While many of us use exercise as a tool to get the perfect body, it can also be a tool for shifting your focus away from perfection and on what you can accomplish each and every day. Here are just a few things exercise can improve:
- Strength and endurance. When you exercise, you may be so focused on the scale that you're not aware of other progress you've made. If you pay attention, though, you'll notice those strength gains in other areas of your life, such as being able to carry more groceries or pick up your kids or grandkids without throwing out your back. You'll have more energy to get everything done without feeling exhausted.
- Confidence. Mastering a new activity makes you more confident. You may start that kickboxing class or strength-training workout tripping over your own feet or feeling a little ridiculous, but it only takes a few workouts for your body to get better at those activities. That confidence may spur you to even greater goals, such as signing up for a race or taking an active vacation.
- Connection. We spend so much time sitting, we forget what it feels like to actually move our bodies. When you start exercising, you learn about your body in a whole different way: how it feels when your heart speeds up and your breathing increases. You feel your muscles contract, and best of all, you feel your own power. That awareness makes you realize you're capable of so many things.
- Function over appearance. When you spend more time moving your body, you become more interested in doing things to make it work more efficiently. Now instead of only focusing on how to make your thighs thinner, you're focusing on how to make them stronger, so you can make it through that next 3-mile run. Your goals change as you focus on staying healthy and fit.
Rethink Your Goals.
If you're ready to give up on the idea of perfection, it's time to set new goals for yourself. Doing this will open the door for new ways of thinking and exercising. That doesn't mean you shouldn't have a goal to lose weight or even improve on different areas of your body. It's when those goals leave you frustrated that it may be time for a change. Try this step-by-step process for creating new goals:
- Make a list of your goals. Write down every goal you have and estimate how long you've had that goal (e.g., "I've wanted smaller thighs for the last 25 years").
- Assess your goals. Put a star next to any goals that, a) you've had for years and haven't achieved, b) may be out of reach and, c) make you feel bad about yourself. For example, if you've been trying to get rid of those love handles for the last five years, nothing has worked and you feel awful every time you think about it, that goal deserves a star.
- Get rid of your impossible goals. Go through the goals you marked and ask yourself how likely it is that you'll reach that goal, given all the time and energy you've already spent on it. Then ask yourself what would happen if you crossed it off your list. What if you decided to forget about getting rid of those love handles once and for all?
- Set new goals. Just because you get rid of some goals doesn't mean you stop working toward something else. The difference now is that you can set goals based on new parameters. Instead of getting rid of your love handles, what if you focused on getting in a certain number of workouts each week or building strength so that you can do more with your kids? Think about what you want your body to do rather than what you want it to look like, and set your goals accordingly.
You may need some help in both letting go of old goals and setting new ones. These resources can help you get started:
Rethinking your goals may mean changing how you exercise. Next, learn how you can exercise for a healthy body.
Next Page: Exercise Goals for a Healthy Body
