What You Look Like Shouldn’t Matter
Feeling good in our bodies is often wrongly conflated with “looking good to other people.” Many people start working out because they want to change how they look, but there is a genetic limit to what we can change about our bodies. Finding something at the gym that makes it fun and rewarding to do the actual work of working out is much more rewarding and often leads to feeling good even if there aren’t big visual changes to the body.
Plateau?
It’s natural to see diminishing returns as you advance in fitness because the closer you get to your genetic limit, the harder and longer it takes to make progress. Most times when people complain about plateauing, what they’re really complaining about is not seeing the results they want fast enough. Properly managing expectations and accurately tracking your progress is key.
There Is No Goal
Often exercisers set unrealistic goals, especially in the short term, which can easily demotivate them when they’re not achieved. Sometimes it can be best to not make goals at all, focus on making consistent and steady progress by continuing to exercise.
A Less SMART Approach to Goal Making
Often we make goals when we are feeling the most ambitious and motivated. These often end up being too strict or unrealistic in timeline, scope, and our current abilities. We need to take into account that life rarely goes smoothly and make sure that there is enough room for bad days and life changes to still be successful. Focusing on goals that have personal, intrinsic value and are more process over result based helps working toward your goals fun and achievable.
Process Vs Outcome Based Goals
Outcome based goals, like SMART goals, can be useful in goal setting, but can also lead to a negative feeling feedback loop when outcomes are not met. Process based goals focus on building and maintaining habits as the goal, which alleviates the pressure of a specific outcome being achieved. It’s a method of goal setting that takes into account the differences between genetics, environmental circumstances, and fact that people are imperfect and have bad days. Process based goals more often lead to long term success because they help people learn to enjoy the practice and decouple the feeling of accomplishment from an ultimate outcome.