Every goal will have a trade-off.
Something that you will have to do or not do, in order to reach your goal. Some are pretty obvious, some are not so obvious. It is important that you realise what your trade-offs are and then decide if you are willing to make the sacrifice in order to achieve your goal. If you are not willing to do so then you should adjust your goal to align with what you are willing to do. If you do not do this then you could be setting yourself up for failure.
Below are some examples of trade-offs you may have to make to reach certain goals:
Goal = Fat loss
Lets say your goal is to get down to a single digit body fat (have ripped abs) but you like to eat out 2-3 times a week and have a 5-8 beers on a Saturday night with the lads.
These behaviours and the goal do not align so you have 2 options.
Option 1 = you can stop eating out, prepare all your own meals and give up the beers to reach your goal. That would be your trade-off.
Option 2 = You can still enjoy eating out and having the beers but instead of getting single digit body fat you may have to settle for 11-15% body fat, which is still very lean and a lot easier to maintain.
Goal = muscle gain
Your very skinny and find it hard to gain weight, your goal is to put on 4 kg of muscle in 5 months. You train 5 times a week following the program your trainer wrote for you. Most days you skip 1-2 meals because you are not that hungry and don’t like feeling too full.
Again the behaviour and goals do not align.
Option 1 = you eat all your planned meals even if you feel full to keep yourself in a calorie surplus to ensure muscle growth and that you meet your target.
Option 2 = you set a new goal of 2.5kg of muscle in 5 months and don’t eat as much.
Goal = run a marathon
Your goal is to run the Dublin marathon this year. In order to reach this goal you have to follow a strict training program right up until the event. The girls are organising a month-long trip around Asia 6 weeks before the marathon and you would like to go.
It would be almost impossible to run the marathon without training for a month 6 weeks beforehand so again the goal and behaviours do not align. you will have to make a trade-off or adjust the goal.
Option 1 = stick to your training program, skip the holiday and run in the marathon.
Option 2 = go on the holiday, pick another marathon later in the year and set a schedule of training for that instead.
These are just some examples but should give you an idea of how to establish what trade-offs you will have to make and decide if you are willing to do so.
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