Guest Article – Success Has Many Definitions: Joyfully Achieve Your Goals & Live Authentically. How Will You Grow in 2017?
Will you become stronger? More resilient? Better Balanced? More agile?
Your 2017 accomplishments largely depend on what you do today. By setting realistic, timely, and challenging goals, you can stretch yourself to new possibilities. Many of us seek support from a life or fitness coach to keep us on track and accountable.
Striving for excellence, according to your own values and standards, is key to creating a rewarding and satisfying life. When you set goals and plan to achieve them, you’re creating a better life for yourself and those around you.
But goal-setting is more than just stating your intentions (though that is a big part!). It’s also important to identify and remove the barriers to progress. This is where clients tend to get hung up. Like a fish who doesn’t realize it’s swimming in water, an outside perspective will best promote growth. Let’s look at some of those things that may stand in the way:
Expectations
Though it’s good to shoot for the stars, expecting instant gratification or immediate results can lead to frustration and letdown. A weight-loss goal, for example, may take weeks, months, or even years to accomplish, and progress is not always linear. Instead of giving up the first time the scale numbers go up instead of down, look for opportunities to celebrate each step of progress in the right direction. Allow yourself to learn and grow from your mistakes and wrong turns, and use setbacks as opportunities to become wiser and stronger. Tracking our own positive progress doesn’t come naturally for most of us and working together with a coach can keep us optimistic and moving in the right direction.
It’s also important to have realistic expectations of others. Your goal is your own; expecting others to change in order for you to accomplish it is not only impractical, it’s also unfair. Though you may be trying a 30-day vegan challenge, your partner may not be on board. Share your goals with your family and ask for their support, but also be considerate of how your goal impacts them. If support is needed to help you reach your goals, consider hiring a life coach.
Emotions
Goals can make us feel empowered and excited. They can also make us feel guilty, fearful, angry, confused, anxious, and overwhelmed. These negative emotions have a lot of impact on us – limiting possibilities, narrowing our thinking, preventing us from taking calculated, educated risks and interfering with living fully satisfying lives. Is your relationship to risk taking best serving you, or is this an area you could use some encouragement?
Emotions are real. But they will also pass. Remember that when you want to throw in the towel.
Great decisions are not made when emotions are running high. Learn to become mindful of your feelings, notice them, and feel them – but do not be ruled by them. Create some perspective. Distance yourself from the emotional situation. Wait until you are calm, cool headed and clear minded before making decisions.
Many clients with whom I coach, learn to better manage their emotions through the course of our work together. Self-control is preferential since controlling others is impossible and disappointing. Clients’ recognize they have the power to change their reactions, attitudes and emotional states which can powerfully influence those with whom they interact. Improving our interactions enhances the quality of our lives and leads to greater happiness.
Pleasing Others
Strive to be kind and fair towards others, but learn to be okay with not pleasing others. You may run into people who are not supportive of your goal, who may even be mean-spirited when you talk about your ambition. You can’t control how people feel about your goals, but you can control how you respond to negativity. Don’t give in to the naysayers – stay focused on your positive changes, and know that taking risks will have its own rewards.
Energy Management
Learn to say no to the people, places and things that drain your energy, distract you from your goals, or don’t offer positive support. When you become more mindful of those activities that fulfill your energy, you will have a greater ability to effect change for yourself. Many clients seek support to understand how to generate more energy for themselves. This is easily accomplished with awareness, insight and practice. It’s one thing to set a goal, but you’ll need to be certain you have the energy to accomplish it.
Behaviors
You are in charge of your energy, time, perceptions, communications and behaviors. When it comes to achieving your goal, actions speak louder than words. Lay out a plan that allows you to take action towards your goal every day – small, manageable, calculated steps in the right direction. When clients identify sizeable actions steps that are unmanageable or unrealistic they’re left feeling frustrated and discouraged rather than successful.
Often, I collaborate with clients to identify appropriate actions steps that are manageable, given their other responsibilities. Together we celebrate the small successes along the way to achieving their bigger goal.
You are also in charge of your behaviors when things don’t go as planned. Will you waste time and energy complaining about a bad circumstance, or will you evaluate the situation to learn from it? Will you throw yourself a pity party and seek sympathy from your friends, or will you look to how you can be better tomorrow and make a change? Will you compare your progress to others’, or will you learn from their successes and ask for their support? Will you allow your focus to wonder, find escapes, distractions and blame others, or will you manage to refocus on the lessons you’re learning, build your resilience and strengthen your confidence?
Attitude
Attitude is a way of thinking and feeling reflected in your action patterns and behaviors. When we fill our brains with negativity, complaints, and hopelessness, our actions follows suit. Conversely, when we fill ourselves with appropriate levels of confidence, we’re able to effect change on our own behalf.
