Focus on your process; not your goals
By Conor Lloyd
About four-months ago I decided to really knuckle down and focus on improving my health.
Now to couch that previous statement, I am not generally an unhealthy guy. I don’t smoke – I quit five years ago — I am not a heavy drinker, and I really don’t eat that poorly, if you don’t consider pizza, chicken fingers, steak, and hamburgers unhealthy that is.
Suffice it to say I am an expert at talking myself out of going to the gym and will – on many occasions – opt to binge watch Netflix, read a good book, go shopping for vinyl, or head out for dinner. In January of this year, I tipped the scale at what I consider a very unhealthy weight. My doctor threatened a litany of cholesterol medications, and frankly taking the stairs felt like a workout.
Needless to say, it was time to make a change.
But rather than simply setting a goal of losing 30, 50, or even 60 pounds, I focused on changing my process to achieving a healthy lifestyle, and used benchmarks along the way to track my performance. Those benchmarks provided me with valuable feedback to see how I was performing and allowed me to adjust my approach along the way.
Those benchmarks didn’t simply revolve around weight loss, albeit that was probably one of the dominant performance indicators at the start, I used a lot of different markers along the way, and that included:
- Consistent meal preparation
- Water consumption
- Weight-loss; and
- Level of activity (I aimed to visit the gym and meet with my trainer three times a week).
