There are many blocks that pop up and prevent us from achieving what we once were so very keen to accomplish. If you think hard enough, no doubt you can think of 3-5 reasons why you didn’t get to the gym today or why you got take away last night instead of cooking a healthy meal.

These blocks – no matter how insignificant they seem at the time – can derail your best laid plans if you don’t pay attention to them and remedy them as a matter of some urgency.

What’s stopping you from reaching your goals?

Setting goals is the easy part; achieving them is much harder. We all live hectic lives these days and any number of events can divert us from our intended path. The important thing is to notice the distractions and not allow them to completely block the path that leads you to where you want to go.

Here are a bunch of lines that fitness trainers hear all the time regarding the maintenance of a healthy lifestyle outside training sessions:

“I’m too busy.”
“I didn’t have the time.”
“I was too tired after work.”
“I couldn’t be bothered.”
“It’s too hard.”
“I don’t normally do that but…”

Do any of these sound familiar?

Let’s for a moment assume that you have set yourself some goals relating to your health and fitness (you have haven’t you?). Whether you want to drop a dress size by January or stack on more muscle by Christmas, excuses like those listed above will stop you from getting there.

So, what can you do about it?

Firstly, review your goals. Are they realistic? Are they achieveable? Are they measureable?

Next, create a plan to achieve those goals. Make sure that your plan is also realistic, achieveable and measureable.

It all looks pretty good so far: great goals, a great plan. But what about those blocks? It’s time to list everything that you think may be a block to you achieving your goals. List absolutely everything that you can think of. One by one, go through your list and determine a method of avoiding and dealing with each block. Do this now and you will know how to handle the blocks when you hit them (if you haven’t avoided them all together).

Lastly, find someone that will hold you accountable for your actions. Give this person the power to give you a kick – not necessarily literally – if you start to stray from your plan.

Got all of that?

1. goals
2. a plan
3. a list of potential blocks and how to deal with them
4. someone to make you accountable

Now, go forth and be healthy.