Sports Psychology -- Setting Measurable

Sports Psychology -- Setting Measurable Goals

Declaration of Goals

Lose weight through improved diet.

Establish optimal physical fitness training routine.

Stop smoking.

Timeframe for Long and Short-Term Goal Achievement

Lose weight through improved diet.

Establish specific dietary rules immediately (by the end of the week) to enable success. (Identify all junk foods, high-fat foods, high sugar-content foods, simple carbohydrates, and establish a firm limit for alcoholic beverages.) Long-term goal (4 weeks): Reduce consumption of all of the above sufficiently to lose 10 lbs in 4 weeks.

Establish optimal physical fitness training routine.

Establish specific commitment to workout at least 4 days per week immediately (by the end of the week) to enable success. Resolve to forego social activities of any kind until any missed workouts are made up every week. Long-term goal (4 weeks): Reduce missed workouts to 0 per week by completing 16 workouts in 4 weeks.

Stop smoking.

Establish specific rules for smoking cessation plan immediately (by the end of the week) to enable success. Instead of attempting the "cold turkey" approach (again), I will employ a behaviorism-based approach whose principal feature is distinguishing between physiological and psychological nicotine craving. Long-term goal (4 weeks): Completely eliminate all "comfort" cigarettes and "habitual" smoking scenarios. By the end of the 4th week, smoke only half a cigarette at a time, only when necessitated by intense physical symptoms or withdrawal (i.e. headache, nausea, intense physical craving), and only under conditions that introduce some element of unpleasantness (such as standing on one foot, standing outside in the cold without a coat, or while keeping one palm pressed flat against the floor).

Specific Strategy

1. Lose weight through improved diet.

Specific strategy -- Identify the foods that are responsible for my unwanted body weight; eliminate those foods entirely on a permanent basis to establish a lifelong diet capable of allowing me to maintain my ideal weight for decades.

2. Establish optimal physical fitness training routine.

Specific strategy -- Establish a consistency to my fitness workouts that will enable me to meet my goal; permanently eliminate those barriers to consistency that have sabotaged those efforts previously.

3. Stop smoking.

End the repetitive cycle of smoking cessation followed by relapse and subsequent attempts focusing on the number of cigarettes smoked per day or per month. Stop making excuses for "comfort" and habitual smoking by never allowing smoking to be enjoyable ever again. Allow only the (smoking) equivalent of a maintenance dose of nicotine when absolutely necessary and only under circumstances that eliminate any possible enjoyment. Gradually reduce the number of those maintenance doses to zero.