How to Achieve Big Goals Without Overwhelm
My Body Love Tip this week is what I’ve found to be the key to achieving (and sustaining) any big goals I’ve ever set for myself – especially with my body & health – and this is simply to:
Think Big. Start Small (sometimes reeeeeeeally small…)
Oh, and also…Enjoy the Journey!
Inside of all of us, there’s a longing for something more, something bigger, something better for our lives. It’s a part of human nature to be dissatisfied and to want more – and, whether specified or not, most of us have bigger goals and dreams to alleviate this dissatisfaction.
But I believe this is also at the root of a lot of unhappiness that exists out there: the idea that we can’t be truly happy until we’ve achieved our “happy ending” or reached “greener pastures”.
And it happens A LOT when it comes to our bodies.
You know how it goes: When I…reach my goal weight…fit into that dress…get those killer abs…or rock that bikini…THEN I’ll be happy.
I do believe that it’s good to have a certain level of dissatisfaction – I think this is what keeps us growing and consistently moving forward in life. And I believe that setting bigger and better goals to improve our lives, especially in the areas of health and fitness (as long as we’re not stretching for a change in our bodies that’s genetically impossible), is a great way to achieve more satisfaction – IF we can also appreciate the process of getting there!
What tends to steer a lot of us down the road to unhappiness, and often to never achieving our goals (or to quickly sabotaging our results when we do achieve them) is the attitude that we take towards this process, also know as the journey.
Most of the time, we don’t even consider the journey! We just want the end result, and we want it fast. You know, so we can be happy and get on with our lives (I have actually found old journals where I’ve literally written this exact statement).
But what I’ve learned is that no worthwhile goal is ever achieved overnight – and this is what leads a lot of people to become discouraged, quit, and sadly, often abandon their goals altogether.
So my Body Love Tip this week is to help give you some perspective on goals, especially when it comes to your health. There may be things you want to achieve – big things even – but you literally cannot conceive them right now given your current situation or state of health.
Trust me, I’ve been there – and I’d like to share with you a simple example from my own life that may help to illustrate this perspective, and perhaps give you some encouragement:
This week, I started training for a marathon.
My first marathon ever, which – with the anticipated cooperation of my body – I plan to complete this coming October.
And it took me 15 years to get to this point.
From the moment I decided to become a runner 15 years ago, running a marathon was always a grand goal. It’s something I’d put on my mental “bucket list”, something I thought would be a great feat one day. I had no idea when that day would be – but someday for sure.
I was never an athlete growing up, I didn’t have any natural athletic ability that I knew of. But 15 years ago, after my then-boyfriend laughed at my “quick jaunt” from the car to the grocery store, claiming that he could tell I wasn’t an athlete from my not-so-athletic jaunt technique, I made a decision to become one; and that, one day, I would run a marathon.
Well, now here I am. And it’s only because I started small – I mean, really small – and stayed consistent in my commitment to run all these years, that I’m able to say I’m about to fulfill a long-term goal.
Here’s kind of how it all went:
I bought a pair of proper running shoes (the basics).
Joined a “learn to run” group (got some training and coaching, and a community with similar goals)
Ran for a full minute, took a minute walking break, and repeated that 10 times (i.e. my first run was a total of 10 mins, in 1 min. increments)
Signed up for a 5km race.
Trained 3 times/week, building up to 5km.
Got overly confident during race week and changed my registration to 10km race.
Completed first 10km race, almost tossed my cookies at the end.
Injured myself from pushing it too hard.
Started swimming to keep up my cardiovascular fitness.
LIFE HAPPENED (stuff that took me temporarily away from even thinking about running)
Life settled, started running again, and kept swimming.
Signed up for Sprint Triathlon (half distance of full triathlon)
Trained hard.
Completed Sprint Triathlon, without urge to toss cookies.
Yet, injured again.
Kept swimming.
HAD A BABY (buh-bye life balance)
No running, swimming or anything other than stroller-walking for at least 2 years.
Started running again.
Injured again.
Strengthened body’s weaknesses to prevent injury.
Started running again.
Completed 2nd 10km race (about 13 years after 1st one)
Feeling good, registered for 1st half-marathon (21.1km)
Trained hard and completed half marathon in under goal time.
Injured, again, from pushing it too hard (though no regrets from crushing my half marathon goal).
Took 18 months off running, for physio, strengthening and healing (soooo tired of being injured!)
Started running again.
Turned 40, feeling good after 3 months running injury-free.
Registered for full marathon (42.2km) to kick off my 40’s.
Started my 5-month training program, 5 days/week (total of 38km running in week 1, to be built up to 64km by end of training)
Applying everything I’ve learned over the years to complete it without injury, and in good time!
Loving the process.
That’s a brief 15-year review…from where I started in the beginning, 42.2km race was so inconceivable – BUT running for 1 minute was totally possible.
Were there setbacks? Absolutely. And I had to learn some important lessons so I could prevent future setbacks (though apparently it took me several injuries to learn).
Did I have to be flexible with my goal? Yes! Life is unpredictable, and sometimes we have to make adjustments along the way.
Should I have given up on my goal, considering how many times I injured myself? NO! Why? Because I love running – I love the feeling I get from being outside, breathing rhythmically, and allowing my mind to clear. It’s a feeling I don’t get from any other activity – and what better way to get fit than to do something you actually enjoy!
I also love a challenge, working towards something that gives me a sense of accomplishment when I complete it – no matter how long it takes me to get there. No matter how long the journey to my marathon has been (and there’s still a few months to go!), I’m still getting fit, and learning more about my body along the way.
I realize that not everyone can relate to the running experience – some hate running, others run so easily that the same goal would be achieved in a much shorter time-span. All of our aspirations are individual, but I do believe that the same principles can be applied to everyone’s successful achievement of any goal.
My journey to this point has been nothing but a series of small steps that have added up to create a bigger result. And though I’ve learned MANY lessons with each step, I’d like to leave you with these 3 key lessons that I now live by everyday, and that hopefully you’ll apply to your own health goals:
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Choosing goals based on how I want to FEEL are far more powerful and easier to commit to over the long term than goals based on how I want to LOOK.
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A “Happy Ending” is never really the goal (unless we’re referring to a peaceful death) – true happiness is experienced along the journey, once we learn to appreciate it.
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There is so much to learn about ourselves along the way to a goal, which helps to build up our self-awareness, self-confidence and self-worth. And these gems are totally worth the work involved!
So yes, it’s definitely important to THINK BIG – but it’s equally as important to START SMALL and get going, now. Start your journey with one step, then another, and another, and just keep going. As the famous quote by Loa Tzu goes, “A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step”.
What’s on your mental “bucket list” – and what small step can you start with today?
Share in the comments below so we can cheer you on!
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Remember: When you shine your gifts, you define your beauty
