Why Goal Setting Is Important And How To Do It Correctly

Setting goals is a fundamental component to long-term success. The basic reason for this is that you can’t get where you are trying to go until you clearly define where that is. Research studies show a direct link between goals and enhanced performance in business. Goals help you focus and allocate your time and resources efficiently, and they can keep you motivated when you feel like giving up.

We all seek success, and we know that nothing ever comes easy. In order to achieve the success we spend our lives chasing, we first need to define our goals. Once that is done, it’s time to start thinking about how to accomplish them.

I spent many years of my life seeking success before I realized that success is not a goal one can set for themselves, it is a product of achieving the goal.

How To Set Goals

Goal setting is something you need to practice in order to get it right. It takes time to understand exactly how to set a clear goal that is possible to accomplish. Goal setting is a process that will help you motivate yourself, and the more detailed and precise the goal is, the better your brain will analyze the steps in order to achieve it.

There is a technique that first asks you to set a lifetime goal, such as “I want to XYZ”, then break it down to small, quantified goals such as “In one week I will find someone that can help me get to XYZ”, and “In one month I will practice XYZ at least twice a week.” for example. The smaller and more manageable a task is, the easier it is to measure success, and understand what needs to be done in order to accomplish it. Planning towards these smaller goals not only makes it easier to formulate a definite plan of action that we can start working on right away, but research has shown that hitting smaller milestones provides real motivation and greater contentment.

Achieving a goal is a process, and like every process sometimes you take one step forwards and two steps back. Its important to know how to track and measure your progress. Some goals are “instant goals” that you can accomplished very quickly, but others depends on the progress you make along the way. Sometimes there is a long road on the way to achieving your goals.

Knowing how to be honest with yourself, and learning from the good and bad choices made along the road, are vital parts of the process of achieving your goals. Always know what went wrong, and what went right. When something goes wrong, learn from it and move on. When something goes right, however, make sure know how to enjoy it.

Always Be Positive and Have Confidence In Yourself

Can we accomplished a goal without believing that its possible? Sometimes I feel like setting a goal is a process of making you believe in yourself and in your capabilities. Goals can only be accomplished if we are “hungry” enough to achieve them. In order to be hungry, you need to really want it, and be sure that you will do anything in your power to get there. Self-confidence combined with a positive attitude is the key to quickly achieving our goals.

To Learn More About How We Can Help You Set, Reach, and Exceed Your Goals, Call 410-645-0231 NOW.

Back Pain Is No Joke

Low back pain is one of the most common complaints among adults in the United States. Low back problems account for more lost person hours than any other type of occupational injury and are the most frequent cause of activity limitation in U.S. citizens under age 45. If you have never had low back problems, be grateful and include some daily preventive exercises to help reduce the chance that the problem will occur.

Causes of Low Back Pain

Many factors are related to low back problems, including structural abnormalities, some diseases, accidents, inappropriate lifting, poor posture, lack of warm-up prior to vigorous activity, lack of abdominal strength and endurance, lack of flexibility in the back and legs, and an inability to cope with stress.

You should call your doctor if...

- the pain continues for about a month,

- you are less than 25 or above 55 years old,

- you have or have had cancer, the pain has resulted from serious injury or trauma,

- the pain becomes worse when you lie down,

- you can't walk,

- you have fever with pain,

- you have numbness of the extremities, or

- you are experiencing defecation and urination problems.

RANDOM FACTS ON LOW BACK PAIN

-Ninety percent of adults in the United States will have a back problem during their lifetime.

-Low back pain is responsible for one-third of all disability dollars, about $24 billion in the United States.

-In 84 percent of cases no definite cause is found. Disc herniation, found only in 5 percent of the remaining cases, usually resolves spontaneously without surgical intervention.

-Continuous sitting, lying down, and the use of strong painkillers such as narcotics are the worst things one can do for back pain.

-The best thing one can do for preventing and treating low back pain is to participate in an appropriate exercise program.

Flexibility is an important component of fitness. By adding stretching exercises to your fitness workout, you can increase your range of motion and lower your chances of injury, particularly to the low back. When we are flexible, we are able to comfortably enjoy exercise and easily accomplish a variety of daily tasks pain free.

