When looking at our goals, whether this be for our New Year’s resolutions or at any other time, writing them down has proven to increase the chances of success.
Along with this, having a clear plan can help keep us on track, assist with motivation and ultimately building habit – a bit more on that later in the month.
Breaking down the term mapping out, in its most basic form, would see it in a very clinical and/or linear light. What we really mean is the how….
Let’s look at an example:
Run 5k in under 35 minutes
So, we would like to get faster at running, we get faster at running to meet the goal – simple, next example or maybe not so fast!
In order to achieve this goal, what do we really need to do? Or in this context, how do we meet this goal?
We can:
- Train X amount per week
- Mix our training to adapt to running faster (e.g. hill work, speed work, endurance work)
- Incorporate some strength work to assist with the training volume and help prevent injury
- Possibly lose any extra weight we may be carrying
There are plenty more we could add, however, this gives us a good idea of the goal not being one single activity.
By looking into the goal and then breaking it down, we can begin to see the parts that must align to allow us to reach that goal.
This directly feeds into other area’s such as habit building, for example, putting our running gear out before bed, if you are a morning runner or when you get up, if you are going after work.
Having a structure to our training, so we are incorporating elements that will allow us to move towards our goal, or in other words using all the tools at our disposal (another shameless plug for a future blog post!).
Understanding the parts that make up the goal can allow us to build a solid plan and make it much more achievable, realistic and successful.
If you have a goal and are looking for some help with mapping it out, contact us on info@spikefitness.co.uk