3 part series helping you to create and stick with your goals. Be sure to start with Part 1: How To Set Goals That Stick and Part 2: How to Stay Motivated: Find Your Why before moving onto this post.

When it comes to reaching your health and fitness goals, stopping at simply setting your goals isn’t going to get you anywhere.

Taking consistent, daily action is really the only way to be successful in the long-run.

This is easier said than done.

This is Part 3 of a

When trying to be healthier, fitter, and stronger so many small obstacles and challenges will come your way.

That’s a given.

As much as we may think everything “will be perfect this time”, that’s never the case.

You’ll oversleep and miss your alarm to get up to workout.

You’ll go out to dinner with the kids and end up eating way too much pizza.

Your friends will push you to have a drink and appetizers.

You’ll be invited to parties and events.

Work will get out late and so you won’t be left with time for a full workout.

So the goal isn’t to try and be perfect; rather, it’s to plan for these obstacles.

To know in advance they WILL happen.

And to see them as speedbumps that maybe slow you down, rather than stop signs, that keep you stuck or off track.

The best way to manage these challenges is to plan for them AHEAD of time.

So after setting your goals and your action steps to get there, it’s time to start thinking about the common things that throw you off track and that have kept you from getting to where you wanted to go in the past.

Sometimes it’s coming up with a back-up plan.

For, instance if you tend to sleep through your alarm instead of getting up you could set a second alarm across the room that forces you to get up.

You could try the 5-second rule…when the alarm goes off, countdown from 5 and then you have to get up. It’s just the rule you follow and 5 seconds doesn’t give you much time to argue with yourself to stay in bed 😉

Or you could plan to join a workout group that keeps you accountable.

Other times, you may have to re-frame the way you think.

Rather than going all-or-nothing on pizza night (which usually leads to giving in and binging on the whole pizza and then feeling guilty and eating more bad crap all weekend), you could still plan to go to get pizza with the kids but eat a salad first and limit yourself to two pieces, and enjoy the heck out of it.

Instead, of saying “It’s too late” to get your full 45-minute workout since work got out late, why not get a quick 10 or 15-minute workout in?

Something is better than nothing. And building a consistent habit of exercise is more important than long workouts you never do.

See, making changes doesn’t mean having to deprive yourself or radically changing your day to day life.

Sometimes it’s just about making small tweaks or coming up with a solution before the problem hits so you’re ready to tackle it rather than just going with the flow or doing something out of habit.

Your homework is to come up with at least 3 obstacles that you expect to happen while trying to reach your health and fitness goals and then have at least 2 solutions for each one.

Yes, you can certainly do more obstacles and more solutions.

The more prepared you are the better!

Planning ahead of time is really going to be your key to success!