Why?  Because if you don’t decide where you want to go, any road will take you there.  Because if you don’t set goals, you’ll just float along life with no direction.  Because if you don’t set your sights on something, you won’t have a compelling reason to get up early and stay up late.  Because if you don’t set goals, you’ve already failed.

“Failed?  Failed at what?”  If you don’t set any goals at all, you’ve already failed to accomplish all the great things you’re capable of.  It could be losing weight, building muscle, earning extra money, building a relationship, really anything you can imagine.  Anything – you can really have and achieve anything – if you’ll only set a goal and consistently work towards it.

SMART Goals

Every great journey begins with the first step and every great accomplishment, whether it’s finding the cure for the cancer or putting a man on the moon, begins with a goal.  But how do you set goals?  The best way I’ve found to explain the process is by using the acronym S-M-A-R-T.  Here’s what it means:

S – Set SPECIFIC Goals

Make sure your goals are as specific as you can possibly make them.  Saying “I just want to be happy” is not going to cut it.  ”I just want to lose some weight” isn’t effective either.  In both cases, you’ve got to be specific.  What exactly would it take to make you happy?  Exactly how much weight do you want to lose?

Setting a nonspecific goal like “I want to make some extra money” may prove very disappointing.  You might find a discarded penny on the sidewalk and stop to pick it up.  Boom, you just completed your goal!  You just made some “extra” money.  You see how important it is to be specific?

The first key to effective goals is to be specific, specific, specific.  If you can’t clearly see the outcome of your goal when you close your eyes at night, it’s not specific enough.

M – Make Your Goals MEASUREABLE

Now that you’ve made your goals as specific as you can, you need to find a way to measure your progress.  You might think that making your goals measurable is simply an extension of making them specific but it’s much more than that.  Making them measurable is like putting a ladder under an apple tree that allows you to climb up, step by step, to reach the best pieces of fruit the tree has to offer.  Making your goals measurable provides a step-by-step road map to their accomplishment.

If I ask you how your weight loss goal is coming along, you should be able to tell me exactly how much weight  you’ve lost as well as exactly how much further you have to go and how long you think it will take you to get there.  All specific, measurable steps.

Once you specifically define what it is you want, figure out a way to measure your progress.  It could be dollars, days, pounds, inches, boxes shipped, whatever.  Just find a way to measure your progress.

A – Make Your Goals ACTIONABLE

Like all the others, this one is key.  Your goals should be something that you can DO, WORK TOWARDS, or ACT ON.  Here’s the difference:  if you say “I want to make a million dollars” and don’t add any actionable steps, it’s a wish, not a goal.  On the other hand, saying “I want to make a million dollars through affiliate marketing (or product creation, or by writing a novel, or whatever you want to do),” then you’ve got something you can actually work on.  This puts you in control.

Every January 1st, most people set “I want to lose some weight” as one of their New Year’s goals.  Can you see why 99.9% of people that set this kind of goal never accomplish it?  It’s not specific.  It’s not measurable.  It’s not actionable.

Now, the person that says “I want to lose 15 pounds by the end of March through better diet choices and exercise” has got a much better chance of reaching their goal.  Their goal is specific, measurable, and actionable.  They’ve got something specific to work on.

Note:  some people list the “A” in SMART as “Attainable” as in “your goals should be Attainable.”  I like “Actionable” because I think it better describes the fact that YOU HAVE TO WORK ON YOUR GOALS.  They don’t come true all by themselves.

R – Your Goals Should be REALISTIC

Time for a gut-check:  is your goal realistic?  Can you really see yourself achieving it?  If you can’t, you need to work on 2 things:  your self confidence and your goal.  Once you become practiced at goal setting and have accomplished a few, your self confidence will explode and you’ll automatically begin setting bigger and bigger goals.  However, at the beginning, make sure you don’t set your goals so high that they end up discouraging you instead of inspiring you.  Make them realistic.

Also, make sure your goals are congruent with your life in general.  In other words, don’t work towards a goal that is actually going to create problems in other areas of your life.  For example, don’t set a weight loss goal that is so aggressive that you damage your overall health in the process.

T – Make Your Goals TIME BASED

Set a time limit on your goals.  Otherwise, you’ll always procrastinate and put off working on them for another week, another month, another year.  Set a deadline and stick to it.  Saying “I want to lose 5 pounds by the end of the month” has a lot more power than just saying “I’d like to lose some weight.”

