The past few weeks I’ve felt the change. I sense the weather beginning to change. The tremendous daylight we had during summer is slowly dwindling. The trees are transitioning through magnificent colors. The longer I live here, the more intensely I feel the changes of the seasons.
With each season come new feelings, a new mindset, new challenges, new goals and much more!
My feelings the past few weeks have been those of anxious indecisiveness. Why you ask?
Well, let me start off by saying, I have an “all or nothing” personality. I work on challenging this mindset regularly, but sometimes it gets the better of me for a period of time. This time period came when I was working on my new mindset for the upcoming winter by debating my personal, nutritional, and fitness goals. Working in the field of fitness leads my mind to overthink my goals. “Well, I could do this…or this…or that…or that way as opposed to this way”. “Do I want to work on my physique goals? Do I want to commit to train consistently for my triathlons next year? Do I want to focus on longer running races again? How much time do I want to commit to exercising each week? Do I want to take a cooking class to mix up the variety in my nutritional choices?”
AHHH!! My mind was running with so much! It felt like too many options, too many questions, and too many things to think about. I actually started feeling anxious just typing out all of those examples. SO, what was my initial response? REBEL! “I’m not going to think about any of it. I don’t want to. Maybe I’ll hire someone to train me so I don’t have to think about it. Maybe I’ll hire a physique coach. Maybe I’ll hire a triathlon coach. Maybe I’ll hire a running coach.”
AHHH!! There goes my mind again. It never stops!
So, really, what was my solution? I had to remind myself, that no matter WHAT goal I choose, ACTION and CONSISTENCY are the most important steps. What if I choose triathlons, but then drop off the training plan in 3 weeks and switch to physique, but then I change my mind again and then I am not any better off than when I first started on this new path of winter.
So, ACTION and CONSISTENCY. What things are important, to me, to be consistent in, no matter what goal I am training for? I decided to SIMPLIFY and start easy and let the rest come as I gain momentum and confidence the more consistent I am.
So I started off by listing my OUTCOME GOALS and then the BEHAVIORS I need to begin reaching my OUTCOME GOALS. For the month of October, I choose to focus on reaching a minimum of 64 ounces of water each day and staying consistent with 5 hours of activity per week. Yes! I have a path. I mark on my calendar each night what I accomplished for the day. When I start feeling anxious like I am not doing enough, or other goals are not being accomplished as quickly as I like, or I don’t accomplish my water or workout goal for the day, I just repeat two words until my anxiety dwindles… “ACTION and CONSISTENCY”. “Keep taking action Hayley. Work on consistency.” It reminds me that this goal is for the long haul and not the short term satisfaction!
Consistency in life really is key!
Stay tuned for my next entry about Outcome and Behavior Goals. How to identify them and how to take action!
Until next time,
Hayley Jones, BS, CSCS, Pn1
hjones@mvhospital.net
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