To recap- “Shiny Object Syndrome” (or SOS) is a term used to describe a tendency to be easily distracted by new and exciting ideas, opportunities, or possibilities that may not necessarily align with one’s goals or priorities. It’s a common problem, particularly in health and wellness where we are constantly bombarded with new info, fads and influencers doing all sorts of crazy stuff.
If you have SOS with your fitness routine you may find it hard to stay interested in one gym or one program, you may find yourself jumping from one type style of workout to another every few months and feeling like nothing is getting you results. This can be super frustrating and it will definitely deter you from reaching your goals.
Here are a few tips to overcome “SOS” and crush your goals
1- Be honest with yourself and why you want what you want. Do you want to “run a marathon” or do you really just want to start running for better conditioning, to challenge yourself to do something new or maybe lose🤷🏻♀️. All of those reasons are great, but you may not need to run a marathon to achieve them (and an aside, cardio is not the best way to lose weight… pick up those weights!…rant over)
2 -Identify what you are willing to do to achieve the goal, be real with yourself homies. Set a SMART (Specific Measurable Achievable Realistic and Time bound) goal you are WILLING to stick to. There may be things that are non-negotiable, and that is OK – live your life people! Example, if you want to run a marathon, you HAVE to make time for long runs and most busy humans have to do that on the weekend. If you aren’t willing to turn in early on a Friday night or Saturday and get up early to run for several hours, you likely aren’t ready to tackle this goal. And that is just FINE.
3- Based on what you are willing to do, assess the timeline and get realistic. Using the marathon example, Maybe you aren’t up for 3-4 hours of running on the weekend, BUT you could totally do an hour, maybe two. Maybe, for you right now in your life, it is more realistic to set your sights on a 10k or Half Marathon🏃♀️.
4- Understand there is still room for things that bring you joy, and it is OK to do what brings you joy. If you decide you can’t give up your Saturday morning yoga for a long run, THEN GOOD (…I HIGHLY recommend you join me at HOLDING SPACE in Pembroke for 8am sessions on the lawn this summer, tell them I sent you for a deal, namaste!). It is ok to not have an aggressive fitness goal at all times and making time for movement that make you feel good is important (…and listen, I get it, this is a hard one for me, but embracing this makes everything better!)
To all my fabulous little SOS friends, FEAR NOT! You can overcome this and crush your goals. I hope this was helpful.
