5 Steps to Achieving Your 2012 Fitness Resolutions

"Today is the first day of the rest of your life" - John Denver

It's that time of year when everybody gets excited about making the new year their best year yet. They're going to quit smoking, eat less, exercise more, etc. If hundreds of millions of people set these goals every year then why do hundreds of millions of people fail to achieve them...and then set the exact same goals the next year?

Check out these staggering numbers from a 2010 resolution study of just over 250 participants:

• only 12% achieved their resolutions (30 people)
• 70% quit in the first 30 days (175 people)
• 78% quit in the first 60 days (195 people)

Kind of depressing to read, huh? So why do so many people quit and so few actually achieve the goals they were so excited about just a few short weeks earlier? 

The answer lies in how they went about setting those goals. The study also showed a 22% higher rate of achievement with "formal goal setting".

Without formal goal setting you're like a piece of driftwood in the river floating here and there with no control of where you're going. Formal goal setting makes you like an arrow - you fly with direction and speed right to your target. 

So few people go through the process of formal goal setting because: 1) they think it's not important, 2) they don't know how, and 3) they have a fear of failure/fear of rejection. Without the process of formal goal setting your goals are nothing but hopes and dreams. You may have a lot of "potential", but little materializes from it.

To turn those hopes and dreams into actual goals you must take the time to go through the formal goal setting process. Here are the 5 steps to "formal goal setting" that will help you finally achieve those new year's resolutions: 

1. Determine your goals
• think big to achieve big
• be realistic - too lofty of a goal can cause discouragement and failure
• MUST choose goals that are personal - personal goals give you the deep down desire and passion to stick with it when times are tough 
• they must be clear, written, specific, and measurable
• write your goals in the first person (i.e. if your goal is to weigh 150lb, then "I weigh 150lb")
2. Make a plan of action
• takes time, but is well worth it since this is your step by step process for success
• the more clear and detailed each step is the more likely you are to achieve your goals
• take an honest look at where you are now, ask yourself how you got there, and what is holding you back from already achieving that goal (identify any and all barriers to your success)
• write down every possible action that can get you to your goal and then organize them by priority or by the sequence of events
• again - details, details, details (i.e. there are 3,500 calories in 1lb of fat...it's highly recommended that you stick with losing 1-2 lbs per week - use those baseline numbers to help you plan out your detailed action plan and time it will take you to achieve your goal)
• use a calorie counter to track your calorie consumption (such as www.myfitnesspal.com - my personal favorite because it's also an app on my iPhone)
3. Review your goals
• put your goal on a sticky note and post it everywhere you look most often (dresser mirror, vanity mirror, wallet, car dashboard, etc) so that you see it and are reminded of it several times each day
• visualize what you want to look and feel like every time you see that goal written down
4. Measure your progress
• daily, weekly, monthly, etc check-in points (i.e. a daily goal of exercising for 60 minutes, a weekly goal of losing 2lb, a monthly goal of losing 2% body fat, etc)
• if you're not making the progress you should be, evaluate why and adjust if necessary but don't quit
5. Reward yourself
• do something special for yourself for every goal you achieve that gets you closer to your ultimate goal (i.e. if your goal is to lose 6lb per month and you hit that goal then reward yourself with a new sweater or a massage or something of that sort)
• once you achieve that ultimate goal then set new, higher goals (if you already hit your weight then set a "weight maintenance" goal)

There you have it, 5 "easy" steps to achieving your fitness resolutions. Much easier said then done. Again, this process takes time, commitment, focus, and determination to achieve your goals, but by doing this your chances of achieving your goals increase significantly. A goal of losing 30lb in 5 months is really a set of daily goals (exercise for x min per day, eat x calories per day), weekly goals (exercise x times per week, lost x lbs per week), and monthly goals (lose x lbs).

If you're in the Milwaukee area I would love to meet with you and help you achieve your fitness goals. The Wisconsin Athletic Club has been voted #1 in the area for the past 6 years in a row for a reason - the club is clean, the people are friendly, and we genuinely care about our members of the WAC family. If you're interested in sitting down with me at the club to review membership options, review your goals, and set up a complimentary one week trial membership to see if we're the right fit for you then please contact me at amarkos@thewac.com or at 414.228.2800. 

If you have any other questions or need guidance on setting your goals please let me know. Best of luck to you all! I hope 2012 brings the realization of all of your fitness, family, career, and financial goals!