10 Strategies To Better Eating

As a society, we have a love-hate relationship with food. Two of the best-selling types of books are those dealing with cooking and dieting. Good nutrition is essential for optimal health. Poor eating habits are a major cause of many health problems. This post will give you the basic facts and reasonable alternatives regarding what you should (and should not) do in your own food selection.

Eating habits and foods vary according to lifestyles. The eating habits of people of our parents and grand parents generation were quite different from ours. They usually had one large meal (usually deep fried and rich in fat) early in the afternoon. Fats are the richest source of calories (nine calories per gram) and provide the most satiety. Such eating practices are still observed in similar working conditions all around the world. Thus, the common practice of three meals a day is not necessarily a physiological requirement but rather an innovation of urbanization and industrialization.

Much of the food advertised on television is not healthy, and most food-marketing campaigns are aimed at children who spend a lot of time watching TV. In addition, much of our food is processed, containing unhealthy preservatives and artificial colors. Some of the factors contributing to our nutritional problems are the ready availability and aggressive marketing of unhealthy food.

The metabolism of glucose varies from person to person. Daily variations of blood glucose levels are said to be as unique for each person as fingerprints. This implies that people do not have to eat the same number of meals at the same times. Some people may need only two meals a day, whereas others may need multiple snacks during the day.

Our eating habits are strongly influenced by our mental status. When eating becomes an outlet for frustrations and a ritual to deal with depression, it can be as addictive as drinking or smoking. We tend to eat more when we are happy and when we are sad; some express their psychological problems by binge-eating, others with anorexia. Eating disorders once observed only among upper middle class young women are now becoming prevalent in men and other age groups. Eating accompanied by alcoholic beverages has become an important vehicle for socialization. Calories are lavishly gained on dates, at business dinners, at birthday parties, during "happy hours," and even at funerals.

• Eat a variety of foods.

• Balance the food you eat with physical activity to maintain or improve your weight.

• Choose a diet

          -with plenty of grains, fruits and vegetables;

          -low in total fat, saturated fat, and cholesterol;

          -moderate in sodium; and

          -with a moderate amount of alcohol if you drink (one to two drinks every other day).

• Decrease consumption of soft drinks, cakes, cookies, and other foods containing sugar.

• Increase intake of whole-grain breads; cereals; fruits; and vegetables, including beans, lentils, and peas.

• Eat more lean meat, fish, poultry, and dry beans and peas as sources of protein.

• Use alternative milk products.

• Limit your consumption of eggs and organ meats.

• Limit your intake of fats and oils, especially those high in saturated fats, such as butter, lard, shortening, and foods containing palm and coconut oils.

• Broil, bake, or boil rather than fry, and trim fat off meat.

I cannot overemphasize the need to make small and systematic changes in your diet and activity levels to achieve and maintain your target weight. By objectively examining your eating habits and diet and making educated and sensible changes that you can adhere to over the long haul, you are on your way to taking your health and fitness to the Next Level.

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We all know that losing weight isn’t an easy task. So many people struggle with weight problems and going on a strict regimen of diets and exercise is easier said than done. Most people need motivation to get the ball rolling on their physical fitness goals, or need a good guide to follow in order to achieve results. Fortunately, there might already be something in the market to solve these weight loss woes.

The Xtreme Fat Loss Diet is the new and effective weight loss program that aims to help you lose the weight in just 25 days.

The Xtreme Fat Loss Diet is a 25-day program that has been designed to help you get rid of all the remaining fat and stubborn flabs from your body. It works to target weight loss in those areas of the body that are not easily lost to exercise.

 There are a lot of benefits to taking on the Xtreme Fat Loss Diet. Aside from providing you with a quick and effective way of losing all that weight and fat, it is designed in such a way that really helps you to stick with the plan. The 24-hour intervals are not that long and the quick and regular changes avoid getting you bored. After 25 days, you’ve already conditioned your body into faster metabolism.

One disadvantage, though, is if you aren’t prepared to put in effort to work out. The Xtreme Fat Loss Diet will require you to follow an exercise program which you cannot do without if you want to achieve maximum results. The exercises are simple and easy to follow.

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14 Steps To Changing Negative Behaviors For Success

Are you physically active for 30 minutes every day?

Do you exercise at least three times a week at a moderate to vigorous intensity for 30 to 40 minutes each workout?

Do you smoke?

Do you have more than a couple of drinks a week?

