Health & Wellbeing News

Set a goal to stay active this winter

Give your motivation and confidence a boost this winter. Stay active and celebrate your progress—big or small—with an open goal.

If you’re looking for a bit more motivation to get active this winter, why not set an open goal? It may give you that extra pep you need to head out the door for a walk, do a workout at home or even go to the gym.

What is an open goal?

Open goals are also known as ‘do-your-best’ goals because they are all about seeing how well you can do, not about measuring up to a specific goal at a fixed moment in time.

Open goals work differently to traditional ‘SMART’ goals. They are open-ended and more flexible. For example, an open goal to be more active could be—‘I want to see how many minutes of activity I can do every day’ instead of ‘I will do 45 minutes of exercise every day’. Or, ‘I want to see how many times I can get to the gym in a month’ instead of ‘I will go to the gym three times each week’.

Why are open goals helpful?

Here’s five reasons to consider setting an open goal if you want to be more active:

1. Because open goals are about doing your best, they have no fixed end point, so there is no ‘failure’ if you don’t reach a specific goal. Phew!
2. Open goals focus on and celebrate your progress. It doesn’t matter if you’re progressing quickly or slowly—all progress is a win.
3. Open goals are flexible and adjust for the challenges of everyday life—like being sick, working longer hours or going on holiday. Remember, it’s about doing your best. If you’ve been unwell maybe the best you can do today is less than last week, but it’s still your best.
4. Open goals can also help you be more realistic about what you can achieve.
5. They help you remain positive about your activity and make the activity seem more enjoyable. All positives that will keep your momentum going!

How to set an open goal

If you want to try an open goal, here’s a few tips:

• Think about what you want to achieve—do you want to be more active? Do you want more variety in your activity?
• Decide how you’re going to measure your progress—for example, the number of minutes of activity you do every day.
• Keep your goal open-ended—‘I want to see how many minutes of activity I can do every day’.
• Plan how you are going to achieve your goal—so think about how you are going to be more active or what you can do to put your new ‘habit’ into practice. For example, ‘I am going to find three ways to be more active every week’.

Monitor your progress online

Get Active Victoria can help you track your progress. Login to your account and record your activity in the Activity Tracker. You can see all your activity over the month on your Dashboard. Following your results may inspire you to do more.

This winter be kind to yourself both when setting a goal and when working towards it. Do your best and celebrate any progress you make!

ACTIVE SCHOOLS TERM 3

Speaking of setting goals!  At the end of last year, Jackson School was informed that it was successful in its application for a $30000 grant from the Active Schools Initiative.  This initiative is funded through the work of ACPHER (Australian Council for Health, Phyisical Education and Recreation) Victtoria.  At Jackson School, this money is being used to fund what I refer to as our Coaches in Residence Program.  Students from Yrs 2-10 will have the services of Tennis and Football (soccer) coaches along with Hip Hop instructors from the Freelance Dance Studio in Footscray.  Our already successful Morning Fitness Program (once again available to all students from Yr 2-12) would also use the funding to further expand this program expand to include our Yr 11 and 12 students.  When I met with my Active Schools Co-ordinators to explain to them how the money would be utilised, I stated that my goal for the Morning Fitness Program was to achieve a 70% participation rate across all PLT groups.  A tad ambitious, was what they said to me.  However, we are currently attracting around 60% of students in most groups of students.  The Coaches in Residence Program achieves roughly 90% of students participating in these coaching sessions.

Sporting Schools

The Sporting Schools Program funded by the Federal Government’s Sports Commission will continue in the second half of this term. Students in Yrs 2-5 will receive four weeks of Tennis coaching; Yr 5/6 students will receive coaching in Taekwondo; Yr 7/8 students will be involved in Football (Soccer) coaching whist students in Yrs 9/10 will have coaches from the Westgate Basketball Association working with them for four weeks.