Chapter 1: Answer This Question First 🎯

Before you sign the agreement on that gym membership or shoot out the door on your first run, you need to answer this question; what are my goals?

“Instead of asking yourself ‘how’ you’re going to achieve something, ask yourself: “What do I want?’” suggests Take-Two Interactive Software President and CEO Strauss Zelnick. Zelnick, 64, is the author of the book Becoming Ageless: The Four Secrets to Looking and Feeling Younger Than Ever, and has become known in fitness media as the “America’s Fittest CEO.”  “Once you know what you want, how you’re going to get there becomes much clearer.” 

A clear goal can act as a kind of measuring stick by which you evaluate everything from training routines, to diets and behaviors outside of your regular workouts. Rather than trying to gauge the relative merits or drawbacks of equipment, routines, or supplements on their own, just ask yourself, “Does this get me closer to my goal? Yes or no?”

More than just being a discrete tactic for focusing your efforts, setting a clear goal is just one step in a series of stages that lead towards behavior change. Take a look at the following list to see what stage of behavior change you’re in right now, and what else you have to expect down the line. 

1. Precontemplation: You’re thinking about possibly thinking about making a change.

2. Contemplation: You have a goal or goals selected and are on the hunt for ways to execute.

3. Preparation: You’re taking active, but smaller steps towards your stated goal.

4. Action: You’re charting a new path with larger, more tangible changes in your behavior.  

5. Maintenance: A continuation of your new behavior well past the initiation stage. This is the boring stuff, but where the real change happens.

6. Relapse: A reversion back to old habits. Everyone backslides a bit, just know that it’s natural and don’t let it throw you off from achieving your goal.

With a piece of paper, or in a document on your phone or computer, write down a goal (or list of goals) that you want to accomplish using Zelnick’s method. 

Give yourself a day or two and revisit them. 

When you look back at what you’ve written down, does it strike you as something you really want to do? Or is it something you believe other people want from you? Dig deep here and be honest with yourself, as it’ll be the cornerstone of your entire fitness journey.