Drastic measures

Ok, maybe not so drastic - it depends on your point of view and what you need to change and how much change you need to make - with me so far? ... ok, enough with the generalizations.

People tell me they need to lose weight - OK, fine, but without "measures" you won't know where you started, where you want to be nor how long it is going to take you to reach your magic number. Without knowing the amount of energy you are putting into your body vs the amount of energy you are expending - you can't see whether you need to make any adjustments, nor can you track your progress.

Are you willing to do some kind of exercise? How much? What measures are you going to use to see if you are getting fitter, faster or leaner? Case in point - I got onto the static bike today to "test" my current level of fitness. I've not cycled distance for a long time and I know I didn't have traffic, cars or lights to hamper the progress - but I wanted to cycle the equivalent of home to work ... how long would it take in ideal conditions? And how many calories would I burn as a result.

Answer: 21.5km's 44 mins and 300 calories later with average RPM 107

And then I thought - 300 calories - goodness, it's no wonder people struggle with weight gain (me included over the years I have to say), that's about the average calorie count of a small chocolate bar !!!!

But lets carry on for just a moment to some of the other biggies

Money. Most people have "make more money" at the top of their new year's resolutions lists. OK - so - what is "more"? 5c is more, so - what is more - really?
What do you currently earn - before tax? after tax? and after living expenses? how much are you saving from each pay cheque? how much do you have saved? where can you make some changes to your current expenditure so you can turn that around some? You may say, well things are pretty tight, that's why I need more money - well what do you spend on a daily basis? Can you cut that out? Consider:

1 cup of coffee, average these days is $4 x 5 working days in a week = $20 x 48 working weeks in the year = $960

Most people don't notice they are spending $4 a day, but can you find a spare $960 out of your annual salary? What else can you use that for?

Once you are using your current money as effectively as you can, then you can decide how much more money you really need - what will make a difference to you? In most cases the answer is stop wasting the money you currently have and pay off your debts as fast as possible... assuming you have them of course. Then you need to ask - what else can I do to make more money? Do you need to get a better paying position? Do you need to buy a smaller house, ditch the mortgage and give yourself an income boost at the same time? Are you sales / commission based - well then, how many more clients do you need to call upon to get the numbers you say you need?

Ultimately - in order to know where we want to be, we need to know our current base lines. I know those base lines do need some thinking about, but until you have them you will struggle to know your progress. Work out what you are willing to do to achieve them, set your measures and then follow your plan. But we'll talk more about plans tomorrow - until then - good luck working out your baseline measures.

Elle