Goal setting is essential to your growth and development in physical exercise. More specifically, writing your goals has particularly transformative power. In my 29 years of life, I’ve found that when I write something down I am more likely to remember it and also focus more on the task at hand. I truly believe there’s power in writing things down. In fact, there’s been a lot of research on the pen-to-paper effect. Turns out, we become 42% more likely to achieve our goals and dreams simply by making a habit of writing them down.
When we actually take the time to write our goals or visions out, it brings about certain clarity, purpose, direction, focus, and confidence that give us the ability to pursue them. The mind is a fragile part of the body – highly susceptible to the negativity around us – but it is also one of the most powerful parts of the body that is meant to dwell on positive thoughts. I say we use this powerful part of the body to kick-start our fitness goals by writing them down and focusing on positive progress.
Now if you’re new to writing your goals down for fitness, just start off simple; no need to overwhelm yourself with every single detail of your goals at first. If you have a goal to exercise four times a week, start by writing down the days and time that you plan to exercise. From there I would write what type of workouts you plan to do on each day. For example, on Monday I would like to work on upper body strength, Tuesday lower body strength, Thursday upper body endurance, and Friday lower body endurance. Once you’re ready, move on to writing the specific exercises that you intend to do on each days. The point is to get in a habit of writing down all of your goals all of the time. You can use our REACH formula for goal setting to help you get all the details organized and format your goals in a way that will ensure you achieve them. This way you always have something to look back at that’s holding you accountable. One trick my wife taught me is to get a big white board and write everything down. The big white board works! It keeps everything organized and visible for daily encouragement!
Whether it’s on a whiteboard, in a journal, or even in a notes app on your phone (keep in mind, though, that handwriting gets your brain going differently than typing!), get your goals out there by writing them down. Once they’re listed out in front of you, you’ll already be a step ahead to achieving them!