Goals are your road map to success!

“Every year I set a goal: to win the Mr. Olympia or to get so many units in business school, to make a certain amount of money, to travel to five or six different countries. Every year I make a plan. I do it. It will be done.” ~Arnold Schwarzenegger

Like Arnold, the world seems to just work with the person who knows what his or her goals in life are.  A goal is a success magnet.  Once you set a goal worthy of your life, you will some how be pulled toward that objective.  People, circumstances and events will all seem to be working for you and for your good.  This is true of any goal, bodybuilding and fitness are no exception.

NOW is the time to decide what 2012 is going to look like for you and what you are going to look like in 2012!

BAD NEWS: By following these procedures you will need to invest a minimum of two hours and possibly as many as twenty hours setting your goals, depending on how in-depth you get.  That is one of the reasons why only 3% of the population have clearly defined goals and objectives in life.  Most people just haphazardly go to the gym, eat a salad once in a while, go for a brisk walk now and again and hope they get into shape.  Or they even follow Jay Cutlers routine that is clearly outlined in Iron Man Magazine but never get anywhere near the results.  The reason is, they may have Jay’s routine but they don’t have Jay’s goals and mind set.  This is a very important point, please don’t miss it.  It is the 3% that set there goals that achieve the end result they are looking for.

GOOD NEWS: By following these procedures and setting goals you will have several extra hours each week to pursue what you want.  If you know what you want to achieve you will avoid all the detours in life that zap your time.  You will end up with more time in the week because you avoid all the things that take time away from achieving your goals, like watching TV.

GREAT NEWS: When you learn how to set one goal, you will know how to set all goals, whether it is a physical, mental, spiritual, family, career or financial goal.  Starting with your bodybuilding or fitness goals is a good idea because if you take care of yourself first everything else will fall in line.  Also a fit lifestyle will give you the vibrancy and energy to conquer all your other goals.  Remember, “Energy is the fuel to ignite passion and passion is the engine of success.” It all starts with energy.

Unleash the power of goals
Goals are the road map to your future.   Walking through life with no goals is like driving cross country with no road map, you will get somewhere but it may not be where you wanted to go.  Set your path with goals and see your dreams come true.  Yogi Berra, the famous Yankee put it this way.  “You’ve got to be very careful if you don’t know where you are going, because you might not get there.” That Yogi sure had a way with words, didn’t he?  He was quite the talker!

If you’re bored with life — you don’t get up every morning with a burning desire to do things — you don’t have enough goals.  ~Lou Holtz

From Boiler Room to Board Room to Brooklyn Gym

The fuel of a goal brought me from the basement of a boiler room in Brooklyn to the real estate board rooms on Madison Avenue, so as you can see I literally had to work my way out of the basement.  Goals also propelled me from the board rooms on Madison Ave to owning the “east coast mecca of bodybuilding”, the gym I dreamed of owning as a child and the Brooklyn gym made famous in the movie Pumping Iron staring Arnold Schwarzenegger & Lou Ferrigno. I knew exactly where I was going even though everyone else thought I would fail.  The fact of the matter is that I was willing to fail if that is what it took for me to reach my goals.

Og Mandino once said, “Failure will never overtake me if my determination to succeed is strong enough.” The bodybuilding lifestyle taught me that the faster I failed the quicker my muscles would grow and I brought that mentality to Madison Avenue with me.  My competitors didn’t learn this in the Harvard Business School or at Wharton, they were taught that a failure (F) was bad so avoid it at all cost.  I wasn’t afraid to fail so I succeeded faster. I was using the success tool that the founder of IBM said was the way to succeed!

“The way to succeed is to double your failure rate.”  Thomas Watson, founder of IBM

The main reason I could achieve my goals is because I always made the bodybuilding lifestyle a priority in my life.  The very first day at my new real estate job in Manhattan, I went and joined Madison Avenue Muscle.  I knew if I was going to stay in shape I needed to make working out convenient.  I joined a gym I could walk to on my lunch hour, so I could fit my workouts into my busy schedule. I knew if I didn’t do this I would never find the time.

Come on; let’s dig in and design a fit and energetic 2012!

How to set goals:

Action Step 1:
On a sheet of paper list all of your goals.  Next to each one of them write down the time in which you would like them completed.  i.e. within 1, 3, 5, 10, 20 years.  (ie. I will loose 10 lbs. in the next 5 weeks.)

Action Step 2:
Write down “why” next to all of the things on your list and write a paragraph why you are committed to achieving it.  Why is very powerful.  (Once I loose 10 lbs. I will be healthier and feel more energetic.  I will also look better and be more confident…etc.)

Action Step 3:
Divide your goals into three categories:  Short range (1 month or less), Mid range (1 month to 1 year) and Long range (1 year or more) goals.

Action Step 4:
For each of your top 5 goals write down one action you can do today to get started.  i.e. join a gym, walk every morning or eat more protein.  Then do it! Habit Foundry will be very helpful here!  It is a free tool to help you to develop empowering habits.

The key is to start today and adjust your goals as needed.  Once you start doing what you know you have to do, it will become a habit.

For example, my wife and I do our workouts at 5:00 AM.  It is important to us to have a gym that is open at that time and on time, that is clean but that is fully equipped with top notch equipment.  Rapid Fitness in Raleigh NC not only has the equipment but a great atmosphere even at 5:00 AM.  If you are ever in the area pop in and catch a work out.  I am at the North Raleigh location most days.  The key is to make working out easy and convenient if you want to make it a habit.

Next we will get into The Power of Habits & The Lifestyle Restoration Cycle