Putting a time limit on your goals is another way to measure your progress.  You tell yourself, “I’ve got until the end of the month to reach my goal and it’s already the 15th.  I’ve got to get moving!”  There’s massive power in that.  It creates a momentum that propels you forward and keeps you moving.

Reaching Your Goals

Is it really this easy?  Well, yes and no.  Setting effective goals is a straightforward process.  However, you still have to DO THE WORK and that part isn’t so easy.  But setting up the right process, making your goals specific, measurable, action oriented, realistic, and time based will provide a framework where you can see exactly how much progress your work is producing.  Your work will have purpose – and that will inspire you to maintain the pace.

You see, if you can’t measure where you are and you’re not sure where you’re going, it’s difficult to find a compelling reason to do the work. If you can’t see the “big payoff” at the end and see yourself moving closer to it, there’s no incentive to put in the extra effort and you’ll quickly find reasons to procrastinate.

So be SMART about setting your goals this New Year.  Stack the deck in your favor but making your goals specific, measurable, actionable, realistic, and time-based.  You’ll be amazed at what you can accomplish!

Certified Fitness Nutrition Coach andPersonal Fitness Trainer (NESTA)

P.S.  Be sure to get my latest Fitness Blueprint called “Little Things That Improve Your Health.”  This ebook is packed with loads of helpful information on how to build a better body and you can get it FREE – no email, no cookies, no catch.  Download and enjoy!

Email Me:  Hiram Perez   

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How do you break that cycle?  How do you get your life back on the right road?

I got an interesting email the other day that seems to answer that exact question.  It’s from Perry Marshall, an industry expert in marketing.  I’ve purchased some of Perry’s products and his advice is always solid.  I thought I’d share his email so I’ve posted it, along with his links, in it’s entirety:

---

From: email@perrymarshall.com [mailto:email@perrymarshall.com] On Behalf Of Perry Marshall
Sent: Monday, June 14, 2010 8:44 AM
To: Hiram
Subject: Phone call from my old boss who fired me -

Hiram,

It was a Friday. I was about 10 minutes late for work. Before I could put my lunch in the refrigerator, Wally & Fred called me into Wally’s office.

Something did not feel right.

“Perry, we’re going to have to let you go. Things just aren’t working out and it’s time to cut you loose.”

We’d had the pleading conversation about giving me one more chance 2-3 times already. That discussion just wasn’t gonna happen again.

2 years before when they’d hired me, Wally said, “Perry is a sales guy just waiting to happen.” Now Perry was *still* a sales guy ‘just waiting to happen’ and they had waited long enough.

I drove the long commute back home. When I walked in the back door at 9:30 in the morning, it only took Laura about one second to figure out what happened. (It was about the 5th or 6th job I’d been fired from, and she was starting to get accustomed to this.)

Firing me was the l-a-s-t thing Wally and Fred wanted to do. Other than the long string of failed sales contracts, we all liked each other just fine. They all had families; terminating a young guy with an 18 month old baby girl who’d been born just after he started wasn’t exactly their idea of a fun team-building exercise.

But it didn’t really matter how much “I love you / you love me / we’re a happy family” we all had together, business is business and sales is sales. If you can’t bring home the bacon, you don’t get breakfast.

In moments like that, you make decisions, vows, inner resolutions.

I made a decision to prove to those guys that Wally had been right at the very beginning and I really *was* a sales guy waiting to happen. “Someday. . . . I’ll show those guys. . . .” I swore under my breath.

Part of me was tempted to want ‘revenge’ but I held that emotion in check. They were just doing what they had to do after all.

But even more than that, I made a decision that somehow or another I was going to find *something* that worked. Everything I’d tried to sell for the previous 7 years had failed.

It’s a horrible feeling when you’re X years old [however old that happens to be] and hardly anything you’ve ever done has been successful.

That was 12 years ago.

Well guess what happened the other day? Fred called me out of the blue.

He asked me if I could help him with his company’s marketing. I hadn’t seen him since the day I got fired. Shortly after we parted, he started a new firm.

Last week we had lunch on the patio of an Italian restaurant.

This time, he drove the long commute from the Northwest Suburbs to come see me.

He brought his operations manager. I was telling the guy how my time with Fred was just one of those seasons of life where nothing was working. Fred chimes in: “Well it wasn’t from lack of effort. Perry tried EVERYTHING.”

