Evolve: Devices for Success!

January has begun and so have your New Year's resolutions. Some resolutions equal a quick fix, and others will take the entire year to accomplish. If your goals linger in the health and fitness realm... expect that these will take some time.

When beginning a new fitness program, people of all abilities, ages, and experience levels will attempt to instill new habits. However, depending on your motivation and drive everyone will succeed at different rates.

Tangible Goals:

As humans, we love the sense of accomplishment, whether its an "A" on test, a paycheck from work, a pat on the back, humanity thrives off working towards a reward. Sometimes, when attempting to get in better shape, it is hard to see or feel the rewards from your work, not to mention its hard to know what rewards (results) one shall be looking for.

This is why goal setting is crucial. Accomplishing a goal is in essence one type of reward for your work. Completing a goal can leave one with a sense of well being and happiness. Another effective work-reward system can involve external rewards, such as a massage or "day-off" its up to you! Remember its important to set short (daily, weekly) and long term (monthly and yearly) goals. Short term goals can easily be formed by making the long term goals and then breaking it into parts. Daily goals can be something like, "Be more positive" "Smile more", "Go to the gym today", "Take the stairs at work today". Long term goals, can be monthly, bi-yearly, or yearly. It is important that these goals are challenging, but at the same time reasonable, such as lower blood pressure, increase overall energy, or increase motivation to exercise regularly. Make sure part of your goal(s) is measurable and the other part(s) are more general and focus on overall wellness and mental health. The image at the left shows an example of a goal sheet you can create to keep up with your goal setting. However, some people are great at this type of thing in their head.

Journals and your computer are great places to store these goals too. Remember every month re-valuate all your goals and change them as needed.

Make a Calendar and Stick to It! It is so easy to make a lot of goals and get hyped about it all, but with no action, there is no reward! I like using a planner or large wall calendar and each week I write what I plan on doing at school, work, or in the gym. This easily allows one to see what they are doing and not to forget and double book a time slot- usually overriding the gym. My suite-mate and I created a calendar with the days we will workout and what we will do at each of these workouts. It is also fun to write goals and quotes on the calendar to keep motivated!

Now create some goals and let's get started....