Stop Setting Goals?

Stephen Covey, the author of The 7 Habits Of Highly Effective People, says you should stop setting goals.

I don’t think he is saying to stop setting goals.  What I believe he is try to say is that, don’t bother if you aren’t going to put forth the action required to achieve those goals.

A Goal Without Action is Just a Wish! - Tony Woodall Click To Tweet

Law of Attraction – Universe will get it to me.

Don’t worry about the How – It will come to me because I will attract it.

God’s Will – God will provide.

It wasn’t God’s Will is often used as an excuse for not taking action.

God and the “Infinite Intelligence will provide you with the ideas, the way, perhaps – but they won’t tie the rope around your waist.

When you have a goal, there are certain steps that will have to be done to achieve the goal.

The Action Steps

Let’s break it down.

Weight Loss

2 Basic Steps

 1. Eat Less

 2. Exercise More

Burn more calories than I take in.   Very simple concept, But, How do I do that?  Create an Action Plan

Personal trainers tell me weight loss is 80% what you eat and 20% exercise.

There is a lot to go into a weight loss program and you should always check with your physician before starting one.

After you’ve done that start setting up your action plan.  The Doc may provide some ideas and recommendations based on the reason you need to lose weight.  For example, if you are diabetic, you may need to eat a certain way, or monitor your blood sugar before and after workouts, so check and make sure you do what you need to do.

Action Plan for Eating Less – What is your recommended calorie intake from your Doctor?

Calorie Counting – very important – Tracking and Monitoring to keep on track

Tools

My Fitness Pal – Great app that provides calories for a lot of foods.  Bar Code scanner – database of most foods.

eat Less

Maximum calories for each meal:

1. 300 c for breakfast
Protein & Vegetables

2. 400 c for lunch
Protein and vegetables – Salads with low calorie dressing, gluten free bread slice

3. 300 c for dinner
Protein & Vegetables

4. 200 c snack – Fruit, yogurt

That sounds like a very limited amount of calories and it is.  It is probably the lowest that you should do.

In these calories it is important to limit the amount of fats and carbs as much as possible.

exercise More

Determine the amount of Calorie Deficit you need to achieve your weight loss goals. Then work to achieve that deficit.

It takes 3500 Calories to burn 1 pound of fat.  Depending on the amount of time you are working with, determine the amount you need to burn per day to lose your weight goal. Then you can set up your Action Plan.

If you need to burn 500 Calories per day more than you take in, and assuming your calorie intake is 1200, that means you will need to burn about 1700 calories per day.  You will need to determine “steps” (pun intended) you need to take to achieve that goal.

I was burning about 1600 – 1700 calories per day on the elliptical trainer. I also did a lot of walking in San Francisco around our office.

My steps for my exercise More plan was:

1.  Go to the gym 4 days per week (M-Th)

2.  Do 2 hours on the elliptical (about 8 miles)

3.  Walk 5+ miles Saturday & Sunday morning

4.  Park near the end of the Bart Parking Lot to walk further

Following these action steps, I was able to lose 40 Pounds in 16 weeks.  I won 2nd place in our Biggest Loser contest at work.

You can click on the Sample Worksheet above to get your FREE copy of the Goal Setting Worksheet from the Goal Getting, Don’t Just Set’em, Get’em program.

Set up your Action Plan and start doing it.

Just creating an “Action Plan” won’t get it done. “Doing the Action Plan Will! — Tony Woodall

Next week we will be talking about Measurement and Tracking of the Action Plan you set. We will take a very in depth look at tracking what your actions are and how to use that to keep you on track.