Nicole Gabriel is a Psychologist and Life Coach and joins us as resident coach on the Lift Lean Lifestyle programme. She uses psychological coaching, with a dose of nature, to help people who are stuck, need untangling or who just want to boost their psychological wellbeing and guide them to a place of clarity, calm and confidence to make changes and move forward in their personal lives and/or work.
She’s written a blog post for you especially to help you set your goals and achieve them!
Why having a goal is not always enough: add a little intention too!
So, you’ve signed up to Lift Lean Lifestyle, with a goal to nurture a healthier way of eating and exercising with support and structure from Tors. You know there are daily exercises and recipes, and they are available on-demand so you can be flexible about when you do them.
You’re really looking forward to how you’re going to feel at the end of it, and you want to get the most out of your 2 weeks.
One way that you can super-charge your success with your Lift Lean Lifestyle goals is by setting active and specific intentions around your participation in the programme over and above your general desire to complete it. And write them down, or even better, tell someone else!
Research shows that people are much more successful in achieving goals they set for themselves when they set specific intentions about when, where and how they will show up for it. Research also shows that when we write down, or tell someone, our intentions, we are more likely to follow-through on them – because now we have made ourselves accountable.
This is because:
It helps you to get clear about why you have set yourself this goal (i.e. why you want to complete Lift Lean) and if you’re clear about why you’re doing it you’re more likely to resist the things that might lure you away from showing up!
It sends a message to your brain that this thing is a priority for you, so you are more likely to make time for the exercise and food prep, and you’re more likely to follow the nutritional and other guidance – and not succumb to that chocolate biscuit, or leaving the exercise until ‘later, when I’ve done the load of washing’.
This is especially important for you if you’re someone who is prone to feelings of guilt about taking time for ‘you’ when there 101 other things you could (or ‘should’) be doing. Setting intentions around your goal is a way of messaging to your brain that you are worthy of this time – and this means it’s more likely that you will honour the commitment you have made to yourself to follow the programme.Setting intentions signals that you WILL do something, rather than signalling to yourself that you will try to do it. Committing to taking action is much more effective than committing to trying. For example, if you set intentions around avoiding processed sugar for the two weeks you are following the programme, you are much more likely to actually avoid eating/drinking things containing processed sugar, than if you simply sign up to the programme and ‘try’ to follow it.
It will help you to be clear about what is realistic for you to achieve too. So maybe you decide you can’t commit to every day for the exercise, but three times a week is do-able. Maybe you don’t want to give up your morning coffee, but you’re happy to ditch all other caffeine and follow all the other recommendations. When you are realistic, you are more likely to succeed, and this will be a positive experience for you, and help ensure that you carry on. And maybe you’ll be motivated to sign-up again, and do more next time!
All of these things are likely to help with your perseverance too on days when you are finding progress difficult or frustrating because it’s uncomfortable, your mood or motivation is low, or other demands are vying for your energy and attention.
So what intentions are you setting to help you get the most out of your Lift Lean Lifestyle experience?
What time of day are you going to exercise each day (it may be the same time each day, or each day may be different – but put it in your diary)?
Where are you going to exercise?
What are your intentions around what you will eat and drink?
What time of day will you prepare and eat your meals? How will you manage family mealtimes if they are not eating the same as you?
What will you replace your cup of tea or glass of wine with? How will you make sure it doesn’t feel like a ‘sacrifice’?
What else do you need to set an intention around to help you achieve your goal?
Remember, though, these intentions are not meant to be a stick to beat yourself up with, they are simply a way of helping you to stay on track. Life happens, things get in the way – and even with the best of intentions, sometimes we just don’t show up when we said we would and that’s OK too!
And remember too, there is always help available to guide and support you if you need a little extra encouragement!