The goal is...

It has been a while since I’ve reviewed one way to divide up kinds of goals, so here I am to remind everybody.  And, because I’m opinionated, I’ll even say which kind I like better.

 

One kind of goal is a results goal.  It focuses on the end state.  This is a very common kind of goal in fitness:  I want to wear a size K, or weigh B pounds, or run Z miles in J minutes.  Fancy versions of this kind of goal add deadlines:  I want to lose C pounds by my wedding date, or my reunion date, or my birthday.  There is nothing wrong with results goals, as long as they take reality into account—nobody is going to lose 100 pounds by next week, at least not in a survivable way.  This kind of goal helps us think big and see the end of the rainbow.  What these goals lack is a how.

 

Which is where process goals come in.  I love process goals because they focus on what we can do right now to get where we want to go.  Process goals are things like:  I am going to ride my spin bike for 30 minutes on weekdays before work, or I am going to do two weight lifting sessions every week, or I am going to limit my desserts to one a week.  They are all about actions we can take to move ourselves in the right direction.  They also work really well when we don’t actually know what is realistic for us.  I may not know how long it is going to take me to lose L pounds, but I do know that if I choose smaller portions every day, I’m taking steps to lose them.

 

The other thing I want to say about goals is that we are allowed to change them, no matter what kind we set.  Maybe we initially thought we wanted to lose some number of pounds and we discovered that actually we felt and looked great before we hit that number, or we hit it and found that we wanted to go a little farther.  Maybe we thought we wanted to do a marathon, but realized that our bodies were best suited to a half.  No one is checking.  We can change our minds as we get new information or even just because we want to.

 

Go play.