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Today we talk about making sure we have a strong “why” behind our goals to power our efforts and the ever-present bodyweight scale…

Goal Setting

It’s important to remind yourself of the “why” as well as the “what” any time you’re setting a new goal, breaking a habit, or making a change in your life.

Your 'why' is one of THE most important things that’ll keep you going when the challenges, excuses, or hesitations come up. A strong WHY gets you through the tough times.

Think about one goal that is really important to you right now. Write down your 'why' for reaching that goal.

Once you've settled on something, try to dig deeper into it and ask yourself "why do I want to achieve ________"?

Next up: If you've written a numerical scale weight loss goal (very common), read the next part.

Using the scale to measure health

We try to use the scale to measure a state of health. But it gets twisted sometimes. People participate in unhealthy weight-loss strategies. Using unhealthy methods to achieve a number that is supposed to represent a marker of health. We don't want to do this. We want our measurement, goals, methods, and mindset to be geared towards health.

Don't forget the scale is just a measurement tool, and it doesn't tell the whole story. It doesn't indicate if you weigh from muscle or from fat. It doesn't dictate your value as a human being. If you are heavy but strong, healthy, flexible, good heart, dense bones, have happy joints, etc then the scale isn't telling you the whole story.

Why even talk about this? Well, think about digging into your goals to find other 'states of health'. If your goal is a numerical scale goal, ask yourself why "that number". There are no wrong answers.

If every scale in the world was stolen today, what would you measure? Turn to other markers like your muscles, ability, blood chemistry, etc. Now I know that those are harder to measure than basic scale weight, but remember that the scale is supposed to be measuring health...so we are really trying to achieve 'health' not 'lightness'

What if, in your fitness journey, you lost fat AND gained muscle to a level where you only got 'halfway' to your scale goal but you achieved good blood chemistry test results, achieved bone density health, achieved changing the shape of your body, achieved great cardio health, achieved no joint pain, achieved strength and strength and now can do a pull-up and engage in all-day outdoor events with your family, etc...all these achievements are the 'health' that the scale was supposed to be measuring in the first place!

Here’s an example of Goal Digging

• I want to weigh ______ pounds.

  • Why _____ pounds?

• Because… “that would be healthy for me”
  “…that's what I weighed at my wedding”
  “before my child was born”
  ”that's when I felt my best”

  • Dig in now and ask what 'healthy' means to you. Define “feeling your best”. Examine why you want to get back to wedding weight? Was it something about how you felt or your body image at the time? Or was it physical symptoms like not being short of breath from short walks?

• Ok...I guess when I was ______ weight I…
  didn't get tired as easily
  back didn’t hurt
  happier about how I looked

  • (these are the layers to dig into...keep going!)

Find health measurements that will occur when you're at your goal weight. I think of a simple question for this… How will you know when you’ve arrived? The answer can be a useful guiding metric for your effort.

How will you know when you’ve arrived?

Bonus Sidebar: Check out my Reality-Based Body Fat Scale (new window) for some guidance on what to shoot for.

Precise Main Effort

You can use these Goal Setting Question Prompts & 80/20 Analysis to figure out where to put your main effort

1. What is the main problem?
   Must find the first domino: If the problem is a symptom, what is the source?

2. What is the reward/yield of success that would come from the removal of the main problem?

3. Ask clearly “what is at stake?” What is the carrot? How else will you benefit

   Obstacles

4. What is the biggest obstacle?

5. What method could you use against the obstacle? What would you need?

6. Do you have what you need? How can you get what you need?

   Action

7. What are the rough steps of what you will do once you get what you need?

8. What are the steps and how long will it take? Factor in time for waiting on others or services

9. What is the Biggest Challenge in those steps?

10. What is a way to ensure or increase success against that Biggest Challenge?

For changes, create a routine to support the new behavior --so that habits can take over.

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