Everyone loves the idea of being healthier, fitter, slimmer or stronger but to be successful, each person must get into a position to become fully involved in what they want to achieve, how their lifestyle will allow them to achieve it and, crucially, by when.
Only when these things have been considered, can you make your aims a priority, schedule your activities correctly and create an atmosphere of ongoing success to replace any notion of failure.
So, how do you know what your ideal fitness programme is? Firstly, ask yourself, 'if I achieved my ideal fitness, what would my life consist of and what would an average week of fitness look like?' The answers people can come up with here can be very ambitious with the ideal programme for an aspiring regular gym-goer often looking something similar to the schedule for an Olympic athlete.
So now ask yourself, 'when specifically will I be doing each part of my ideal schedule?' The ideas you come up with here will begin the process of turning your Olympian schedule into a more achievable proposition by focusing on what training you would like to do or would be able to do at different times on various days as you fit the programme together in your head.
So far, so good.
Now comes the key question, which is often overlooked.
Ask yourself, 'if this is my ideal schedule, with commitments to various activities at set times and days, would it work if I were to put it into action immediately?' Would it work if the week you are imagining in your head was this week? Would it work if you were to put it in the context of the other things going on in your life like work, family, friends, socializing and your other interests and hobbies? If not, what would work? Which of the elements of your 'ideal' fitness programme are really possible and even desirable given everything else that you have and that you enjoy in your life? By acknowledging that your current ideal fitness programme could be an abstract ideal and not a realistic proposition for your current situation, you are now free to get on with designing a new schedule that can become your true ideal.
This time, your ideal programme is designed specifically around your needs and your situation, it fits into your life, and is achievable.
Manage your expectations carefully.
Aim too high and you will set yourself up for disappointment.
Aim too low and progress will be slow.
Think carefully about your ideal fitness programme and then slot it gently into your life.
Everyone has the ability to plan a fitness programme they can easily follow and get results with.
When you know your schedule you can plan when to put fitness into action and then you can forget about it for the rest of the time.
So not only do you become the active exerciser you have always wanted to be, you will be liberated by success and free from the perpetual guilt of not living up to an ideal that was never realistic in the first place.