1.  Write down your ultimate goals for your physical well -being as well as for your life or career.  Include dreams and what you would like to achieve during your lifetime.  For example, having a six pack, reducing body fat, increasing muscle definition, lowering your blood pressure, reducing stress, increasing energy levels and endurance, going to the college of your dreams, getting that long awaited job promotion, taking that dream vacation, or buying your dream house.

2.  Next, list your specific goals for the year but break them down by month, week and day.  Be very specific about what you would like to accomplish.  For example, keeping track of your dietary intake on a daily basis, making it to the gym X amount of times each week, getting enough rest, drinking the recommended daily amounts of water, getting 7-8 hours of sleep each night, being disciplined about your study habits to get into that dream college, putting a certain amount of money each week into the bank for that dream vacation, impressing your boss by being the first person to work and the last one to leave, doing whatever it takes to be head and shoulders above the rest.

Your goals should be definite and challenging.  Proper goal setting will motivate and challenge you as well as give you a feeling of accomplishment when you attain them. If you set your goals too low, they are usually not very worthwhile and give you very little satisfaction.

When setting goals, remember to stick to the positives rather than the negatives.  Always focus on what you want to do rather than on what you want to avoid doing.  This keeps you focused on success rather than on avoiding failure.

Your Goals Should Be:

o  Specific in nature
o  Challenging yet realistic
o  Short term
o  Measurable on a day-to-day basis
o  Positive in nature

As you achieve each goal you set, you become more skillful, grow in self-confidence, and move closer to your future dream.  Feel free to modify your goals if necessary.  For example this past year I was working very hard to achieve my long-term goal - getting back to the 11% body fat that I had previously.  I gave myself one full year to achieve this 5% reduction in body fat, a very realistic time frame.  Unfortunately, I had physical problems that set my time frame back a bit.  I had an old knee problem flare up and couldn’t perform my interval cardio program with the same intensity I could if I was running.

After a few months of just doing super low intensity cardio, I started a high intensity cycle class that didn’t affect the knee.  It was great and now I am back on track however my time frame was affected; it needed to be modified due to the knee aggravation.  There is always a silver lining in each cloud.  On the plus side, I now have another strong weapon to use in my war on fat:  the fat killer cycle class.  It is a great alternative to running; which although I love, is harder on my knee.