I'm sure you've heard of the phrase, "The journey is important, not the destination." Well, while there is truth to it, the destination does serve a purpose! It is the goal. Imagine, if a person's goal was just to travel. He or she could take a few steps and might stop. The journey may stop in one step, in a few steps, in a few kilometers or in a few thousand kilometers. But the goal gives the journey a purpose. And therefore creates a journey that ends up becoming memorable. At times, more memorable than the destination itself!
There are people who take off without a destination in mind, you may say! Don't they enjoy the journey? Of course they do. But if you study them carefully, you will realize that they have a goal. To take the next plane out of here, where ever it goes. That is a goal. To walk twenty thousand steps in any direction and camp there! That is a goal. The goal is not to just walk because then they could land in the next coffee shop and there may not be a motivation anymore. I'm not saying that there will not be a motivation, but that there MAY NOT be a motivation to continue.
Which is why people who exercise 'just for fitness' are rarely fit. They may get the kick of doing a little bit of exercise now and then or hitting the gym everyday without actually getting fitter. Like most things, the destination is important to give you a direction. A goal with a time frame will help you get there! In the process of achieving your goal, you will form a habit that could stay for life! The habit is like the journey and the goal is the destination.
I want to be able to do a hundred push-ups by the end of the year, is a goal. To get to the goal your journey will start with ten. Or two. Or one. If your goal was fitness, like the usual new year resolution, chances are you never get there. Because then, you simply don't form a habit. And without a habit, you are not going to get there!
But what if my goal is to be fit? I don't have a real goal. What if I don't want to be able to do two hundred push-ups or pump up muscles to look like Arnold? No harm, but your goal then has to be a clear goal. Not a vague one like 'fitness'. It has to be like the person for whom the journey is important, but has no destination in mind. He accepts any destination that arrives once he completes a minimum of 20,000 steps. Then you goal could be something measurable like forty-five minutes of training, three days a week. You then accept the results. If it yields 2 kg of weight loss, you accept it. If it makes you sleep better at night, you accept it. You form a habit and the habit is your goal.
You need to have a goal and form a habit along the way. That is only way in fitness. For that matter, anything in life. Your goal can be a habit, but if it is, then it should be measureable.
Good luck!
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