Do you take other drugs or medicine on a regular basis?

Is your weight what it should be?

Do you eat a well-balanced diet?

Are you able to cope with day-to-day stress?

Can you deal with big emotional problems when they arise?

Do you rely on eating, drinking, and/or drugs when problems arise?

If your answers to these questions reflect a healthy lifestyle, then you can skip this post. Most of us, however, have one or more habits that prevent us from achieving our highest possible levels of fitness and health. In fact, as a society we could make great strides in public health if we changed several aspects of the typical U.S. Lifestyle.

If you have thought about changing the way you live so you can be healthier, then this post can help you.

For those areas in which you have decided to make a change immediately (preparation), you need to identify exactly where you are at now, set some long- and short-term goals, and get professional help (if needed) to determine the dimensions of your new behavior. For example, what type, how much, how frequently, and for how long are you going to engage in physical activity tomorrow? What specific changes are you going to make in your usual breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snacks tomorrow?

As you begin to make changes in your life, don't feel that you have to do it alone, ask for help. Choose someone who is a good role model for the desired behavior and who will be supportive of you as you make changes. Your fitness instructor, a counselor, or a close friend are good choices for people to enlist to help you throughout the process.

14 Steps To Changing Negative Behaviors For Success

1. Acknowledge desire to change
2. Analyze history of problem.
3. Record current behavior.
4. Analyze current status.
5. Set long-term goals.
6. Set short-term goals.
7. Sign contract with friend(s).
8. List many possible strategies that could be used.
9. Select one or two strategies to use.
10. Learn new coping skills.
11. Establish regular contact with helper.
12. Once goal is reached, outline potential maintenance problems.
13. Learn new coping skills.
14. Maintain periodic contact with helper.

This general plan has several components, but you won't necessarily use each step for every habit

you want to change. A procedure that helps you to resolve one particular problem may not work for someone else, and it may not help you resolve other problems. The steps outlined above provide a general plan of steps that can be reduced, added to, or modified depending on what works for you.

Winning Tips for Optimum Recovery

Overtraining, as we have seen, is a complex syndrome with no guaranteed solutions. However, certain interventions show promise for prevention and treatment. A key concept is recovery, the antithesis of overtraining. One of the biggest difficulties in dealing with motivated but overtrained athletes is that the interventions generally consist of asking them to do less: “Take a day off from training.” “Take it easier on those intervals.” “Don’t do that workout.” “You’re hurting yourself by training too much.” The idea of doing less presents a dilemma to athletes who likely became good through tough training and pushing through the bad days and who are seduced by “if this much training is good, more must be better” thinking. They overtrain by simply doing more of what made them good. The message of doing less is therefore extremely difficult for these athletes to hear and goes against most training philosophies. A typical reaction: “What do you mean, do less? My competitors aren’t taking a day off.”

Recent developments in research on overtraining have shifted focus from overtraining to the idea of underrecovery. Instead of telling an athlete to cease some aspect of training, we can instead channel their need for action toward recovery activities. Indeed, the concept of effective, regular, and varied recovery activities has become part of the language of today’s smart, professional athlete, which is also the best way to sell it. Statements like “You’re not doing everything you can to succeed if you’re not taking care of your recovery” challenge athletes to tackle recovery (and decrease susceptibility to overtraining) in a way that telling them to reduce their training regimen never could. How can coaches and athletes recovery principles to enhance training and decrease the chance of overtraining? Individualization is key. The

first step is to incorporate recovery systematically into training. If a periodized training program is used, it’s important to incorporate more recovery activities into the higher-volume and more-intensive training periods.

An ideal training program that incorporates passive and active recovery activities should include a variety of techniques. Just as there are numerous ways to work on endurance training (hill running, strength and conditioning programs, sustained skill practice), and good coaches mix things up to maintain motivation, there are many ways to enhance recovery. Coaches and athletes should keep this aspect of their training programs as fresh and interesting as the rest of their training.

Coaches must be good teachers and enforcers of recovery principles with their athletes. For example, an active rest day at the track shouldn’t turn into a track meet if rest is the goal. Particularly at the elite level of sport, athletes need to learn that

appropriate recovery is as much a part of their job as is their training regimen, diet, or sleep.

