7 Simple Steps To Success and the SMART Way To Reach Your Muscle Building Goals
If you’ve been working out for awhile you may have noticed an interesting phenomenon. The vast majority of the members in your gym look the same year in and year out and never improve their physiques. Talk about banging your head against the wall.
These people are on autopilot. They are just going through the motions of a fitness lifestyle. Working out has just become another thing that they do. Don’t let this happen to you.
Let’s take a look at seven simple steps you can take right now to move you rapidly along toward your fitness goals.
I realize this may be boring to a lot of you. I can hear the groans and feel the rolling eyes but please hang in there. The following will do more for your training progress than any super secret eastern european periodization split ever could.
Think on paper: Only about 3 percent of adults have clear, written goals. These people accomplish five and ten times as much as people without written goals.
Step 1: Decide Exactly What You Want
This will allow you to prioritize so that you are spending the most time on high value tasks that move you closer to your goals. If your goal is to add 20 pounds of muscle, there isn’t much point in using up a lot of you training time by jogging 5 miles a day, doing high volume low intensity work or focusing on the so-called “shaping” exercises.
Step 2: Write It Down
Again, think on paper. Written goals are a powerful thing. They have an energy behind them that helps you move toward them that unwritten goals just don’t have. In fact, you’d do even better by writing down your goals every day. Yes, every day. It will only take a few moments and will help you tremendously.
Step 3: Set A Deadline On Your Goal
Create a sense of urgency and positive pressure. Without a deadline you will procrastinate and do the little things that may damage your short term goals. If you are having “after” pictures taken in three weeks then you are much less likely to swallow that bag of popcorn, than if you are just getting in shape eventually. This is why physique competitors get in such fantastic shape. When they enter a contest, they have a hard deadline looming in the future. They don’t want to be embarrassed by showing up on stage out of shape.
Step 4: Make a list of everything you can think of that you will need to do to help you achieve your goal
Leave nothing to chance. The more planning you do ahead of time, the more likely you will stick to the plan and achieve your goals. The more prepared you are, the more success you will experience.
Step 5: Organize the list into a plan.
Organize your list by priority and sequence. In other words, put the goal you most want to achieve at the to of your goals list. Then make a list, in order, of what you need to do in order to achieve that particular goal. For example, if your top goal is to build 10 pounds of muscle in the next 12 weeks, you must make a list of what you need to do to achieve that goal. It could be something like:
Train with weights 3 times per week
Squat 2 times per week each time add 5 pounds to the bar
Eat 6 high protein nutritious meals every day
Eat at least 3,000 calories every day
Step 6: Take action on your plan immediately
Do something. Get started. Start building positive reinforcement and momentum RIGHT NOW.
Step 7: Resolve to do something every single day that moves you toward your major goal
And with fitness, you have to, don’t you? Whether it is your workout, eating six high protein meals, etc. you should always be doing something that moves your forward toward your goals.
If you continue to focus on and perform these 7 steps, you’ll be amazed at the results you’ll see with your fitness program.
Now, let’s take this a little further and really get smart about this goal setting and motivation thing. I’m not sure who was creative enough to make the acronym work, but work it does and it can fit in quite nicely with your physique goals.