The importance of setting goals…

It all started with me sat on an exercise bike in the summer of 2019. As part of my role here, I was in the middle of coordinating our annual DB Wood Static Bike Ride (if you’re a long-standing client of DB Wood you’ll be familiar with the event and may have even come to cheer us on the day!). It involves two people at a time frantically riding exercise bikes simultaneously for an hour each, with the team overall riding for a total of twelve hours, in order to raise money for many of our local charities. It’s always a great success and we generally manage to raise a sizeable amount, naturally coming away with big smiles on our faces.

Luckily (or unluckily as it would turn out), I usually manage to dip out of my slot and just help organise, but in 2019 for some reason I found myself sat on that bike. “It’s for charity,” I told myself. “For an hour? Pfft, I can do that easy.” The first minute was fine… the remaining 59 however, I can honestly say they were the longest hour of my life! My lungs were on fire, the pain in my legs was immense, not to mention the pure hell that bike seat caused…

I came off the bike close to tears, my whole body just utterly exhausted. More than anything I was embarrassed. My mum had come by to take a photo of me on the bike to cheer me on. Looking at it though, I was horrified. It did not look like me, not the image I had in my head of myself anyway. The bike looked tiny underneath me, like I was close to consuming it. I’m not being dramatic but it made me think of those clowns you see, pedalling on those miniature bikes for entertainment. Except this was worse because it wasn’t intentional! I had no idea that I was as big as that.

I knew I was slightly curvier than most, I’d always enjoyed my food, perhaps had coveted alcohol more than necessary at university but who hadn’t? I was happy! So, either I was incredibly naïve, or I was just not acknowledging the obvious. I quickly came inside because I was too uncomfortable to be around anyone. I sat down at my desk, and right next to where I sit every day is one of the DB Wood core values showcased on the wall…

“Don’t wish it was easier, strive to be better.”

Our Managing Director Ashley Brooks has always pushed us to be better in 6 months than we are today, the idea of ‘better’ being relative to each of our personal situations. From having that photo burned into my brain, to staring at these words on the wall next to me, I decided to reach Ashley’s mantra and I knew I was going to be better in 6 months than I was that day.

Later that day I worked out my BMI and then what would be an ideal BMI for someone of my height. It was quite a difference but that didn’t matter, it was a goal. I’d always been sort of aimless when I was younger, lacked focus overall and sort of just took life as it came. I didn’t think more than a month in advance most of the time, I didn’t think I needed to until I sat on that bike. It became clear to me though, with the amount of weight I needed to lose it was going to take a lot of work paired with a huge amount of focus and determination. I needed a plan.

I broke it down; I planned how much I’d ideally like to lose each week and so looked at how many weeks it would be until I would be where I wanted. Thus, I got my end date. I’d created a roadmap, but how did I know that it was going to work? Of course, I could plan to lose 3lbs each week but what actions did I need to undertake to achieve this? So, I researched. I built up my knowledge base, read countless articles, blog posts, ordered books, listened to podcasts. I began to put the work in. I ate in a calorie deficit, drank more water, tried to eat mainly the right things. It was hard, but it was working. I started losing weight. Week after week, I hit my goals, so in turn I hit my monthly goals.

Finally, two years later I’m looking at a total weight loss of nearly 9 stone. Do you see now? I wasn’t being dramatic!

Having hit where I always wanted to be, I do wonder why didn’t I do this sooner? What stopped me getting here earlier? I think that it’s because I didn’t have that goal clear in my mind. It was always something I’d get round to, and it would be alright in the end.

If you don’t have a clear goal in your mind, paired with a time horizon, then the chances are your plan will never materialise. Everyone has different goals of course; it is all relative. What’s right for one is not necessarily right for another.

Whatever your aspirations and your objectives you have something to aim for. As Mark Twain once said,” the secret of getting ahead is getting started”. One thing for sure is that if you bring that goal to DB Wood, we will replicate your determination and hard work to helping you develop your roadmap, and plan, to help make your goal a reality.

Unless of course your goal is to lose weight, that bit I had to do mostly on my own…😊

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