With the arrival of this, and every new year, it’s common for most people to set some goals – usually regarding their health, weight loss and/or fitness. This is all well and good but we need to understand WHY we are setting these goals. Are your goals intrinsically or extrinsically derived? Intrinsic goals tend to be motivated by internal desires, thoughts and feelings about yourself. For example, you want to lose weight so that you feel confident when you go out wearing that little black dress or wearing your speedos at the beach. You may also want to get fitter so you don’t feel so exhausted all the time and you’d like to be able to climb a set of stairs without having a minor cardiac event. Extrinsic motivation however, tends to stem from a specific up-coming event, time or occasion you have planned. A wedding is a prime example. Whether it’s your own or someone else’s, it’s common for many women to train their butts off and practically starve themselves to drop as much weight as possible for the ‘big event’ (and usually just to try to impress other people). Then guess what happens afterwards? They’re too physically and mentally exhausted to keep up the hours of training and starvation diet and subsequently end up piling all the weight back on… and some more! They then need another big event to motivate them to train and diet and the whole process starts over again. But unfortunately, this yo-yoing wreaks havoc on the metabolism and just makes it harder and harder to lose fat each time. Folks, it’s fine to be motivated by a party, tropical holiday, wedding or reunion to help you get into shape, but please set yourself some intrinsic goals as well so that you can stay motivated for those times in between all those special occasions. Set some goals that are purely about your health, longevity, self-esteem and quality of life. Because at the end of the day, they’re what really matter…
