You have a goal, you’ve figured out some stepping stones or smaller goals to hit along the way, so what do you do now?

You plan.

Planning is going to be the key to success.

I’m going to touch on motivation again, because so many people refer back to this magic word/feeling, and to put it simply you will never stay motivated 100% of the time. Imagine actually being motivated 5-6 days a week to get your training and meal prep done?!

It comes in ebbs and flows, and it’s important to recognise that. It’s okay to not feel like training or meal prepping or cooking, or whatever habit it is you’re trying to nail. What’s important is if you have a structured plan in place to hit your goals, then you stick to it. Because you know that at the end of it you’ll feel much better and you’ll be on track towards your goals.

Now when it comes to planning, as I touched on in the previous blog post “Define Yourself”, it’s got to be relevant and achievable for YOU. Otherwise, it’s not going to happen. It’s all well and good to have a picture of what kind of schedule you’d ideally like to have because it will give you the “better” results, but it’s going to be very hard to stick to it if you’re starting from scratch and you’ve got 5-10 things that you want to tick off your list. That’s not achievable. You’ve got to nail the basics before you add on top of it (which is the case for most things).

The best action plan is the one where you’re going to be the most compliant. What does that look like for you?

When it comes to starting out and building your habits or your schedule, it’s all about what is good, better and best. It is going to be soooo hard to start out with (and stick to) the best option, especially when it’s totally new to you. So think of creating building blocks for certain habits with an end goal in mind. For example:

Use this “Good, Better, Best” model to create your building blocks, aim to nail the ‘good’ for 2 weeks, then take it up to the ‘better’ for another 2-4 weeks, then tackle the ‘best’. This is how you’re going to be sustainable in your habits AND your results.

So, every week set a couple of hours aside to get yourself organised for the week. Use this time to meal prep, schedule in your training sessions, set yourself a habit target, whatever you need to do ahead of time that is going to make your life during the week a whole lot simpler and easier, to stay on track towards your goals.

The key thing to remember here; it’s about commitment and discipline - not motivation.

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