The importance of the LITTLE picture

I was speaking with one of our students in The Ultimate Nutrition Course today, who has a big goal. She want’s to establish great health, lose several dress sizes and lose about 40 pounds. And you know what? She can do it.

Seeing the big picture is important, and I’m a proponent of going big. The hazard of having the BIG goal, however, is that it can take time, and for a long time we’ll be far from achieving success. We’ve seen it time and time again, being far off from ultimate success can often lead to an “all-or-nothing” attitude some days.

It plays out like this: Random Tuesday at work, and someone in the office brought in a box of cro-nuts (I had never heard of them either. Look it up) in celebration of National “take a box of cro-nuts to work” day. There they sit on the conference room table, and you notice that Jenn just made her second trip. It’s do or die time, and even though you know your goal, you’re still very far from it. So you casually work your way to the water cooler BY WAY OF THE CONFERENCE ROOM.

“Cronut Out.”

A few hours later, it’s time grab a snack, and Jenn had TWO, so no matter what I’m doing better than she is, Ill just have a small piece.

And so it goes. Next thing you know you feel like you’ve already trashed the daily goals, so I may as well skip training, stay up to watch the Western Conference Semi-finals, and start fresh tomorrow. The day is a bust.

That’s not what we want, but it happens.

Now here’s a quick adjustment that will help. Make small intermediary goals. I’m talking about small, easy to achieve goals, that can be achieved no more that 2 weeks out. The BEST type of goal like this is a behavioral goal.

“I’m going to train 5 days this week for a minimum of 20 minutes” or “I’m going to drink 3L of water 5 out of 7 days this week.” These are achievable, helpful and directly in line with the big goal.

The next tier of intermediary goals are smaller result goals: “I’m going to focus on shedding 2 pounds this week.” Again. this is attainable and in line with the big goal.

So today I want you to think about your BIG goal. Then break it down into something that you can track and achieve in the next 2 weeks.

Let me know what yours are.

Regards,

-Coach Be