It doesn’t matter if your goal is to lose weight, make more money, or even to finish a small project. If you’re struggling to reach your goals, there’s likely just one culprit: You’re patience sucks.
I know, no one likes to hear that they’re the reason they’re not achieving their goals. It’s easier to blame it on genetics or your kids crazy schedule, but at the end of the day the only one that can achieve your goals is you. We live in a world of instant gratification and convenience. That’s not all bad; however, when your goal is something that’s going to take months (or maybe even years), the instant gratification model isn’t going to work.
So, we’ve identified the problem, now what? How do we undo the lack of patience?
Long-term goals are best achieved through smaller, short-term goals. Is your goal to lose 100lbs? That’s awesome! However, that’s also pretty intimidating when you step on the scale and have lost 5lbs and think to yourself, “Ugh, 95lbs more to go”. This mentality often leads to us giving up on our goals. Instead, we set short-term goals as bench markers and something we can celebrate on our way to our long-term goal.
So your long-term goal is to lose 100lbs? Let’s set your first bench marker at 10lbs of fat loss. Going from 300lbs to 200lbs felt overwhelming, but going from 300lbs to 290lbs seems more manageable. Once you reach 290lbs, we get to celebrate that you’ve reached a goal and we set our sights on our next goal. Maybe this time we set it for 15lbs of fat loss.
You’ll be to your long-term goal sooner than you realize while enjoying the process, adhering to your program, and celebrating your journey.