True Happiness

What makes you happy? Happiness can come in many forms: making a lot of money, buying the kids lots of Christmas presents, having nice cars or a big home, etc. The problem with those forms of happiness are that they are short lived. They're short term forms of happiness that can only fill the void for so long.

Numerous psychological studies have shown that the true driver of long term happiness is being a part of something bigger than yourself.

What are you doing that's bigger than you? Do you volunteer for an organization? Does your job influence and impact people's lives in a positive way? Find something you can make a difference doing and you'll unlock that long term happiness.

As you look forward to 2012 I hope you make 2012 the year you find that long term happiness.

Real Success

"In order to succeed, your desire for success should be greater than your fear of failure" 

Success! I've finally finished the book "Real Success" from Ken Shelton and the Editors of Success Magazine. The book is a compilation of writings from Success Magazine founder Orison Sweet Marden. Orison is considered to be the founder of the modern success movement in America. 


The book is broken down into 3 sections: 1) Character, 2) Action, 3) Influence. Within section 1 - Character, there are writings on faith, self esteem, positive thinking, and affirmation. Within section 2 - Action, there are writings on work, healthy habits, goals, and adversity. Finally, within section 3 - Influence, there are writings on personality, persuasion, relationships, and leadership. As you can see, this book doesn't focus on one area of success (such as a book solely on leadership, etc) it touches on a wide variety of areas and doesn't go into as much detail in each area.


Every success area that is talked about revolves around faith. If you've read other books on success by authors such as Napoleon Hill or Norman Vincent Peale you'll find that this book follows a similar pattern. However, the faith aspect is more about "The Creator" or an "Inner Power" so it's more "general" in faith (not sure if that's the right word). I, personally, don't mind due to my faith background but I know for some people it can be tough to read. 

The biggest negative I found was that although the book isn't too long (319 pages - maybe a bit longer than similar development books) it's a long read. It seems to be very repetitive and touch on the same examples over and over again. Typically I read roughly a book a month, but this took me 3 months to read. Now, other things have come up causing me to get off the reading track (typically 30 minutes 4-5 times per week), but I was a little discouraged and felt the need to "just get through the book" at several times.

My biggest passion when it comes to success is within all of section 1 - Character. These were my favorite parts as I believe those four areas: faith, self esteem, positive thinking, and affirmation are really the foundation of success. The other sections have a variety of skills and attributes that can lead you to success. 

Something I loved about the book were the examples. There are several examples in each chapter from great leaders and successes such as Abraham Lincoln, John D. Rockefeller, Michael Jordan, and Dale Carnegie (any many, many more). 

Overall, although it's a long book, I think it's definitely worth the read if you want to touch on a wide variety of areas of success. 

Now, time to enter my underlines and notes into the "Knowledge Bank" and move onto the next book! 

4 Ways to Deal With Criticism

"There's always room for improvement, you know - it's the biggest room in the house." Louise Health Leber


Everybody has goals, dreams, aspirations, hopes, and in order to achieve them you must steadily improve in your skills. Nobody wakes up one day and POOF they saved a million dollars or POOF they are a CEO or POOF they lost 40lbs. Achieving your goals takes a steady, daily effort of hard work, making mistakes, learning from the mistakes, and steadily improving until you hit that big goal.

Mistakes and criticism come with improvement; in fact, they're a prerequisite to improvement and achieving your goals. If you never takes risks or make mistakes and never learn to improve how are you going to move forward?

It's important when dealing with criticism that you take it for what it's worth - a chance to improve. Not all managers or people are great at giving criticism (but hopefully it's something they're making mistakes and learning on as well) so it's important to keep a few things in mind when dealing with criticism (from the book "Real Success"...yes, I'm still reading it...long read):

1. Don't take it personally - It's not you, but what you've done that is being criticized. Keep your emotions out of it.   
2. Accept it as part of the job - Criticism is part of the learning process. You cannot learn unless your mistakes are pointed out to you. 
3. Find good in it - If the criticism makes you aware of an unperceived weakness, faults or errors, despite your initial hurt, you can learn from it. Focus on the lesson.
4. Remember the objective is to help you to succeed

Again, some people and managers are better in delivery of criticism then others. Although you can't control how criticism is delivered you can control your response to it. By keeping the above 4 points in mind when given criticism you will be able to take it, learn from it, improve from it, and take another step toward achieving your ultimate goals.