A Long Weekend Reset
By Michael Iwanchuk and Dr. Lindsay Ross-Stewart
For people in Winnipeg, the summer provides an opportunity to spend time with family and friends, travel and vacation, and visit lakes and campsites. These types of activities provide a much deserved reward after the last couple of years of distancing and restriction. At Strive, the summer creates a hectic, fast-paced environment with clients, athletes, and sport groups training together throughout the day. While many of our clients have been in and out this summer, it has been great to see everyone enjoying the weather, and taking time for much needed mental and physical breaks.
It is normal to see health and fitness fluctuate throughout the year. Common periods occur around the summer months and December holidays, which is expected, and acts as built-in periods of time to reflect, recalibrate, and relax.
Labour Day weekend is a significant milestone that signals a shift in time and season. This upcoming weekend creates a major change that allows us the opportunity to reflect and regroup as we head into what comes next; students going back to school, work projects picking up, and summer slowly falling to an end as structures and routines are built back into our lives.
Life milestones give us energy and can be a positive kickstart to create motivation for change. Pairing a milestone with a proper goal setting strategy can light a strong internal fire that carries us towards our goals.
When it is time to work, it is important to get to it.
Without balance between work and play, we can see our goals drift further and further down a never ending to-do list. Author Steve Magness, while speaking on his book “Do Hard Things”, mentions that when we see our list of to-do’s it is common for us to target the simpler tasks, complete them, and check them off our list. By accomplishing the easier tasks it allows us to feel more accomplished in our day, but as a major project sits uncompleted it generally gets more difficult to complete over time. Health and Fitness is a lifetime project that constantly needs effort applied to maintain and improve. At Strive, we strongly believe that consistency beats intensity. Fitness is not achieved and maintained by irregular high intense sessions, but by meaningful, consistent, manageable work over time.
To help us achieve our goals, focus and motivation is important to cultivate. Throughout the year focus and motivation will eb and flow based on what is in front of us. One impactful way to kickstart positive direction towards a goal is to use meaningful life milestones. Our brain loves milestones; the first day of the month, our birthday, New Years, and anniversaries.
Interested In Getting Started on Your Health and Fitness Goals!?
Book a FREE Initial Consultation with our Coaches today
5 Ways to Better Accomplish Your Goals
This summer during our Mental Performance Seminar Series athletes were taught to better achieve goals by using the S.W.E.A.T. Goal Setting Method:
- Specific
- Written
- Energizing
- Aggressive
- Timely
Specific: Be very specific with your goal and create a defined accomplishment you want to achieve.
Written: Goals that are down on paper have a greater chance of being accomplished. Seeing your goal daily (on a mirror, your fridge, screensaver, day planner) will help with keeping your goal top of mind. For an added bonus, tell your family or friends your goal. Building this accountability can be helpful.
Energizing: Find something that MOVES YOU. This is Mike’s personal favorite. Your goal has to be motivating, energizing, and exciting to you. Take time, and really dive into creating a statement that you are passionate about, that MUST be accomplished. This will greatly assist by providing the energy and internal motivation to complete your goal.
Aggressive: Pick a goal that requires you to S.W.E.A.T. to achieve it. Goals should take us out of our comfort zone (physically or mentally) and bring us to a higher level.
Timely: Pick something that can be accomplished in the near future (1-3 months away max). This allows you to see the finish line and get after it.
Achieving goals should be difficult, but doable. Accountability is a major factor for success when making health and fitness changes. At Strive we aim to improve accountability through multiple angles. Coaches lead individuals and design programs to be completed, while a clinical team can be involved to heighten the specificity towards your goal. However, a coach can only take you so far. The strongest form of accountability and motivation comes from “teammates” and your peer group. Your group / friends at Strive, and family provide the strongest drive for motivation and change. Many clients feel that when they miss a session, they are letting others down. Creating this accountability helps us feel that our success is larger than just ourselves. Remember it is important to reward yourself once you achieve your goals.
Interested In Getting Started on Your Health and Fitness Goals!?
Book a FREE Initial Consultation with our Coaches today
We hope you Enjoy The Labour Day Weekend. Cheer for the Bombers and Cheers with a Friend. Spend meaningful time doing something that is rewarding to you. We hope you have had a great summer, and when you are ready, we are here to help push you this fall towards December.