Sure, so I just told you that exercise is a life-long journey…not a destination.  And you probably think I am crazy for posing such a question for this blog.  Let’s just say that is possible, but not in this discussion.  This topic can easily go in many different literary directions, but I want to focus instead on YOUR exercise program.  What have you accomplished?  Why are you exercising?  Hopefully you can answer both of these questions with little difficulty, but if you are stumped…..please read on.  As an “Exercise 101” graduate, you know that exercise is something that should be as routine as brushing your teeth in the morning.  It is something that should stick with us – or rather we stick with it – till death do us part.  Enough of the analogies….what I am really getting at is this…if you are exercising for 30 minutes a day with no particular goal in mind, you are treading water.  Sure, treading water for 30 minutes is a hell of a workout, but over time you will get nowhere.

Goal setting is very important, wait…EXTREMELY important for your exercise program.  If you haven’t set any goals for yourself, I give you permission to skip your next workout and use it as a goal-setting session.  Goals not only give you motivation to accomplish feats that you once could only envision, but it also provides a sort of “road map” for your life-long exercise journey.  If I could give a pictorial example of what an exercise “road map” would look like…it would be a long and winding road of switchbacks up a steep and endless mountain.  What this symbolizes is that your exercise journey will never be without obstacles or challenges.   But it is a continuous, challenging road that you will have to carefully plan for and navigate in order to make any progress.  There is no way you can make it all the way to the top of this mountain without stopping to enjoy the views.   Back to reality, that means you need to set short term goals so that you can take pleasure in these feelings of accomplishment, while still focusing on the path that lies ahead.  We are all unique…which means we are all going to have different goals.  But in essence our paths should all look the same.  Gradually climbing from one point to the next, stopping periodically to enjoy the views and appreciate the new perspective, but looking forward with anticipation to conquering the challenges that lie ahead.

This blog is purposely “visual”.  That is what goal setting is all about.  Visualizing the improbable…experiencing the possible…and imagining the impossible.