I nod. Yep that’s right, I tried just about everything.

Fred asks me, “Any regrets?”

I shake my head vigorously. “No regrets. Not one. Things happen for a reason and there are just certain things you have to learn. Sometimes the lessons are hard. That job didn’t work out but it prepared me superbly for the next job, which worked splendidly.”

As we’re talking I think back and am truly thankful for all the tools I put on my tool belt during that horribly painful time. Not a week goes by that I don’t draw from something I learned during those 2 years.

And I’m reminded how powerful it is to have an attitude of gratitude even when, in the moment, it doesn’t really feel like you have anything to be thankful for at all.

I can promise you, it didn’t *feel* like I had much to be thankful for then. But that just wasn’t true. There wasn’t much fat to go around, but I was building LOTS of muscle.

And you know what. . . it’s been the same story in *every* department of my life. All the various times of relationship conflicts, problems with kids, therapy sessions, financial struggles, evil bosses, botched deals, deadbeat co-workers . . . all were seasons of building muscles, building muscles, building muscles.

During that time years ago I was desperate and I did LOTS of soul searching. Fred asked me what finally made my career start to click.

I said, “I was an ‘OK’ salesman back then and I was getting killed by the ‘good’ salesmen. But when I went from selling something where techie skills were *helpful* to selling something where techie skills were *mandatory*, everything started to take off.”

That made complete sense to him. The geek department is my #1 strength and everything I’ve done since then has taken full advantage of my geek background.

In hindsight, all the tweaking and wrangling in the world wouldn’t have made that job work well. Yes there are a lot of things we could have done better, failed projects we could have saved. Most of the key ingredients were there, but at the end of the day I was trying to pound a square peg into a round hole. The job was at war with my inner geek.

So. . . was it the *wrong* job? Was it a mistake to work there in the first place?

No.

Sometimes you pick up a LOT of skills during those seasons of pounding square pegs into round holes. (To be completely honest, the pegs almost NEVER fit perfectly anyway, do they??? They sure haven’t for me!)

Whatever life is throwing at you at the moment, you focus on the positive, express gratitude, and believe that there is a bigger picture that you truly are cracking the code on.

And I’d like you to consider that if you happen to be in a situation like my old job where lots of things are almost working but nothing is actually working, it might be because all the little things are right and there’s just one “BIG” thing that’s wrong.

Sometimes when you fix that one BIG thing, your fortunes reverse.

Meanwhile, thanks Fred. . . and Wally. . . and Nick and Ron and Gary and Jim and Mike and all the other odd assorted characters I’ve moshed with along the way.

My friend, I hope you can feel gratitude for whatever crazy things you’ve gone through and whatever punches you’ve rolled with. There’s an old proverb “faithful are the wounds of a friend” and it’s really true. The laboratory of reality was saying “Time to move on” and Wally and Fred did the right thing by listening to it.

And just remember . . . you never know when things may come full circle, when you find that you’ve earned the respect you so desperately craved in a prior season of life.

You never know when someone you were useless to way back when, will suddenly find you useful. And maybe even necessary.

You’re welcome to share your own stories at http://www.perrymarshall.com/9244/old-boss/

Perry Marshall

Perry S. Marshall & Assoc
159 N. Marion Street #295
Oak Park, IL 60301
United States
(312) 458-9102

Great advice Perry.  Learn to take the “long view” and treat your temporary setbacks as learning experiences.  Keep your eyes open for that one “big thing” in your personal make-up that might be pulling you in the wrong direction and get it fixed.  And most of all, be grateful for everything that’s happened in your life — good or bad — because these are the things that have made you into who you are today and provide the building blocks for who you’ll be tomorrow.

Certified Fitness Nutrition Coach and
Personal Fitness Trainer (NESTA)

P.S.  Be sure to get my latest Fitness Blueprint called “Little Things That Improve Your Health.”  This ebook is packed with loads of helpful information on how to build a better body and you can get it FREE – for a limited time.  Just click on the title to be taken to the download page.  Enjoy!

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In both cases, the message that was brought home to me is that no matter how long or how short our time on earth is, whenever that time is up, it’s always too soon.

One of my friends is a firefighter and he was telling me of an accident scene that he had responded to that morning very near my house.  Firefighters are frequently called out to car accidents in my city to either help extract the occupants from the tangled metal car frames or to prevent any leaking gasoline from igniting.

