A Week of Fitness Momentum Goes a Long Way

There is something special about one year's end and another year beginning. Both make great times to finish projects and begin a new challenge. But to be honest, any week of the year can be the week that you either get things accomplished or start a new goal. A fitness goal can be one of many options you have at these fresh starts.

Here are some clever ways you can build momentum and maintain the self-created movement toward any new activity you wish to add to your life:

Start small and be specific. Write down a single goal you have and place it somewhere you will see it regularly. The big-picture goal is to build a new habit that allows you to make time for improvement in obtaining this achievement.

For instance, with fitness, do not create a goal to require many levels of getting healthy like joining a gym, losing weight, starting a diet, and quitting smoking or drinking all at the same time. That is an overwhelming challenge combination to any person.

Instead, just start off by drinking more water and walking more each day, no matter what. No excuses. You can fit these walks and water breaks first thing in the morning, during your lunch break or after dinner when the day is done, even for 10-15 minutes at a time.

Start small, then grow. By starting small, it is easier to create a good habit that soon becomes something you never want to miss in as little as a few weeks. You find ways to make it happen even when you do not feel like doing it.

When you can do that, you are evolving the basic motivation to create a goal to the discipline to achieving the goal. That's the most powerful moment in goal creation as it opens your eyes to the realization that you can do this.

Be proud of this moment. Soon you will find it more of a nuisance to miss that added activity than performing it. You have created a habit.

Habits created and some dropped. During this process, you may also find a natural inclination to eat better and smoke or drink less, especially as you start to see the healthful results of losing weight and feeling more fit. Perhaps you are now ready to add to the foundation of results that you can create for yourself by working harder or by adding more effort toward dropping bad habits. One of my favorite sayings I have heard over the years is: "A goal achieved requires two habits: one you must start and one you must quit."

Assess regularly. Every few weeks or monthly, take time out of your normal training period to see how far you have come. After a few months, you may find that your old workout is now your warmup.

Or you might see negative results that will require you to be honest with yourself. Were you doing something consistently? Have you not been serious about your food intake? Have recent weeks been too busy for you to train? Regardless of the outcome of these assessments, what they reveal can be fuel for you to work harder and keep moving.

Remember if you are not seeing any objective improvements, ask yourself, "Do you feel better than before you started?" Or, "are you working harder than you have in previous attempts?" Be honest and either work harder or be proud that you are feeling better overall. Simply feeling better than before is one of the biggest victories of adding fitness to your life.

Be forgiving of yourself (and others). We are all human. We make mistakes. We fall short of our best-made plans. Keep trying and don't give up. Forgiving yourself can place you in a better mindset and relieve the stress that we put on ourselves every day. Sometimes we can be harder on ourselves than we truly need to be. The past is the past. Focus on the present and get moving now. Make today day one, not one day.

Personally, I have found the time around the new year holiday a great period to reflect on the previous 12 months and reassess moving forward. Look back at this time last year -- remember that? Seems like a blink, right?

Well, imagine if you started today, where you will be in a year from now, which will seem like a blink from now. That should be a quick thought experiment, so do not live in the past too long.

Remember the goal is to start building momentum. Typically, this period is one of the few times that may be an open window for you to start working toward that new goal for the new year. Nothing like getting a head start on your goal achievement.

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