Below is an edited version of LOHAS DIGEST 55  dated 25 Feb 2016.

Weeks ago, my business friend spotted me cycling around Tampines area (one of my usual trip).

An interesting discussion follow suit in our Facebook chat.

While he expressed how he envied me living a healthier lifestyle, I tried to encourage him to have more active lifestyle by doing things one step at a time.

The conversation ended with him commented about himself – ‘I’m lazy la’.

Frankly, I would never, ever, associate the word ‘lazy’ to this friend of mine.

He has been working hard, publishing books, organizing event to help the business community.

He is a business owner and certified behavioral consultant, I am sure he knows tons of knowledge on goal setting, action plan, the SMART goals approach and etc.

And he knows that he need to keep himself healthy too (I hope).

What is the missing link?

I’m sure it is never the knowledge or the know-how.
The reason I’m writing about this is because it is common that people want to achieve something and set goals with high enthusiasm and eventually see the heat fizzled out.

From my eight years of experience in training and coaching, I can safely say it is beyond goal setting if you want to achieve something (especially in health and wellness).

While there are the ‘strategies and know-how’ in achieving goals, but I think there is the ‘psychological or mental part’ that makes a big difference.

I’m not talking about the positive thinking stuff, e.g. “I can do this”, “I must do this” and etc.
Probably you have encountered people (or even yourself) forcing themselves to say “I can do this” but deep down inside their heart, they know that they were kidding themselves.

For example, a common thing that people say to themselves is “I must lose 5kg!” but inside their heart they are struggling and have this little voice “Really? Can I achieve this?”

So, it is beyond setting goal and positive thingy, even though both are essential.

I call it ‘Setting the Intention’ – it’s beyond goal setting and it works better without stress.

For example, I had successfully breakthrough my limiting beliefs and I was able to be more active in Y2015.

All these years, I am an advocate on staying active by walking more.

I can easily walk average 10000 steps a day, minimum 7000 steps.
I thought that was good enough and that was my limiting belief.

Beginning of Y2015, in a gathering at Health Promotion Board, I thought, lets up the game of making it slightly more challenging,
a) Walk minimum (not average) 10,000 steps a day,
b) Taking more balanced diet and following the ‘healthy plate’ concept.

I set the goal of eating healthier and stay more active. To be exact, it is more like ‘setting the intention’.
Well, sometimes we just don’t know what it will lead us to once the INTENTION is set.
Not only that I’ve hit the ‘goals’ but I was getting additional bonuses out of it.

Fast forward 12 months later which is Jan Y2016, I’ve been averaging 13000 steps per day. Consistently walking at least 10000 steps every day, rain or shine, hazy or clear sky. 🙂

In additional to that, I picked up cycling as one of my leisure activities.

For the past few months, both Li Huan and I were exploring places in Singapore through cycling.

Starting from trying out cycling 5-10km (try-try mode), we have now progressed to 30-50km cycling.

With two cheap bikes which cost us $30-$40 each, we’ve explored Punggol Waterway, Punggol Promenade and Marina Barrage.

Tampines to Marina Barrage (To and Fro 43km)

Tampines-Punggol-AMK-Bedok (56km)

Three days ago, from West to East side of Singapore passing by Great World City, Boat Quay and Marina Bay Sand (51km)

The fun part is to explore the ‘good food’ that we could find along the way. Food is always a bonus.

Of course, the purpose of this LOHAS DIGEST is not to impress you on the things we did but to impress upon you the power of setting intention and how it is related to our health and fitness.

Firstly, is there a difference of setting intention and setting goal?

Well, setting goals could be just setting the number and many a times, you have to ‘work hard’ for it.

Unfortunately, ‘working hard’ is not everybody favorite words, that’s why the heat fizzles out.

Setting the intention is not only setting the number but also followed with the trust and faith that your conscious and sub-conscious mind is going to help you achieve it easier and more ENJOYABLE.

Another example is what I frequently mentioned during the Ultimate Slimming Intensive Program, the number (kg) will stick with you for a very loooooong time once you tap into the power of intention.

Since 2009, my weight has been consistently around 61kg-62kg range.  I don’t have to struggle in calculating the calories or how many minutes I should run on the treadmill.

And I don’t have to sacrifice my favorite food such as cheese cake and etc.

Not that I gobbled up all those ‘delicious’ food but somehow the trust I gave to my body and the body will give me signals when to eat and when not to eat.  No struggle!

Frequently, it happened in my class where participants were too focusing on the visible rather than the invisible.

They were to caught up with the doing-ness (what to eat, what exercise to do and etc) than focusing on the being-ness (the mental and emotion part).

We need to have a good balance of both.  Many times, the invisible is more powerful than the visible.  Just like winds, you cannot see it but you know it can be very powerful.

Lastly, when setting the intention, we are already seeing the outcome before we achieve it.

Contrary to the common saying, ‘seeing is believing’, at times we have to believe it before seeing it.

Imagine a sales person knocking on 100 doors but does not believe he will be successfully in closing any sale.

The words he said, the body language he unconsciously portrayed will signal to the potential customer not to buy.  Believe first than seeing it happening is automatic.

So, after knowing the slight differently between setting goal and setting intention. I hope this better equip you for another wonderful and healthier year.

Remember, start with an intention followed by one step at a time… You will reach the destination!

Stay Healthy, Stay Awesome,

Peng Tatt and Li Huan.
(p/s: This is just 1 of the 4 parts of Success Blueprint for Health, if you think it is helpful, let me know if you would like more tips)

Update:  At the time of publishing of this blog post, Peng Tatt has been consistently hitting 13,000 steps per day.  Both Li Huan and Peng Tatt had reached another milestone to cycle all the way from Tampines to Causeway (to and fro 69km).  Both of them only started with an simple intention of being more active without knowing they could go this far – power of setting intention.