While it is tempting to set super-sized goals for the New Year, what your personal training clients might need most is to set habit-oriented goals to give them a super-sized lifestyle. When it comes to developing a lifestyle behavior change like regular exercising and a consistently balanced diet, habits must become established. Habit tracking could be the secret weapon to helping your clients develop consistent habits that will last a lifetime.
The concept is simple. Choose a habit that you want to perform every day, every week, every month etc. and record when you perform it. Habit tracking can bring accountability and satisfaction to your client by giving them a visual representation of the habits they are establishing.
Here are a few habit tracking tools to keep your clients on track:
The Calendar
After your client has set a goal for the frequency of a habit, have the client mark on a calendar the days they plan to exercise. Once they’ve exercised on one of those days they can cross the day off the calendar.
This method helps clients commit to and follow through with their plans for the week. This can also be used to keep them accountable to their exercise prescription.
The Spreadsheet
If your client has multiple daily goals, they can list them in a spreadsheet with corresponding days of the week. If they met the goal for the day it gets an X or a star etc. This spreadsheet will give you a great start.
This method can give your clients a visual representation of what it looks like when you accumulate good habits.
The Journal
This method can be helpful for goals related to mindfulness and body positivity. Your client can use a journal to record 5-10 thoughts of gratitude, intentions for the day, or simply their goals for the day. Two great journals are High Performance Planner and Start Today Journal.
This is a great way for clients to start the day with their goals in mind.
The Apps
If your client likes to keep their plans and goals all in one place and needs reminders to keep them accountable, an app may be their life-saver.
Apps like Momentum, Streaks, Productive Habit Tracker and many more are a perfect way to keep reminders for your habits with you all the time and integrate your habits into your tech life.
Tracking habits is a method for changing behavior that works for many people. Small steps are what helps a person reach big goals. Change happens slowly with commitment and consistency. Help your clients find a tracking method that works for a meaningful goal they want to achieve.
Hanna Riley B.S. in Kinesiology, NFPT CPT is a passionate trainer, writer, and graphic designer. Hanna's greatest passion is working with people who want to better themselves physically, mentally, and spiritually. She believes that we are all stronger than we think and she aspires to extend patience, kindness, education, self-motivation, confidence to her clients to help them unleash their strength. For more from Hanna, connect on social media on Facebook as Hanna Riley and Instagram as @house.ofhanna.
