Whether your goal was to cross a finish line or achieve a certain goal weight, what happens next? For some, chasing that one goal might have been a monumental challenge that took years of consistent dedication. After you’ve taken time to celebrate your personal accomplishment, you might feel lost without that singular goal dominating your exercise and nutrition plan. How you react to achieving a goal is almost as important as catching the goal itself.
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Reconnect with why you started chasing that goal. While we’re focused on the idea of a specifically defined goal, we often lose sight of why we wanted to achieve the goal. Maybe you thought you’d be happier if you achieved your goal weight or that you’d feel successful if you finished that distance race. Did you feel the way you hoped to feel when you achieved your goal? A little soul searching after a major accomplishment is necessary for personal growth and redirection of goals. Taking the time to feel your success can also help you decide if you want to push your goal out a little further or if you want to change tracks entirely. Maybe you crushed your first road race, but now you want to take up swimming. It’s okay to change directions or expand the horizons, just don’t quit entirely.
Don’t just stop exercising and eating healthy meals. When you reach your goal, you might feel inclined to take a break from regular workouts and healthy meals. While you can afford to celebrate with a well-deserved rest day or even a cheat meal, you should remain proactive to ensure that your post-goal celebration doesn’t land you right back where you started. A short celebration to appropriately commemorate your accomplish is a nice reward, but don’t let it become a habit. Part of the reward of accomplishing your goal is having healthy habits that have become as much a part of your day as brushing your teeth. You fought hard to make those first few workouts and healthy meals a habit.
Help someone else. While you were chasing your goal, you likely learned the hard way what worked and what didn’t. Maybe you learned how to make healthy meals more flavorful or finally made morning exercises a habit. If you have personal experience and the accomplishment to share with others, do it! Sharing the positive outcome of your own experience may help someone else achieve the same goal. Sharing your goal and making someone else healthier along the way is a lifelong way to keep celebrating your own success.
Don’t be afraid of the letdown. After every major accomplishment comes a sense of loss. Some people find themselves feeling sad or even depressed when they’ve finally accomplished their goal and no longer know what their purpose is each day. It’s normal. If you experience the blues after finally accomplishing what you thought would make you happy, it’s time to set another goal. Turns out, maybe it wasn’t the finish line that was making you happy, but the journey of chasing the goal!
What do you do when you accomplish a goal? Do you keep chasing a similar goal or do you change course and try something new? Share your advice with the FitClub community in the comments below.
