Peace of Mind Organizing

The value of interim goals

28 November 2012

I’ve been working out at a fitness center lately and am starting to establish a routine there. One of the things I was thinking about today as I used the elliptical machine is how important it is for me to have small goals on my way to larger ones.

My workout regimen probably isn’t very impressive, but it’s a fairly big deal for me. It’s shaken out that I end up going three times a week. Twice a week I do 15 minutes of cardio (usually on a stationary bike and elliptical trainer), followed by about 25 minutes of strength training. One day a week is cardio only. On those days, I work out for 25 to 30 minutes on a combination of bike, elliptical, rowing machine and, occasionally, treadmill.

Today was a cardio day. I did ten minutes on the bike then moved over to the elliptical, which I used for another 18 minutes. I have to say, 18 minutes feels like a long time. So I use interim goals to make it easier on myself.

I tell myself that I’ll work out for a certain number of minutes with my hands on the moving handlebars that provide an arm workout (I don’t know what those are called) and then a different interval clutching the short stationary handles that measure my heart rate. Then I go back to the arm workout for another interval, then back to measuring my heart rate for awhile. I make each interval shorter than the last one. So if I’m doing 15 minutes on the elliptical, I’ll start out with 5 minutes on the arm workout, then 4 minutes holding the heart rate monitor bars, then 3 minutes moving the arms, then 2 minutes with the heart-rate monitor, then 1 minute with the arm workout. Before I know it, 15 minutes is up.

Using interim goals is a great way from feeling overwhelmed by a larger project. You just focus on the current goal, and move to the next one when you’ve completed it. It’s also a nice anti-procrastination technique: Rather than working on a deadline for a whole project, you can establish a closer deadline for an interim goal.

I used interim goals to help me make it easy to send my holiday cards this year. I also used it when I wrote the two novels I’ve written for National Novel Writing Month. In 2004 and 2009 I succeeded in writing a novel in a month by dividing 50,000 words (the goal) by 30 (the number of days in the month) and writing at least that number of words every day.

I know I’m not going to meet my fitness goals overnight. I know it will take dedicated, regular effort. I take it one workout at a time. But I really appreciate that my workouts are broken into small intervals so that I get to accomplish a goal every few minutes. That’s what keeps me going and will ultimately allow me to reach my overall goal.

Tagged with: exercise, goals

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