One tip that works for some clients is to establish a mantra that will remind you of your goal, your assets, and your worth. Use this mantra to center you when you are in need of an attitude adjustment.
Life is filled with challenges that require effort. Generating success, according to your own definition, will take perseverance and growing pains. Continue to apply your best effort, track your positive progress, learn new skills along the way and keep trying until you get it right. You will be rewarded with a deeply satisfying and rewarding life, filled with earned pride and contentment as you joyfully achieve your goals.
If you want a collaborator, have some lessons to learn that require assistance, perspective or will help hold you accountable for following through on your goals, check out True Form Coaching and make your dreams a reality in 2017! Live in your True Form! call 520-955-9503
Or Email Karen@TrueFormCoaching.com to schedule a free consultation.
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Client Spotlight – Sara Jane Lorenzen
When Sara Jane moved to Arizona 13 years ago with her husband and fellow BodyBasics client, Terry, they both decided to visit a local fitness facility in order to keep up their fitness. Unfortunately, despite their best intentions to keep with it, motivation waned as they never were really given proper instruction on how to properly use the equipment that was included in the planned program given to them when they initially joined.
A good friend, and another longstanding BodyBasics client, Teena Sandstrom, recommended BodyBasics to them. Teena had been doing group workouts and was absolutely loving them. Sara Jane and Terry gave our group a try and after just a few group sessions both knew they had found their fitness community. The combination of relationship, excellent instruction, and the focus on cardio, strength training and stretching proved beneficial in their daily lives.
For Sara Jane exercising with a “family of friends” is fun and a motivation to attend her preferred 7 a.m. group a couple of times each week. Sara Jane has spread the word too. She enjoys hearing how good her friends feel about exercising.
In Her Words: “Chris has selected trainers who give encouragement and individual attention throughout the workouts. I feel I am stronger and more confident with my daily activities. Our cardio and strengthening exercises help me be more physically fit with balance and endurance that keep me moving during my senior years. I like to play golf, walk, and do an occasional hike with friends. My energy level sometimes surprises me during these outings. We remain convinced after these years with BodyBasics, that exercising does work and helps maintain the lifestyle we enjoy.”
Welcome New and Returning Clients
The greatest compliment we can receive is a referral from one of our clients or allied health network!
George Burl – found us via Thumbtack
Barry Caldwell – referred by his wife and fellow client Debra Caldwell
Donna Fischer – referred by Barbara Grandstaff and Barbro Huth
Ann Jones – referred by Dr. Tait
Fred Page – referred by Oro Valley Outpatient PT
Ann Richhart – referred by fellow client Edrice Ivory
John Sipe – referred by Dr. Tait
Ron Williams – referred by Dr. Tait
“Shout Outs”
Shout outs are about us voicing victories we witness you all having at BodyBasics. We’ll keep it to our top 5 each month.
Jane Orient – for improving gradually and measurably with her walking!
Kathy Shepard – for her persistence in improving her ankle mobility!
Bobbie Raine – for steady progress toward improving her single leg balance and her confidence in doing so without a bar close by!
Susan Brownstein – for increasing her leg press weight greater than 10% in the last month!
Heidi Thompson – for setting new records on her ball activity in the last month!
Recipe – Blueberry Muffin Parfait
Here is another easy and tasty recipe to set you up for a healthy breakfast.
Ingredients
- 2 Tablespoons almond flour
- 1 Tablespoon coconut flour
- 1 Teaspoon ground flaxseed
- 1/2 Teaspoon baking powder
- pinch of cinnamon
- pinch of salt
- 1 Tablespoon applesauce or mashed ripe banana
- 1 Tablespoon fat free milk
- 1 egg
- 4 Tablespoons fresh blueberries
- 1/2 cup fat free vanilla Greek yogurt
Instructions:
- Lightly coat large microwave safe bug or ramekin with cooking spray. In small bowl, combine almond flour, coconut flour, flaxseed, baking powder, cinnamon and salt.
- Stir in applesauce (or banana), milk, and egg until fully mixed. Add 2 Tablespoons of the blueberries, then pour into mug.
- Microwave on high until muffin is cooked, about 2 minutes. Cool briefly until cool enough to handle.
- Crumble half of the muffin into the bottom of a small Mason jar, bowl or parfait glass. Top with half the yogurt. Repeat layers with remaining muffin and yogurt. Top with remaining 2 Tablespoons of blueberries and enjoy.
Nutrition Facts: recipe makes one serving
- Calories: 310
- Total Fat: 14g
- Saturated Fat: 4g
- Carbs: 25g
- Fiber: 6.0g
- Protein: 22g
Video – Helpful Hints: Squat
Team BodyBasics
Chris, Kris, Myrya, Kristian, Lance, Rachel, Mike, Star, and Ben
