Romain Chevalier is a certified health and performance coach, pilates instructor and personal trainer.
A highly decorated athlete, he is ranked among the top 10 triathletes in Thailand.
He is based in Hua Hin and can help you become the best version of yourself.
Connect with Romain on Facebook and start your journey to a better you @HealthCoachRomain
Continuing his monthly health and fitness feature for Hua Hin Today, Romain discusses goal setting.
The new year is almost here, and with it, a myriad of resolutions.
But why wait until January to start setting your goals?
Cast your mind back to the start of 2022, you no doubt set yourself some resolutions but how many of those goals did you actually achieve?
There is nothing different or special about January 1st. Now is always the best time to set new goals regardless of when now is.
It could be that your life circumstances change or you have a realisation that things aren’t going the way you’d like them to. You don’t need to wait to make adjustments.
When it comes to helping people set and achieve their goals, I take a three step approach:
1. Believe
2. Commit
3. Achieve
BELIEVE: The first step is to deeply convince yourself that no matter how BIG your goal is, you can certainly achieve it.
It really helps to visualise yourself achieving your goals. Try to imagine what it will feel like once your goal has been achieved. Ask yourself why it is so important that you achieve your goal and remind yourself of that answer in both the good and difficult times as you begin your journey to achieving said goal.
Admittedly, it is not always easy to just imagine yourself achieving a goal. If this is the case, try breaking your goal down into a series of smaller goals that will help you achieve the bigger goal.
For example, if you would like to lose some weight and say drop 30kg, the first milestone would be to drop 10kg, then 15kg etc.
COMMIT: The next step on the pathway to achieving your goal is to fully commit to it. Make sure you understand that it will not always be easy, that your plan will probably need to be refined, that you will have doubts and that you will lack motivation at some point. But in those times remember your WHY, keep believing and stay committed.
In order to stay committed, once you have set your goal, put it out there, tell people that’s your goal and even post about it on social media. Write it down on a sticky note on your bathroom mirror or set it as the home screen on your phone. These are all simple reminders that will help you to become accountable.
ACHIEVE: The third and final step in setting your goal is to go out and achieve it. The most important part to achieving your goal is always the journey you went through and the person you became to get there.
How I achieved my goal
Before becoming a health and performance coach, I was an engineer with a comfortable position in a big company.
When I decided to change my career path to become a personal trainer, my first step was to believe that I will make it, that I will be successful through this career path and that I will manage to generate enough income to make a decent living.
My WHY was that I wanted to help as many people as I could.
Two years into my career as a personal trainer, I was doing OK and feeling like I was getting closer to achieving my goal. Then the pandemic hit, gyms closed and for many of my clients, fitness became less of a priority. The result was that my income was dramatically reduced.
Despite going through what was a challenging time, I kept my commitment to achieving my goal and decided to fine tune my plans.
Part of this saw me move from Bangkok to Hua Hin, where there was more opportunity for open air fitness, in order to help relaunch my business.
I also stepped up my marketing and pushed myself harder than I ever had done before and slowly but surely began to rebuild my business.
Fast forward to today and I can honestly say that I am at the point where I have achieved my goal.
I am now helping 4-5 clients every day toward their own goals, working with another few clients online and helping Jetts Fitness on business development to inspire more people to be healthy.
But I am now looking on to my next goal, which for me will be the launch of Runista.com an online website to help people with their running, triathlon or cycling goals. The aim of Runista.com is to help and guide more people toward their goal on a daily basis.
If you would like help achieving your fitness goals, connect with Romain on Facebook at: facebook.com/HealthCoachRomain
