Create and Celebrate Small Fitness Goals!

Many of us have set ambitious athletic or health-related goals for ourselves. A person who does not run might aspire to run a 5k. A person who wants to lose weight might set a goal to lose 50 or more pounds. It is important and useful to set big, challenging goals for ourselves. It just as important to set small goals, and celebrate these small wins when we reach them. If you only measure your progress in proximity to your big goal, it can feel demoralizing that you are so far away from achieving it. But, if you also create and celebrate small goals, it keeps you motivated and reminds you that you are continuing to move in the right direction. The reality is, a big, ambitious goal is really just a bunch of small goals strung together. When you allow yourself to truly celebrate each small goal, your chances of reaching each subsequent small goal, and the big goal at the very end, improves dramatically.  So the person who sets a big goal to run a 5k, should also set a small goal to first run a quarter mile without stopping, and then a half-mile, three-quarters of a mile, and so on, celebrating the accomplishment of each small goal until they achieve the big goal of running a 5k. The person who sets a big goal to lose 50lbs should also set a small goal to lose 3lbs, 5lbs, 10lbs, and so on, celebrating each of these smalls goals, until they achieve their big goal of losing 50lbs.  If you can create the habit of making, achieving, and celebrating small fitness goals, then your big fitness goals are much more likely to be reached!