When you have a goal you’d like to achieve there are 3 fundamental things to establish:

1. The ‘what’;
2. The ‘why’; and
3. The ‘how’.

Without establishing the ‘why’ and ‘how’, you will struggle to achieve the ‘what’ (i.e. the goal). So to help you, we spoke to Head Trainer Danny who gave us his advice to help establish your ‘what’, ‘why’ and ‘how’.

1. Establish your ‘what’.

What is your goal? One of the biggest things that lets people down when it comes to achieving their goals is that they fail to set a goal that is for them and specific to them. You need to ask yourself what is it that YOU want to achieve?

When you’re figuring this out, Danny suggests that we shouldn’t look at what someone else is aiming for or look to piggy back off their goal as someone else’s journey and circumstances are going to be completely different to yours. Your goal should be about YOU. Danny also couldn’t stress enough about making your goal practical and specific. He told us to always aim high but be realistic with the time frame and how it’s actually going to fit into your current routine. We can sometimes be a little ambitious when we set goals at the start of the new year, so he suggested asking yourself:

• What is actually achievable for me in my current circumstances?
• What can I 100% commit to, even on a bad week and when things get busy?
• What is actually going to suit my lifestyle?

Danny also recommends that if the end game is something huge like 10 pull ups when you’ve never even done one, to break the goal down into multiple achievable stages and when you begin, put your focus into stage 1.

2. Find your ‘why’.

It’s easy to say your goal is to run 5km, but what’s a little harder sometimes is why you want to run 5km. Is it because you want to prove to yourself that you’re a runner? Is it because you want to improve your cardiovascular fitness so that you’re able to chase after your kids more easily? Is it because you’re wanting to find another way to support your mental health?

Danny explains that your goal needs a backbone, your goal needs to be rooted with a why. Why do you want to achieve that goal this year? Once you know your why, it will become your personal driving factor and something to remind yourself of when you might be lacking motivation. Your goal needs purpose for when there’s no ‘why’ behind your ‘what’, you’re more likely to fail.

3. Figure out ‘how’.

This can sometimes be the hardest part of goal setting – figuring out ‘how’ you are going to achieve your goal. Whenever Danny works with his clients on goal setting he always stresses that it’s not about being perfect, but rather it’s about consistency and building up a bank of things you can do (what he calls a daily or weekly list of non-negotiables) consistently to work towards your goal and is achievable even on the worst days or weeks.

He actually recommends that you don’t overload yourself with these or make them too overwhelming that they deter you from even starting as you want to be able to reach the end of your week and have accomplished them all. When you’re able to consistently tick these things off, you’re going to feel on track and motivated to keep going AND you’ll likely turn them into a staple part of your routine and create more room to implement something else. Danny says the key is to reverse engineer your goals – that is, to break down your goal and see how you’re going attack it step by step so that it works for you.

For example, if your goal is to workout 3 times a week because it helps to relieve stress and manage your anxiety but you’re not a morning person, don’t set out to do those workout at 5am and don’t expect to automatically go from 0 workouts to 3 workouts per week! Instead start with simply scheduling in one 20 minute workout. Your ‘how’ must be relative to how you work.

We hope this helps to give you a little more clarity on how to set your goals to set yourself up for success this year. Remember that you can do anything you put your mind to. You’ve got this!