He described a scene in which a car with two young women had pulled out of an intersection only to be “T-Boned” by another car that had run a red light and was traveling at a high rate of speed.  The two women were killed instantly.

Knowing the exact intersection he was talking about, I made it a point to stop there on my way home from work that same afternoon.  I paused and purposely tried to make myself open and receptive to whatever might come up.  Know what the first thing I felt was?

Now, before I go on, let me emphasize that I am not “paranormal” or “psychic” or anything like that, and no, I don’t own a Ouija Board.  Heck, I can’t even watch “Ghost Whisperer” on TV without rolling my eyes.  However, I do believe that some type of energy animates our bodies and that when we die, that energy is not destroyed.  Some people call that “energy” a soul.  Regardless, there is some part of us that lives on and sometimes that “essence” or “energy” lingers for a while.

The first thing I felt when I paused at the corner where those two women had been killed was a deep felling of regret.  It was a regret of all the things they had planned to do but that now would never happen.  Regret of all the things that they really wanted to tell people but that now would be left unsaid.  Regret that their time on earth was too soon gone.

No, it wasn’t anything  “spooky” nor did I get a cold, clammy feeling down the back of my neck.  It was just an overwhelming feeling of regret.  I’m sure that if anyone had paused at that corner for just a second, they would have felt it too.

The lessons from all of this should be pretty plain:

• First, none of us live forever. Our time on this earth is limited.  This fact is not something to be denied or ignored.  Actually, it should be embraced – and used to spur us on to accomplish those things we always dreamed of.
• Second, live your life so there are no regrets at the end of it. That means doing the things you want to do TODAY instead of constantly putting them off.  That means telling people how you really feel about them TODAY instead of waiting for “just the right moment.”  It means having your “affairs in order,” all of them – physical ones, emotional ones, relationships, and religious ones.  That means saying “I’m sorry” as well as “I love you.”
• Appreciate the moment. There is nothing else.  You can’t relive yesterday.  You can’t live tomorrow.  You can only experience life today, right now, in this exact moment.  Make the most of it.

None of us know when our time here will be over.  All we know for sure is that it will be over.  Use that knowledge to motivate you to live each day to the fullest.  In the words of Tim McGraw, learn to “live like you were dyin’.”

Hiram
Certified Fitness Nutrition Coach and
Personal Fitness Trainer (NESTA)

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Add to the mix the Nike commercials of people falling, tripping, hurting, and getting beat down with the song in the background asking, “How fast you gonna get up?”  It makes me want to jump up and shout, “As fast as I can.  As many times as it takes to be the best!”  And then of course, the Nike logo flashes on the screen telling me to “Just Do It.”

Boy, how much motivation can one guy take?  Especially a middle-aged one like me?  Still, it makes me want to head to the gym and work out like an Olympian!

Well, hold on there Bucky.  The problem with watching experts make some sport look easy is that we tend to convince ourselves that it IS easy – that is until we try it.  That’s when we find out how much skill it really takes – and how out of shape we really are.

So before you seriously hurt yourself, take a deep breath and honestly evaluate where you currently are on a fitness scale with 1 being a couch potato and 10 being an Olympian.  You’re not going to go from a 1 to a 10 in one workout.

OK, so you’ve been beat down right off the bat.  But as the Nike commercial asks, how many times are you going to get up?  Answer?  As many times as it takes to go from a 1 to a 2 …. and then from a 2 to a 3.

It’s OK to see yourself up there at the top of the ski slope with all the other guys and gals that have less than 5% body fat.  It’s OK to use that motivation to drive your fitness plan forward through one more day.  If you keep at it, you might actually get there some day.

But whether you get there or not is not really important.  The important thing is how you answer the question, “How many times are you going to get up?”

…and then as the Nike commercial says, “Just do it.”

Hiram
Certified Fitness Nutrition Coach and
Personal Fitness Trainer (NESTA)

Technorati Tags: Olympics, nike, commercial, sports, fitness, health, workout, exercise, motivation

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I recently purchased a Polar F11 fitness monitor and it’s totally changed my workouts!  This wrist unit not only keeps track of my heart rate (which is an indication of how hard you’re pushing yourself), it estimates the number of calories I’ve burned during the session.

