Fitness Goals

Progress in fitness and life is often portrayed as being far away. Goals like building muscle and losing weight are goalposts that are just over the horizon, and the spoils of a sound diet or exercise program will only come after a long time.

Sometimes fitness goals can seem so far away, but they are often right in front of you if you know where to look.

While large outcomes certainly take time, it’s refreshing to change our perspective and realize that you don’t have to wait years, months, or even weeks to experience benefits from your training. You can probably achieve more progress than you think in a fairly short period.

Improvement and progress are always right in front of your nose. It’s not necessarily something miles down the road but something you can achieve by taking a single step forward.

Take the example of a session I had the other day where a simple change in technique greatly reduced the amount of stress on a client’s knees within minutes. Or how adding just a little more protein or plant-based foods to a single meal can quickly improve the quality of your diet.

These improvements may not seem very significant, but big changes rarely come from taking massive action. Instead, most big results come from small, short-term improvements that add up over time.

As a mentor, one stated, “ I don’t know of a single habit that will reliably make anyone lose 20 pounds. But I know 20 quick-and-easy things that can reliably make anyone lose one pound.”

Big long-term wins come from accumulating many small victories, most of which can be achieved in a short time. It’s just a matter of capitalizing on the opportunities that are right in front of you. All you need to do is take a single step forward. But remember that it may be hard to see these quick and easy victories if we keep our eyes on the distant horizon.