Every day, I hop out of bed at 4:45 am, and I am excited to get to “work”. I get to live my passion of helping you and others with fitness every day – and I am very thankful for that.

And – without sounding like an a@@ 😉 – I have a very happy and fulfilling life overall. I have great relationships with both my family members and friends, I have my own good heath and fitness, I own a business that is doing great and growing every month, I get to travel to many great places both around the US and internationally each year, and I have the free time to pursue my hobbies and interests.

Now, if I had written this five years ago, it would have sounded MUCH different. I WAS in the fitness business – but I was working building someoneELSE’s dream, I was overworked, and I was underpaid. I had NO free time, and my relationships, personal health, and mental well-being were all suffering.

I can say with 100% certainty that the exercise I am about to share with you, that I started doing almost five years ago exactly, has made all the difference. I would not be where I am today without it.

Also – since I play the role of your FITNESS advisor – I am going to show you how to do this exercise as it relates to your health and fitness goals. But I encourage you to use it with goals in all other areas of your life as well.

3 Easy Steps to Make 2013 Your Best Year EVER

 

1. Write out EVERYTHING you want to do, achieve, etc., in the fitness arena, in your lifetime.

Don’t hold anything back. If you want to run a marathon someday, bench press 400 pounds, get your body fat % into single digits – put it down.

People limit themselves and what they *think* they can accomplish for many reasons. Don’t. Get it all out here.

(BTW, if you’re going to do this on a broader level, I LOVE the 30/30/30 exercise – where you brainstorm and write down 30 things you want to have, do, and be before you die. This is an awesome and incredibly powerful way to set goals for yourself.)

 

2. Pick the top three to five things you want to achieve in the next year.

Stretch yourself, but also be realistic. So if you are 50% body fat now, and your ultimate goal is to get to 5% – it IS absolutely possible – it just might take you longer than a year.

The key is to pick goals that will stretch your comfort zone, but that are also attainable. In the above example, reaching 25% body fat by the end of the year might be your goal.

You also want to set goals that are specific and measurable here. “Get in better shape” is too general. “Complete a 5k in under 30 minutes” is much more specific and measurable.

(BTW, I use the areas of personal, business/financial, adventure, and contribution to apply this goal setting process to my entire life.)

 

3. “Chunk it down” and work backwards to reach your goal(s)

Now, all you have to work backwards to reach your goals.

You will want to do this on a yearly level, then monthly, and then daily.

I will share my personal fitness goals with you for this year, to give you an example of the process:

Forest’s fitness goals in 2013

• Bench press 365 pounds
• Do 15 consecutive strict pull ups
• Run a sub 6:30 minute mile
• Get under 10% body fat

So what I am going to do is figure out exactly where I am now with all of these things, and then craft a plan to get there.

(I *think* I am at around a 315ish pound max bench press, can do around 8 pull ups in a row, run somewhere around a 7ish mile, and am hovering around 12-13% body fat. I am going to do some testing this week to get my exact base line numbers.)

So … I will focus on bench pressing and pull ups in my workout programming to get my #’s up. I will program my cardio/conditioning workouts specifically around getting my mile time down. I will craft a nutrition plan to drop my body fat %.

I will break this down into monthly, and then daily “action targets”.

I will reach these goals by the end of the year, if not a lot sooner. And that’s all there is to it!! 🙂

 

And that’s the last piece of the puzzle – taking ACTION! Setting goals does NOTHING if you don’t follow through on your plans. So – simply put – DO what you say you’re going to do 😉

If you want to make 2013 your best year EVER, simply harness the power of goal setting to make it happen.

Thanks for reading, and talk soon –

Forest Vance, MS, CPT, RKC II

 

PS – If you need more help/direction/etc. in reaching your fitness goals in 2013, here are some additional resources for you:

1 – If you’re somewhere in the vicinity of Sacramento, CA, and are looking to learn how to use kettlebells to safely and effectively reach your fitness goals, check out our upcoming kettlebell workshop – we still have a few spots left. Get details and sign up here:

=> January 2013 FVT Kettlebell Workshop

2 – No matter WHERE you are in the world, you can get access to my library of eBooks and best-selling programs here:

=> FV’s programs and products

3 – If you’re in the Sacramento, CA area and are looking for on-going training, click here:

=> On-going training @ FVT