Break the goal down into skills. Break the skills down into habits.

We all have things we want to achieve and goals that we want to reach, but many of us just end up going round in circles. We work hard but sometimes feel like we are swimming against the tide and not getting very far at all. If that sounds like you, keep reading and see if the advice from Personal Trainer Branislav Keckes can help…

I see this a lot in the fitness industry. A lot of Personal Trainers often just prescribe a diet or a collection of exercise to their clients but don’t actually spend time educating them on their own choices, or habits.

Even if the client does achieve their goals, they may not know how to maintain their state and could end up getting back to where they started…or even worse.

If you want to reach a goal and maintain it then you need to learn more about your own lifestyle, nutrition and exercise.

Let me show you a common example:

Goal – I want to lose 10lbs
Skills – calorie control, recovery, movement

For a fact, we know that in order to lose weight you need to be in calorie deficit, you need to be getting enough sleep for your body to recover and function optimally, and you need to be exercising or moving regularly to increase the amount of calories you burn.

There are actually many more benefits associated to exercise, but we can discuss those another time.

In order to enhance the skills needed to achieve the goal, it is important to know what habits you should be looking to develop…

Habits:– Food prep, high protein diet, calorie tracking etc…

– Meditation, blackout curtains, reading a book before bed to unwind and help to fall asleep, stretching and mobility etc…

– weight training 2-3 x per week, increasing daily step count, running during your lunch break etc…

So if your GOAL is to lose 10lbs, it could look like this:

SKILL – Calorie control – HABIT – eat a portion of protein with each meal and swap half a portion of carbohydrates for green vegetables

SKILL – Recovery/sleep – HABIT – go to bed 30 minutes earlier and at the same time every day, read a chapter of a book and generally spend more time unwinding in bed

SKILL – Movement/exercise – HABIT – hire a Personal Trainer to help with programming and motivation to do resistance training 2-3 times a week with and to hit a minimum of 10 000 steps per day

On paper this sounds manageable, right?

The truth is, that the example above is very generic and might not work perfectly for you. You are unique and so is your life, your body and your circumstances.

Maybe you are busy with work and family, and cannot just make yourself go for a walk…

Maybe you have never exercised in your life and are afraid of starting on your own…

Maybe you don’t know how to increase your protein intake…

But at least now you have a blueprint from which you can start to head in the right direction.

Establish a goal.

List the skills that you need to develop to achieve that goal.

Then establish what habits you need to form.

This is the easy part. Implementing it consistently is the tough part, but it will be a lot easier if you haven’t skipped this section.