"A Goal is a Dream with a Deadline"

It's a beautiful Sunday morning here in Lexington, Kentucky...and I qualify that by saying a sunny, 45 degree day at the end of January in an already too long and cold winter is a welcomed relief!  I'm sipping on coffee as I write new monthly training programs for my personal training clients.  I'm thinking of new ways to challenge them and keep them headed in the right direction to achieving their goals.  And I glance at one of the framed quotes I keep on the wall of my training studio.

"A Goal is a Dream with a Deadline."  This simple quote by American author Napoleon Hill (1883 - 1970) conveys a message which is so overlooked in our lives.  It is at the heart of the service I provide to my clients and the main ingredient for success I try to instill in each one of them.  We all have dreams of who we want to become and in the case of my clients, the body image and healthy lifestyle they want to attain.  But until we turn those dreams into realistic, achievable goals by establishing a deadline for when we'll arrive there, they remain nothing more than something intangible.

I ask every client what they want to accomplish before I prescribe their first workout.  It may be to get to a certain weight or body fat percentage.  It may be to get back into a specific clothing size.  Their desired results are varied.  It becomes my duty to help them establish a deadline for when they will get there, and to set quantifiable milestones along the way to ensure we are headed in the right direction, with the least number of obstacles, to arriving on time.

So now I return my attention to the client's program setting before me.  Am I keeping them on track?  Is this plan going to get them to that next milestone and more importantly, that current goal?  Alright then...another sip of coffee and back to work!