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Count
Down To Fitness Success And Keep
Your Motivation Drive Alive
By Tom Venuto, NSCA-CPT, CSCS
There
are many fantastic ways to get focused and motivated to begin a diet
or exercise program, but often the most difficult thing to do is keep
that drive and ambition alive for more than a few weeks and see your
goal through to completion.
Within
just weeks of starting, many people have already hit their first snag
or setback, and as a result, have slipped backwards in the mental focus
and motivation department. Setting goals in writing is an essential
step to success, but how do you stay focused on them? One technique
I have used ever since my very first bodybuilding competition 18 years
ago, is...
The
"contest countdown calendar."
I have
used it ever since, through 28 competitions and it will work for you
too, for any fitness goal.
I purchase
a desk or wall calendar - the type that shows each week stretching horizontally
across the page with an open block of space for each day.
After
I set my goal and place a deadline on it, I do NOT stop there. I take
out my calendar and start counting backwards from my target goal deadline
to the present day.
T-minus
117 days....
T-minus
116 days...
T-minus
115 days....
I also
fill in my workouts for the entire 3-4 month period, which is the typical
length I allow for my mid-range goals like contest prep.
you
would be shocked - pleasantly so - just how focused this keeps you.
Even better still, you get MORE and MORE motivated with each passing
day you countdown because the deadline is getting closer
Deadlines
are absolutely critical to your success. Little gets done without deadlines.
There
is a saying in management and psychology that "work will always
expand to fill the time allowed for it's completion."
Remember
term papers in school? when you were given a term paper assignment and
you had the entire semeseter to do it, did you run home that first night
and get crankin on it?
How
about after a week? two weeks? A month? TWO MONTHS?
probably
not, eh?
If
youre like most people, you put it off until the last minute and you
barely got it turned in on time. In fact, there are always a few people
who pull all nighters the night before!
Alas,
the power of the deadline!
In
your fitness endeavors, if you dont have IMPENDING deadlines that give
you that twinge in your stomach that says "take action now, or
else!" then you find it very easy to say to yourself, ' I have
plenty of time so this one cheat meal doesnt matter... it doesnt make
much difference at this point if I skip this one workout... I have time
to make it up..."
And
then, just like the term paper, you are scrambling at the last minute
to reach your weight goal. But in the case of a your body, the consequences
are more severe and painful than just a bad grade or late penalty.
Inevitably,
you succumb to crash dieting and overtraining or other unhealthy fast-weight-loss
madness, which eats up your own muscle like a hungry cannibal and sends
you spiraling into the dark pit of metabolic damage and the inevitable
plateau and weight gain that follow.
But
the solution is so simple: Count your way down to success!
Don't
stop with setting goals. Put your goal countdown on paper, review your
goals every single day, AND know, every single day, how many days there
are until your target goal date. You will stay more consciously focused
and even better, your unconscious mind will go to work for you in keeping
you motivated, on track, and on schedule. You'll come in for a landing
on your goal deadline date like an F-16 landing on an aircraft carrier.
I just
did my countdown calendar earlier this week... T minus 117 days til
my next bodybuilding competition, and thanks to this simple but powerful
technique, I'm already focused like a laser beam and have been making
steady progress without so much as a hiccup...
Don't
under-estimate this simple technique... Give it an honest test... because
it's often the simplest motivational techniques that are the most powerful
of all!.
About
the Author:
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Tom Venuto
is a lifetime natural bodybuilder, an NSCA-certified personal
trainer (CPT), certified strength & conditioning specialist
(CSCS), and author of the #1 best-selling e-book, "Burn
the Fat, Feed The Muscle.” Tom has written hundreds of
articles and has been featured in print magazines such as IRONMAN,
Australian IRONMAN, Natural Bodybuilding, Muscular Development,
Exercise for Men and Men’s Exercise, as well as on hundreds
of websites worldwide. For information on Tom's Fat Loss program,
click
here.
Click
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Articles By Tom Venuto
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