BY EMMET RUSHE: “Self-efficacy is one’s belief in one’s ability to succeed in a specific situation or accomplish a task”
Self-efficacy is one of the most important factors when it comes to success in a weight loss or exercise program.
How we approach our goals at the beginning will ultimately make or break the outcomes of our goals.
This is one of the main reasons for the failure rate of New Year’s resolutions before the end of January.
According to Albert Bandura, self-efficacy (self-belief) affects thought patterns that can aid or hinder the individual.
A person with high self-belief. within exercise will feel that he or she has the ability to be successful in exercise-related activities.
Bandura proposed that self-belief is formed and affected by 4 main sources of information:
- Personal accomplishment
- Vicarious experience
- Verbal persuasion
- Physiological states
So, why is this so important when it comes to you and your goals?
When we look at new year’s resolutions, or diets, or the popular weight loss programs that the media like to flaunt at this time of year, they all have one thing in common; high failure rates.
These programs are not made to last, and we know this.
In fact, if you look at some of the advertising for some of these products, they actually tell us that other similar products have failed, but theirs is different.
They are setting you up for failure before you even begin by planting the seed of thought that it might fail.
This is absolutely detrimental to you when you are starting out on an exercise or weight loss goal.
Think about it;
How many times have you tried and failed before?
How many times have you tried, only for your friends/family/co-workers to make it hard for you to succeed because of negativity or pointing out previous failures?
All these things affect self-efficacy.
Self- belief plays an important role in how we approach goals, tasks and challenges.
If we start our journey with the mind-set that we have been down this path before and we ‘know’ that failure is at the end, we will more than likely fail.
We have to approach our new goals with a new approach.
In my first article of the year, I spoke about how setting mini goals within a larger goal can help you to stay on track.
This is a way to increase your self-efficacy when you are starting out.
We have 2 types of goals:
- Outcome focused goals
- Process focused goals
Outcome focused goals are easy. We all have them: “I want to lose 2 stone”, “I want to be rich”, “I want to have a 6 pack”.
These are all great goals to have, if you want them, but they are meaningless without having a clear process to get us to our outcome.
This is where the mini goals come into play.
If the outcome is to lose 2 stone the process has to reflect this goal, and if set out right can help to keep you on track.
OUTCOME – Lose 2 stone
PROCESS;
- Drink water every day
- Workout 3 times per week
- Reduce the amount of sugary drinks I have per week
- Walk to work 3 out of 5 days per week.
- Reduce the amount of processed foods I eat.
- Eat some sort of protein with every meal
You might look at this process and think that ‘Sure that’s simple, WE ALL KNOW THAT’, and you would be right, but have you ever actually tried it?
Or do you always go for the extreme ‘quick fixes’ that always fail?
If you focus on the process you will always have ‘mini wins’ that will lead you to your outcome.
Can you drink water every day for a week?
Yes? Congratulations, you have just had a mini accomplishment.
Can you do some sort of physical activity 3 days per week?
Yes? Congratulations, you have just had another mini win.
With each ‘mini win’ that you have you are increasing your feeling of self-efficacy and your belief that you can actually accomplish that goal.
With process goals we want to win early and win often. This will keep us on track.
The easier we can make the process for ourselves, the better able we will be to stick to the task at hand.
External motivators are great, they go hand in hand with outcome goals in the sense that they show us what we want, but they are not as powerful as internal motivators.
Internal motivators are our ‘why?’
Answer the questions below. Be truthful and you will reach your actual ”why?”
- Why do you want to make this change?
- How might you go about it in order to succeed?
- What are the 3 best reasons for you to do it?
- How important is it for you to make this change and why?
- What do you think you will do about it?
There is a great quote by Henry David Thoreau
“Things do not change; We change”.
I honestly think that people miss this simple point, we have to change, in order to get change.
If we don’t, we will always be in the same situation.
Change doesn’t have to be a bad thing.
Setting out a clear process that will let you have small accomplishments every few weeks, will keep your motivation high, but more importantly it will keep your sense of self-worth and self-efficacy high and this will ultimately lead to your success.
#TrainSmart
I help all of my members with their goals through our private Facebook group.
This is exclusive to Rushe Fitness members only and booking for our classes opens up at the end of this week.
Contact me for more information through the link below.
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Rushe-Fitness/120518884715118
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