If you want to improve your health, it takes steps to get there. So learning how to set a short term fitness goal and achieve it is all you need. Little steps grow into big changes. So you need smart fitness goals to get you moving in the right direction.

Goals can help you along your fitness journey. Setting an outcome goal is the first step in reaching a big goal for your future. People who don’t set goals for themselves don’t reach them for sure. Starting your goal setting with smaller goals helps you reach the big ones, the ultimate goal that you’re shooting for. It’s the best way to stay on track.

If you want to build upper body strength or cardiovascular endurance, make specific goals that take your individual needs into account, and work your way from there. You need to set an ambitious goal for yourself that gets you out of your comfort zone but also makes sure your new goals are realistic. You have to have measurable goals with an action plan. You need to take your daily activities and current fitness level into account in order to make realistic goals that you can stick to.

What is a short term goal?

A short term fitness goal is critical for forming habits for success. So are long term fitness goals, but we will get to that in a later post. So what is a short term fitness goal anyway?

Short term fitness goals are milestones that can be attained in a short amount of time such as 6 months or less. They will bring you closer to achieving your ultimate vision of success. These goals are typically more specific to your needs and personal life than your long term goals will be.

To reduce frustration about getting to where you want to be, you set short term goals that are easy to attain and show you that you are making progress. They might be seen as insignificant, but they are what leads to lasting change for the future.

You might be able to attain a short term fitness goal by the end of six months, but you might be able to achieve it by the end of the month, or even in a week! Long term results are based on small decisions you make each day.

What are some of the benefits of setting short term fitness goals?

• Growth: the more short term goals you set, the more skills you’ll have for lasting change
• Direction: short term goals help you focus on which way you want to go
• Momentum: short term goals can be achieved quickly so they set you up for the next phase with excitement

Short term fitness goals examples

Here are some great examples of short term fitness goals to add to your plans:

• Lose 15 pounds in 3 months
• Run a 5K in 6 months
• Stretch daily for 1 month
• Yoga twice a week
• Burn at least 1,500 calories a day by walking for 1 month
• Reduce body fat 15% in the next 3 months
• Work up to 12 push ups, 12 sit ups and 6 chin ups in 2 months
• Learn to do the splits in the next 6 months
• Keep a food journal for 2 months
• Add a vegetable to your plate at every meal (you can learn to like vegetables)
• Add a glass of water twice a day to what I drink now for 6 months
• Join a zumba class at the gym and reduce body fat % by 5 percent in 2 months
• Gain 3 pounds of muscle mass in the next 4 months through weight training
• Reduce my blood pressure by 20 points in 6 months so I can get off my medication
• Eliminate trans fats from my diet in the next 4 months
• Do strength training exercises twice a week
• Get a new training plan by Friday
• Lose 1% of my bodyweight in the next 6 weeks
• Lower my LDL cholesterol in the next 6 months
• Get my heart rate up every day for 30 days
• Learn proper form for the exercises I like in the next 6 weeks with a personal trainer

I think you’re getting the point. Get a journal and write down what you’d like to achieve in the next 6 months. Make some of them 1-week goals, 1-month goals, 2-month goals, 4-month goals, and 6-month goals. Then decide what it’s going to take to get there. You can do this. I believe in you. And I can’t wait to hear all about how you made small healthy changes to your life!

For long term fitness goals, check this out. You can even set specific Gym Goals.

If you want more of my weight loss story and how I grew up on little Debbies and soda and learned how to change my health and life through exercise and nutrition, check out this nutrition guide. It has some basic dos and don’ts that my wife and I used for me to lose 100 pounds and be on no medication at age 53. There are also some sample meal plans in there. It was a long process, not a quick fix, but if I can do it, so can you!

There are so many things that exercise can help change in your life. Setting behavior goals, body weight goals, process goals, and goals for healthy habits is the best way to reach your fitness objectives and improve your overall health. It takes lifestyle changes to reach the next level, not just a temporary change. Setting goals can help you make those changes. And every little bit you do, gets you closer to the desired outcome of being the best version of yourself. I am so proud of you for wanting to make a change and taking an actionable step toward a higher energy level, working on your mental health issues, improving your cardiovascular fitness, losing weight, getting stronger, and more. You got this and I’m rooting for you!

Here are some super simple exercises for beginners to get you started.

Now for a joke:

Jogging goals

2016 – didn’t jog
2017 – didn’t jog
2018 – didn’t jog
2019 – didn’t jog
2020 – didn’t jog
2021 – still didn’t jog

Darn. This is becoming a running joke now… Tee hee!