want to lift heavy weights you better train with heavy weights. It seems overtly easy to follow but as Voltaire said “Common sense is not common sense”. I know plenty of people who have wanted to lose body fat so they decide to start a running program. Running is fantastic but their goal was to lose body fat not to become a better runner. Combing a running program with an unhealthy diet would cause their body to pump greater amounts of the stress hormone cortisol as well as lose muscle mass which would in turn raise their body fat. Whoops… Here are four steps for using the specificity principal to your advantage instead of your anguish.

The first step in getting what you want is knowing what you want. Take some time and recognize the health and fitness objectives you truly want to improve. Saying you would like to be healthier this year doesn’t really clarify an essential want. I know how easy it is to put your diet and exercise routines on autopilot without even noticing. Knowing your exact ambitions for this year will make them that much more attainable.

The next step of successful fitness goal setting is making sure that your aspirations can be considered smart. They don’t have to seem intelligent to other people but it does help to keep this clever mnemonic in consideration.

SMART goals are:

Specific – Measurable – Action Oriented – Reasonable – & Have a Target Date

Here’s an example of two people who both have the same pursuit…

Arnold’s goal is simply ‘to lose weight’. Bob wants to lose fifteen pounds of body fat with three rowing machine workouts a week by his summer vacation on June 4th. I bet dollars to donuts Arnold is going to be saying the same thing next year while by the end of May Bob will have a set of washboard abs that are glistening in the sun.

The penultimate part of the equation is that You have to want it. Goals can either be intrinsic or extrinsic. Extrinsic goals are usually influenced by outside social pressures while intrinsic goals are the ones manifested from your own aspirations to better yourself for yourself. So in the last example if Arnold wanted to drop the weight to improve his energy levels and athletic abilities where as Bob couldn’t care less about a six pack but was doing it because ‘chicks would dig it’, I might have to retract that pastry gamble I made earlier. By sticking with intrinsic goals you won’t be searching for the approval of others as you move along. It will be much easier to take any criticism or setbacks and use them as fuel for your fervor instead of letting it get smothered.

The final act is to put it in writing. I’ve always enjoyed reading about this simple habit. Have a list of your health goals in your wallet, under your bed, on your refrigerator, anywhere that you will end up reading them a few times throughout the day. This final step is what puts it all together to shift your perceptions and put you on the fast track to fitness.