The best part is that I can upload all of that information to a website that keeps track of all of my workouts.  Instantly, I can see how many times I worked out this week, how many calories I burned, the total amount of time I spent exercising, and a number of other things.  How cool is that?

Not only that, …

I can also schedule, or set goals, for future workouts.  The website can even design an exercise program for me.  All I have to do is tell it how many times I want to work out during a week and it does the rest.  As you can see from the screenshots, the website displays the entire week with all of my workout sessions listed.

When I click on a specific workout, the site gives me a bar chart telling me my maximum heart rate, my average heart rate, and how much time I spent in each zone.

The neat part is that since I’ve started using the Polar F11 and uploading my workout info, I’ve literally been looking for chances to “fill up my calendar” with workouts.  It really motivates you to workout so you can get “something on the board.”

As if that wasn’t enough motivation, you can also participate in “challenges.”  A challenge is a goal that someone sets, for example “to see who can burn the greatest number of calories in a 2 month period,” that several people can participate in.  When you accept a challenge, your workout information is automatically included on the challenge site. 

When you go to the challenge site, you’ll see a bar chart with all of the people that have accepted the challenge as well as their progress.  It also tells you what your current standing in the group is.  There’s no better motivation to get an extra workout in than a little competition.

The range of features on these types of fitness monitors is pretty extensive, as are the prices so do a little bit of research before you decide on one.  Some, like the Polar F11, only measure heart rate.  Others designed specifically for runners and/or cyclists contain a GPS device so you can measure exactly how far you’ve run or biked as well as the speed.

The more popular fitness monitors tend to be manufactured by:

• Polar Fitness – a broad range of fitness monitors for running, cycling, and sports
• Nike – makers of the Nike+ for the iPod as well as more traditional fitness monitors
• Garmin – GPS enabled monitors for running and cycling

All three manufactures have a training website that allows you to upload and view your workout information.  However, only certain models from each manufacturer have Internet uploading capability so make sure you check before you purchase.

So if you’re the type of person that gets a real thrill from “putting some numbers up on the big board,” then using a system like this will probably work for you.  As I’ve already mentioned, it’s motivated me to go out and exercise because I didn’t want there to be any days without some sort of activity in my online workout diary.  Plus, I didn’t want to start lagging behind on some of the challenges that I’m part of.

When you know how many calories you’ve burned, it makes you want to go out and burn some more!

Hiram
The Balanced Health Guy
Certified Fitness Nutrition Coach (NESTA)

Technorati Tags: fitness monitor, heart rate, balanced health, healthy, fitness, polar, nike, garmin, watch, bpm, sports, exercise

You might also be interested in the following items from Amazon.com:

Gruve Personal Activity Monitor, White/Gray

• Personalized to your specific calorie burn rate
• Real time feedback through colored lights
• Sendentary behavior vibration reminds you to move
• Easily syncs with pcs running windows xp, vista and windows 7
• Price includes gruve, 1 year subscription to gruve online and access to the gruve guide

Gruve is an unprecedented, personalized, scientifically proven solution that enables healthy, sustainable weight loss. wear your gruve all day and learn how to increase your daily activity, burn more calories and reach your personal health goals. sync your gruve with gruve online to view your calorie burn and activity intensity. log into gruve online and notice that your daily burn goal has been set based on a number of personal factors, not some generic formula like other programs. losing weight is as simple as reaching your get to greentm goal each day. included with your 1 year gruve subscription is the 12 week gruve guide which provides you with the education, motivation and support you need to make long term, sustainable behavior ch

Rating: (out of 23 reviews)

List Price: $ 199.95

Price: $ 179.95

Garmin FR60 Men’s Red Fitness Watch (Includes Heart Rate Monitor and USB ANT Stick)

• Bundle includes FR60, heart rate monitor, USB ANT Stick, quick start manual
• Water resistant to 50 meters
• Can be used for running, cycling and other fitness activities calculating time, heart rate and distance
• ANT+ technology: Wirelessly connect to heart rate monitor, foot pod and speed cadence sensor, then share fitness data with your computer
• Battery life: One year, user-replaceable coin cell battery

Log every mile and every minute with FR60, a sleek fitness watch plus workout tool that tracks your time, heart rate and calories burned. When bundled with the wireless foot pod (not included), FR60 also tracks speed and distance, indoors or out. Use FR60′s training tools to get the most out of your workout. Then, FR60 wirelessly sends your workout data to your computer for later analysis. Garmin Forerunner 60 (Men’s Red)
Flexible digital heart rate monitor provides instant feedback about how hard you’re working. Once you’ve logged the miles, FR60 automatically transfers data to your PC or Mac, wirelessly when in range. Train Indoors or Out
In the gym or on the road, FR60 tracks all your workout data, includ

Rating: (out of 57 reviews)

List Price: $ 149.99

Price:

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One of Tom’s 12 Laws that stuck a chord with me was Number 4:  You make your habits, and then your habits make you.  How true, especially when it comes to balanced health.

