People who don’t set goals and want to lose weight or get in shape are destined for failure.

Goal setting is a widely discussed topic in personal development literature. It is the pivotal first step in creating anything you want in life. In this post I will summarize five tips that I have found to be helpful in setting diet and fitness goals.

Five key diet and fitness goal setting tips

1. Specific/measurable
2. Attainable
3. Defined rewards
4. Long term goal and short term milestones
5. Tell people about it

Specific/measurable
In plain English define your goal and how you will measure it. Example: “Lose 20lbs, join a fitness club, and workout 3 times a week” versus “get in shape.”

Attainable
Are you physically capable of attaining your goal? Do some research on the web and see if what you are attempting is feasible. But do not fall into the trap of underestimating yourself. Set your goals high, be unrealistic sometimes. If you fail, learn from it. Learning from failure is a true key to success in any area of life.

Defined rewards
Plan a reward for when you achieve your goal. I recommend not setting destructive goals like a “pig out day”. Rewards like this give the impression that the actions to achieve your goal involve punishing yourself, when that is not, or at least should not be, true. I think the best rewards for weight loss are new clothes, day spas, expensive restaurant trips, or new workout equipment/gear.

Long term goal and short term milestones
Set a long term (3+ month) goal that you are working toward and then set shorter milestones along the way. This gives you two things to focus on for motivation. For weight loss, these usually come in the form of lose X weight before summer, Y lbs per month.

Tell people about it
The more people who know about your goal the more moral support you’ll get and the more likely you are to not give up. The ego is a very powerful motivator and it should be taken advantage of.

Now, to follow my own advice, I’ll post my health and fitness goals in the form of a why, what, when and how format later today.