Looking Back to Move Forward
Looking back at where you came from can help how you move forward in your journey
Setting Goals for Your Health in the New Year
As we approach the new year, it is common to reflect on the past year in order to set new goals for the upcoming future.
For many of us, health and fitness goals top the list of New Years resolutions, but before diving into setting those goals for the new year, it is important to take some time to look back on the previous year. Take note of your successes and struggles, the breakthroughs, and challenges, those a-ha moments that provided insights, and even those injuries and setbacks. Take note, make a plan, and then set your sights on the new year.
Insights from Struggles and Setbacks
If you had setbacks or challenges on your health and fitness journey, you likely won’t recall that time as a positive experience, and understandably so. Nagging pain and injuries are difficult to deal with and can limit you from living your most active life.
Navigating through an injury or setback can provide profound insights, including what factors may have led to the injury or setback. These factors range from training habits, recovery routines, nutrition, to mechanical or movement pattern deficiencies or compensations.
When we’re forced to modify during rehab, this is one of those silver lining situations. It becomes an opportunity to work on other areas of strength/stability, mobility challenges, technical skills, or cardiovascular/metabolic capacity.
Use the knowledge & skills you gained and apply it to your future training plan. This can help you not only stay ahead of and possibly prevent injuries, but also to keep improving overall.
Setting Realistic & Attainable Goals
After looking back to gain insight, now is the time to shift our focus towards the future.
It’s tempting to set ambitious goals. How many of us have had some variation or another of these:
I’m going to be in the best shape of my life, or
I’m going to focus on being injury free with more mobility and stability exercises, or
I’m going to clean up my eating and sleeping, so I can recover better.
These overarching goals are great, but they can be overwhelming, and leave you not knowing where or how to start.
You can start by breaking your goals down into smaller, more specific, and manageable steps. For example:
set a goal to walk for 30 minutes outside of regular workouts,
perform 5 minutes of PT and mobility exercises before lifting weights,
eat 1 serving of fruits or vegetables for 2 meals per day,
focus on getting 7 hours of sleep per night by going to bed at a certain time every night.
This type of specificity makes it easier to track your progress and stay consistent. You also want these to be both a push for progress but also attainable. Goals that are too easy won’t push you to grow or improve, and goals that are too ambitious, risk discouragement or burnout.
Take an assessment of where you’ve been, where you are, and where you want to go, in order to set the best goals for yourself. Continually check in to make sure your goals are still what you want, and are within reach. You can always course correct at any time, because there’s nothing saying that once you set a goal, it can never change. Continue to push forward, and remember to focus on progress and not perfection!