Although you might not agree with all of Tom’s 12 Laws and admittedly, some of them are pretty harsh (see Number 9 about Happily Ever Afters), the main point is that Tom has put some thought into figuring out his outlook on life, his idea of how life works, his rules to live by.

Here’s why that’s critically important to you and me:  these ideas or “rules” that we all have of how life works essentially dictate how you view everything, and everyone, in your life.

If your “life’s rules” include the belief that all strangers are not to be trusted, you’ll never be open to meeting new people.  If you believe the world is a dark, hostile place, filled with horrible people, that’s exactly what you’ll find.  Why?  Because that’s all you’ll be looking for.

On the other hand, if you believe that there’s always some good in everyone and that it’s your job to find it, you’ll find a world filled with goodness.

Someone once said that when you’re born, Life hands you a coloring book and a set of crayons.  You get to choose which colors to use.  You decide whether your world is a mixture of blacks and grays or whether it’s filled with a rainbow of bright colors.

Your “Rules to Live By” are like a set of filters that only allow you to see what you believe the world is really like.

So here’s the million dollar question:  what are your “Rules to Live By?”

What “filters” do you view the world with?  Are they positive and uplifting?  Do they support your goals?  Do they bring you joy, peace, and balanced health?  If they don’t, you really need to ask yourself whether or not they’re worth keeping.

How do you do that?  The first step is to write them down.  Your journal is the perfect place for this (you do have one, right?).

Find a quiet place and ask yourself, what rules do I live by?  What beliefs shape my view of the people and events in my life?  What crayons am I using to color my world?

Give these questions some thought and write down whatever immediately comes to mind.  Don’t worry about trying to come up with a perfectly formed list at first.  Your first step is to write down as many thoughts and ideas as you can.

After a little time has passed, review what you’ve written.  Ask yourself, “is that what I really believe?”  Ask yourself this several times in order to strip away the things that you think you “should” believe and get down to the things you really believe.  Feel free to revise, reword, add, and delete at this stage.

Continue reworking your list until you’re confident that each item describes what you really believe about how life is set up.

Now for the difficult part.  Once your list is fairly complete, go through each item and ask yourself, “what is this belief giving me, or costing me?”  For some items, you’ll find that the belief brings you a lot of joy, or happiness, or some other benefit.  For others, you might find that a particular belief costs you quite a bit in potential relationships and opportunities.

Lastly, ask yourself which of these rules to live by are still valid and worth keeping, and which are no longer consistent with the person you want to become or the world you want to live in.   Put stars by, or underline, the “rules” worth keeping or those that provide some sort of positive benefit.  Mark through or “x” out the ones that don’t support the life you want to live.  Then think of new, better ones to replace the ones you just marked out.

You have no idea how powerful this is. The simple act of asking yourself “what rules do I really live by,” writing them down, and then thinking about the consequences of having those beliefs is nothing less than life changing.

The neat part of doing this is that it doesn’t matter how young or how old you are.  As Tom Hoobyar notes in his Rule Number 12, “it’s never too late to change.”  Amen to that.

So what are your “Rules to Live By?”

Hiram
The Balanced Health Guy

Technorati Tags: rules to live by, health, spirituality, life changing, motivation, balance, journal

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So how do you break out of this cycle? How do you set goals that will increase your chances of success, instead of setting you up for failure? Well, let me share with you what I’ve found. It’s called the “3 P’s.”

The 3 P’s

Take out your journal (you do have one, don’t you?) and write down these three words: Purpose, Passion, and Performance. Behind these three words are the secret to achieving whatever goal you set. Here’s how they work and support each other.

Purpose

There are a lot of words that are used to describe purpose. Other authors might talk about setting a goal, picking a direction, creating a dream or vision. These all essentially mean the same thing and attempt to answer the same basic question: exactly why do you want to do (or have) this? What is your purpose in pursuing this? Is it better health? To look better in your clothes? To have more energy? What is your true purpose in achieving this?

