Many people have goals or certain ideas what they want to achieve. As mentioned before, it is important to set goals (read ‘Setting Goals‘ en ‘How to Reach your Goals‘). The way to reach this destination can be compared to a route you have to take. There are many options with this route. But if you have any knowledge on navigation, it is of the utmost importance to start with understanding your current location.
There are different reasons why it is so important to start with assessing your current location.
- In order to decide on the route, you have to see how far you are from your goals to start with.
- You should take where you are at this exact moment, not where you used to be, to assess the route.
How to Start Where You Are
The starting point is important to see how far you currently are from your goals. This information should be used to decide on your route (in terms of exercise: what type of movements, what type of load and volume, etc.), but also the most realistic time-line for you to aim for. From this, you can then decide on milestones towards your goal. These milestones are good for motivation purposes, where you can check if you are still on course towards your goals. It is also very comforting to check boxes along the way.
Current Position
It is important to make sure you take your current position. If you want to improve certain lifts for instance. It is important to consider what you are capable of right now, not what you could lift a few years ago. This is something I often have to remind myself of. I start every new phase of my program with a little test, to see where I am at that moment. It is not realistic to take an old PR I managed more than 10 years ago. Depending on the training program I am following, even a weight I lifted two months ago might be unrealistic to assess my current skills.
How to Proceed
Now you see the importance of being realistic on your starting point, you can look at what your goal is, how far are you from it and what would be the route to get to your desired goal. Since these steps are too specific for each and everyone’s situation I will not get into the possible timelines and routes.
But if you are interested in what you can do to reach a goal from where you are right now, feel free to get in touch! Leave a comment, send and email or get in touch through the Contact Page. I will see how I can help you.
Start now, not tomorrow!