I've written about the question I ask all of my clients every week: what's the one thing (non-gym related) you're going to do this week to get closer to your health/fitness goals? You can read about it here. Today I had a session with a newer client, and this week was the first time she got the email asking that question. With all clients I always bring the question up during their first session of the week. Luckily she was prepared and had an answer for me. Even better she had answers to the follow up questions that I always ask.
The follow up questions help me (and the client) figure out if the task will actually get them closer to their goal and if the task is actually doable for the client.
So what are the follow up questions?
- The first one is "why". If you can answer this the likelihood of you actually doing the task skyrockets. Your "why" should be individual to you. This should be obvious but you'd be surprised how many people pick tasks/goals just because they it's what they're supposed to be doing based off of other people's values.
- The next question is "how". Having answers to the "how" question will tell you if you can realistically complete the task. If you can't answer these you may have to reevaluate. How are you going to complete the task? How are you going to track the task? When are you going to complete the task?
- The last question is "what's your confidence level". Here I'm asking how confident are you that you can and you will complete the task. On a scale of 1-10, I like for my clients to be at least an 8. If they're below an 8 I'll work with them to refine the task until they are an 8. This task should be very easy. The easier it is the more likely you are to actually do it.
I've been purposefully vague about the specific task. The reason for that is because the particular goal/task doesn't matter. Whatever it is, in order to be successful you have to be able to answer those follow-up questions (and the questions that might pop up based off your answers).
Here's how it actually went with my client this morning (it would've been really mean to make you read through this without giving the specifics...):
I asked her the question. She replied, "I'm going to journal my food for 4 days, including one weekend day."
Before I could even ask why, she said only 4 days because in the past when she's tried to do more it's been too overwhelming and she quits.
I asked if she knew which days she would do. She replied "Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Saturday."
I asked her on a scale of 1-10 how confident she was. She replied an 8.
Like I said she was prepared. Now this might not work for me or I might change some things to fit my life. But it's not about me. It's about her and what will work best for her. By answering the follow up questions, she showed that she's given her health/fitness some thought for this week. Now as her coach, I'm confident she will be successful this week. Then I'll ask the questions again next week.
