goal "gym" Define the Goal

The goal that I am setting for myself for the next three-four months is to go the gym regularly. I feel that going to the gym and getting exercise is very important for one's health. I have seen the impact that going to the gym has made on some people in my life, and want to have the same positive experience. I know that inherently, exercise is a part of being healthy. The healthier that I am, the better my quality of life will be. To support having a better quality of life, I want to start regular exercise. Further, I look at the next four months as being important because that will take me into summer. In the warmer months, you wear less clothing, and I want to feel good, fit and confident to just go out and look great, and not have any reason to be self-conscious about my appearance. So there are two powerful goals in mind -- vanity being one and a deeper concern for my own quality of life being the other, that are driving my decision to begin regular exercise. To quantify this goal, I want to go to the gym 3-4 times per week for the next four months.

How I Will Achieve my Goal

I will have to undertake...

The first of these steps is to change my frame of mind with respect to exercise. I have to admit, I have had a love-hate with exercise over the course of my life. At times, I have been pretty fit, but other times not so much. So for me, I have to remember what it is I like about the way I feel when I am fit. I believe that this is an important component of the behavior change. As they say in marketing, you sell the benefit, not the features. If the feature is a thinner, healthier me, the benefits are what I can do with that. I can enjoy the outdoors more, I can feel more confident and I will know that I am going to enjoy a longer, happier life if I commit to getting into shape. That is the mental perspective I want to have, rather than thinking that exercise is some torturous sacrifice that I am making, because that negative mindset will inevitably lead me to just not wanting to make that sacrifice -- I have to keep focused on the positive.
The second way that I will commit to achieving this goal is to join a gym. This is a bigger deal than it seems. First, it represents money out of my budget, and I need to be…