar review every week and every month as you are working on larger goals.
Note: This daily process works best when you have first identified your big goal (typically something that would take at least 12 weeks or longer) and then decided on the steps you would need to take to reach that goal. This daily evaluation is regarding the actions or habits that will need to happen frequently to move you toward your big goal.