How To Stay Motivated

The subject of motivation is a complex one—in short, it’s an intangible variable that can ebb and flow widely in short periods of time. Athletes with seemingly unparalleled drive lose it. Loafers show up to practice one day with a fire lit inside them. From week to week, teams, athletes, and coaches fluctuate in their intensity and level of dedication.

Norman Triplett is generally credited with the first formal experiment in sport motivation psychology. A psychologist at Indiana University, Triplett was a bicycle enthusiast who had noticed that racers seem to ride faster in pairs than alone. In 1889, he tested his hypothesis by asking children to reel in fishing line in a number of competitive conditions. As predicted, the children reeled in more line when they performed next to another child. The same held true when Triplett examined racing times—cyclists rode faster when paced or pitted against others than when they rode by themselves.

Psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud argued that motivation was a product of the subconscious instincts of sex
and aggression. Our behavior, he said, is largely shaped by our instincts.

Behaviorist B.F. Skinner was on the other end of the nature–nurture continuum. He didn’t believe in
the subconscious. To explain motivation, Skinner put forth stimulus–response psychology, claiming that all behavior is controlled by external reinforcements. We are essentially a black box, Skinner said; what goes in determines what comes out.

Although their beliefs were radically different, these psychologists agreed on one thing: Motivation is not up to the individual. They professed humans to be, essentially, products of genetics or the environment. The argument at the time laid groundwork for the nature-versus-nurture debate that still continues today: Is our behavior dictated by our biological makeup or is it a product of what our experiences have taught us? The answer is both.

The most robust motivation—the sort that can push through four years of grueling training for the Olympic Games, or dealing with a coach who doesn’t believe in you—is rooted in the heart and the soul. Motivation strategies should foster autonomy, competence, and connectedness. Examples include:

Push the edge - Find a weakness or hole in your game and get excited about where your game will be after you change it. Similarly, be creative. Think up something no one in your sport has dared or perfected. Experience success - When learning new skills and strategies, go step-by-step. Start with an easy piece, master it, and then move on to the next-easiest piece. Or begin by modifying the skill to something you can do well. Let yourself experience success. Keep track of your PRs and how many times you can break them.

Change your thinking - The old adage about learning from your mistakes is well and good, but over time you should have a short-term memory for failures and a long-term memory for success. Keep a vivid mental catalog of your greatest performances.

Get involved - Autonomy directly improves motivation, and perhaps the greatest contributor to autonomy is having input on decisions that affect you.

In both individual and team-sport settings, athletes should feel ownership of training rules, competition choices, and strategy decisions. Interestingly, on the professional level, many head coaches comment that their success depends entirely on their players’ belief in the “system” or playbook. The easiest way
to ensure this is to get them involved!

Praise others - If you can’t see positive or exciting things in the athletes and coaches around you, how can you do the same for yourself? Moreover, a sense of connectedness depends on everyone’s awareness of the contributions that others make.

Vary training - An imbalance between high competence and low task difficulty can result in boredom. So too can constant hammering at one task. A significant portion of training—just as much as is reserved for skill advancement—should be devoted to play for the sake of play, without rules or evaluation.

Put yourself first - Human beings are most productive at homeostasis since in that state they are not distracted by conflicting basal drives. Make sure to eat properly, stay hydrated, and get ample rest.

Find motivated peers  - Both on and off the playing surface, spend your time with people who want to accomplish great things, aren’t afraid to talk about it, and get revved up by other people’s dreams. An effective support system is vital to motivation, especially during difficult times. Conversely, motivational
“black holes” are people who always criticize the coach, moan about bad calls, loaf in practices and workouts, and generally focus on obstacles, frustrations, and what can’t be achieved.

Think positively - What conversation goes on in the back of your head? It’s with you all day, but how much of it do you pay attention to? Actually, all of it, subconsciously. You’d better start paying conscious attention. Is it positive or negative? Is it about what you can do or what you can’t do? Is it hung up on difficulties or engaged in a search for solutions?
Remember your dream - Don’t make revisiting your dream a rare event. Spend time frequently reconnecting with the real reason why you perform—once again the heart, soul, and will of it all.

