There is a lot of talk in fitness & sports on social media and in the public domain about identifying and understanding your goals and reasons why you do what you do. Why do you train? Why do you play your sport? Why do you choose to eat well, track macros or take supplements?

The purpose of this blog is to try to provide some clarity and understanding of goal setting and self reflection, and discuss the positive (and negative) impact it can have on mindset and mental health.

Why is goal setting important?

Goal setting and reflection, when done effectively, can be the key to keeping you motivated to train, to push hard and head to the gym even when you may be faced with adversity. Perhaps you want to get your first bar muscle up, or to run a 5 km in less than 30 minutes. You train, you give everything, you eat well, you achieve this goal...and within 24 hours you have a new goal...you start over. Now you aim for ring muscle ups or running a 5 km in less than 25 minutes.

Having short term goals like this, as discussed in our previous blog, keeps you motivated. They are like milestones in your journey. They give you a sense of achievement, reward and instant gratification. Almost like a continual competition against yourself. This can be much more rewarding now than long term goals which may be less tangible. So, the point of this blog is not to say that short term goals aren’t useful.

However, whilst these tangible goals may be great for keeping you motivated when you achieve them, if they take longer than anticipated this process can become incredibly difficult mentally. A feeling of never being quite good enough. As soon as you celebrate one win, it is no longer enough. You may feel pressure, or may compare to others and come up short. As Theodore Roosevelt famously said,

“Comparison is the thief of joy”.

This one phrase evokes a powerful sentiment that can be life-changing. If we compare ourselves to others, we may be left with feelings of inferiority or superiority—and neither creates an emotionally healthy human being! This is where the importance of acknowledging and understanding your long-term motivations and reasons comes in. 

How to set effective goals

So, how can you go about goal setting in a way that it’ll motivate you, provide that short term, day-to-day gratification, but still keep you feeling determined when times get tough? Perhaps you could start off by identifying the following:

• 1-2 short term goals

• 1-2 short term actions to achieve these goals

• 1-2 “ultimate reasons” and long term goals

• 1-2 long term actions to support these reasons.

This framework can also be applied to your career, nutrition, or any other aspect of your life.

This may take some reflection and it may take time, as you may not have asked yourself these questions before. When you come up with an answer, try asking yourself “okay, but why?”. Challenge yourself.

For example, saying you train to achieve a strict pull up is like saying you eat to feel full. Feeling full, or that pull up, is just a product of taking actions towards your real mission. So, why do you want a pull up? Be honest with yourself, question your immediate answer, and go deeper.

Ultimate Goals

Your ultimate reasons for training could be:

• To stay mobile and functional in everyday life as you get older.

• For mental health and well-being.

• To have fun and socialise.

• To stack the odds of health in your favour. Or to have better health than the older generations of your family.

• For aesthetics (there is no shame in this), or to grow a healthier relationship with your body.

Whatever your underlying reasons and “why’s”, they are personal and they are right for you. The difficult but most rewarding part of this process is identifying, accepting and remembering them when times get tough.

Once you understand your ultimate reasons, when the unpredictable happens, or when a spanner is thrown in the works, or when short term goals take longer than anticipated to achieve...it is easier to remember your reasons why and to keep going. To forgive yourself. To understand. To adapt. To stay motivated for your greater good by keeping things in perspective.

What are our ultimate goals?

At Hence Stacks, we have one mission. To create and provide health-focused, bespoke performance supplements which are better than others available. Supplements that actually work. That is our why. It may not be the most profitable, but Hence was founded and built on a passion. We want our supplements to help you to achieve those “ultimate”, longer term goals...by helping you towards those short term goals by improving your recovery, performance, mental well-being and health.

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