Do You Celebrate Your Progress? Here's Why Small Steps Toward Fitness Goals Matter
It’s week 4 of JOYN The Movement & this week it’s all about celebrating the progress you’ve made so far and understanding why it’s so important to take small steps towards your long term goals.
In case you missed it: We’re starting 2023 by focusing on JOY. Why? Because it’s the secret to crushing your goals. Seriously, it's scientifically proven that practicing gratitude can improve your physical and mental well-being and make you more likely to exercise. Here’s everything from weeks 1-3 - and find out more about the next 3 weeks here.
Let’s get straight into week 4!
4 reasons why small steps toward fitness goals matter & help you stay motivated
1. Taking small steps helps us get started
Ok, so think of it this way when you focus on a large, long-term goal it can trigger your body and mind’s fight-or-fight reaction. Don’t get us wrong, we love ambition and it’s definitely important to have some idea of where you want to be – while you don't want a goal that's too easy (because you won't be able to take it seriously), you also don't want a goal that's too lofty (because it becomes daunting and hard to dive into). Then you feel like you've failed before you started, and that's just not helpful.
Setting goals that are attainable with effort allows you to build into your routine and make progress over time. Even if you’ve already got started with your goals, it’s never to let to take a small-steps approach. Take a step back, reevaluate, set a step-by-step plan & get going, mama!
2. Taking small steps towards goals increases motivation
One small research project by Stanford Business School found that participants who used “sub-goals” as a way to build to the final goal had an enhanced sense that their goals could be attained, and therefore experienced greater motivation! Who doesn’t need even more motivation when it comes to exercise?
3. Consistency will make it easier to reach your goals
A social science researcher BJ Fogg did a research project with 60,000 people that found “anyone can develop new habits and routines, however ambitious, if they start tiny” – now, that’s pretty powerful stuff.
Fogg’s research is based on the idea that a failure to develop new routines and reach goals has nothing to do with a person’s willpower or self-discipline, but instead, it’s about changing how we all structure and think about routine building. focusing on tiny changes to routine and small steps toward goals can help shift your mindset into feeling like progress is achievable.
4. Celebrating the small wins drives momentum
Research by Teresa Amabile from Harvard Business School, which looked at key motivators for people in the workplace, found that the more frequently people experience a sense of progress, the more likely they are to be creatively productive in the long run. On top of that, experiencing and relishing small wins significantly impacted the way people performed and increased their happiness.
This same logic can be applied to fitness goals too; if you celebrate small achievements as your progress, it will help keep momentum toward your goals and help you find joy in movement and in your fitness routine.
So, do you celebrate your progress each time you take a step toward your goal? Let us know how in the comments!