Overtraining: Balancing Tough Practices and Performance

Josh is a nationally ranked football player, a senior in high school who is preparing for D1 college. With his sights set on graduation and moving up to the college level, Josh sets out not only to attend his team’s twice-a-day practices and semiweekly weightlifting sessions, but also to do more than any other player every day. He comes to practice early in order to work on foot work and stays afterward to lift weights. He’s up early each morning to get in an extra run. After week one, Josh is tired but confident that he will be in far superior condition than his competitors. Week two brings on increasing fatigue and difficulty sleeping, which begins to worry Josh. Josh tells me, “I need to learn how to relax or something—I can’t seem to get myself ready for practice.” After learning more about his symptoms of hard training and fatigue, I broach the subject of overtraining, but Josh isn’t interested in hearing about it.

Josh’s lack of competitive motivation continues; he is uninterested in eating and lethargic, and he becomes increasingly anxious about his prospects at. At the beginning of the season, he plays poorly.

Josh’s case is all too common—an athlete who seeks to put distance between them self and their competition by doing more, and then more again. Josh’s opposition to acknowledging that he might be overtraining is a frequently observed feature of this syndrome.

What is overtraining, and how can you tell when you or an athlete you coach is overtrained? One of the major difficulties in answering this question is the lack of a reliable way to assess whether an athlete is training at the optimal level versus entering the negative realm of overtraining.

Overtraining, defined by the U.S. Olympic Committee (USOC) in 1999 as “the syndrome that results when an excessive, usually physical, overload on an athlete occurs without adequate rest, resulting in decreased performance and the inability to train,” is on the rise.

While we might argue that overtraining is an almost inevitable by-product of elite athletes being willing to do anything to “get the edge,” this phenomenon is spreading to other levels of sport as well. Researchers are noting an increased incidence of overtraining among even the youngest athletes, who appear all too ready to absorb our culture’s messages about “more is better” and “no pain, no gain.” More recently, of course, overtraining has come to mean something very different—an undesirable outcome of too much training that actually prohibits positive adaptations. For the sake of this discussion, I will limit the term to refer to an undesired outcome of fatigue and performance decrements.

Causes of Overtraining

Stressors related to training and nontraining can cause overreaching and overtraining. In the training realm, an overtraining effect can be elicited in several ways: sessions that are too long or too intense, progressions of training increases that are too steep, and too little time devoted to recovery between sessions, to name a few. Although training volumes and intensities and competition frequency are important factors in this equation, athletes and coaches need to be aware of nontraining stresses that can contribute to overtraining, including nutrition, general health, lifestyle issues such as sleep behavior, and environmental stresses caused by juggling life areas such as school or family. When a number of these stressors combine, they can lead to emotional distress and an increased susceptibility to overtraining. So just as all athletes may react differently to the same training load, they may also react differently to other life elements that interact with their training and lead to overtraining. Good coaches and self-aware athletes pay attention to such outside stressors and adjust the training accordingly.

According to physiological research, we cannot define the exact point at which training goes from being effective to negative for all athletes. In fact, our understanding of the interaction of physical and psychological stress shows that such a point cannot exist, since overtraining is an individualized response. The good news is that this understanding points to a direction for intervention. Although simply reducing the training load is not a guarantee against overtraining, careful and individual tailoring of the training load, with a simultaneous awareness of the effects of other life stresses, helps to optimize training plans.

Athletes can help themselves by doing the following:

• Developing self-awareness of how training and other life stresses are likely to affect them

• Proactively learning strategies to deal with sport and non-sport stressors

• Recognizing the symptoms of overtraining

• Regularly using training logs and other behavioral monitoring techniques to assess optimal training levels

• Learning and properly using recovery techniques

• Striving for balance between sport, school, work, family, social aspects, and other life elements

• Choosing the right coach, who, balances support and challenge in training situations; is a good communicator; encourages recovery, and helps other athletes thrive.

Coaches can help themselves by doing the following:

• Understanding the causes of overtraining, including the fact that it can be brought on by numerous sport as well as non-sport factors

• Taking time to know their athletes, understanding how all kinds of stress may affect them and how vulnerable they are to overtraining

• Creating a supportive and challenging coaching environment that allows athletes to honestly share their thoughts and feelings about their training

• Incorporating regular monitoring of training intensities for each athlete by using logbooks, heart rate assessment, and pencil-and-paper tests

• Adding recovery strategies as a regular part of training, and using good training/recovery principles

• Keeping hard training fun

How coaches and athletes can more effectively accomplish this task will be the focus of future blog posts.