Now here’s the key. Make sure you state your reason, your purpose, in the most specific and descriptive way you possibly can. Make sure you use positive terms that excite and encourage. Why? Because you want your purpose to create plenty of passion, the second of the 3 P’s.

Passion

Passion is the energy, the drive, that’s going to get you up early, keep you up late, and keep you going all day long. It’s what’s going to keep you moving when everything (and everyone) else is trying to stop you dead in your tracks. Need more energy, more drive? Easy. Go back and re-read your purpose. Remind yourself why you’re doing this. If you stated your purpose in descriptive enough terms, you’ll feel the passion, excitement, and determination beginning to build. Getting passion to build inside of you is like increasing the amount of steam in a boiler. After a while, the pressure builds to the point that it simply has to be put to work or else it will explode. Having ample reserves of passion will drive you to the next of the 3 P’s: performance.

Performance

Getting yourself so excited that you simply have to go out and do something about it creates physical action, or performance. This is the step where you are actually out there making your dream come true. You are accomplishing your purpose, your goal. Your performance is physical, something you can see, something you can measure, and because you can measure it, it’s easy to tell how close (or how far) you are from accomplishing your goal.

Now here’s the neat part. Once you see that you’ve made even a little bit of progress, your passion will flare up and you’ll be driven to even better performance. This cycle of passion driving performance which creates more passion continues to repeat itself until you’ve reached your goal. Isn’t that neat? What’s even better is that now that you know how this cycle works, you can control it, you can use it, you can put it to work in order to accomplish whatever you want to achieve.

Getting Your Performance Engine Started

It really is like an engine. Your passion creates energy and your performance translates that energy into work. After a very short while, that work turns into progress and when you see progress, you get excited and create more passion. That passion fuels the next cycle of performance and off you go headed towards accomplishing your purpose.

So how do you get your engine started? Clearly define your purpose and make sure it’s stated in a way that inspires, that motivates, that creates passion. Then use that passion to get moving in the direction you want to go. If your “engine” coughs and quits, go back and review your purpose and get inspired all over again. If it doesn’t inspire you then re-write it until it does. Only then will you create enough “fuel,” enough passion, to get your performance engine started.

So what are you waiting for? Get started right now!

Hiram

Technorati Tags: balanced health fitness health goals motivation goals passion

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1. What Is “Balanced” Health and Fitness?

In order to lose weight, you’ve first got to get your body to burn fat, and to do that, your routine should consist of mostly aerobic exercises. This builds a strong cardio base upon which you can later add weight training for strength and maintenance.

Aerobic exercises are those activities that increase the body’s intake of oxygen. Examples include walking, bike riding, swimming and canoeing. Sounds like pretty laid-back activities right? Not exactly the heart pounding, sweat pouring exercise routines we learned in High School—but that’s exactly the point.

If you exercise too vigorously, your body quickly goes from an aerobic state (with oxygen) to an anaerobic state (without oxygen). You know you’ve reached this state when you begin to breathe hard and it becomes harder and harder to talk normally—kind of like when your High School coach made you run laps. Feeling “out of breath” is your body’s way of telling you that it’s starved for oxygen.

However, the sharp pain in your side from breathing hard is not the only downside of exercising too hard. During anaerobic exercise—like running sprints, playing racquetball, or any other activity where you run out of breath—your body burns mostly carbohydrates and very little fat. That’s why many runners “carb up” before a big race—and also why many runners have just as much body fat as the rest of us. Trying to benchpress twice your body weight does pretty much the same thing.

So how is aerobic exercise different? Well, one important difference is that when it’s done correctly, most of the calories that are burned during aerobic exercise are from fat—something we all want to lose. A second advantage is that most aerobic exercises are low impact making them very suitable for people who are starting their exercise program late in life or for those that have weak joints or injuries.

It’s counterintuitive to believe that slowing the pace of your exercise actually burns more fat but it’s a fact. Keep your heart rate at 65% to 85% of it’s maximum and enjoy the results!

Hiram

Note: If you enjoyed this tip, there are plenty more in the ebook Little Things That Improve Your Health. Sign up for a free 10-day mini-course based on the book.

Technorati Tags: aerobic, exercise, balanced health, motivation, fat loss, weight loss

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