5 Steps to Set and Achieve Your Muscle Building Goals

Your ability to set laser targeted muscle building goals, makes plans to achieve them and take massive action immediately is the single best determinant of muscle success or failure.

"Muscle Building Goals are the fire in the furnace of achievement". 

What if I told you about one single thing you can do to achieve your dream, muscular body faster than you ever thought possible?

What if this one thing can ensure you get started right, stay motivated and persist until you reach your dream body?

You would be Curious right? Excited too I believe!

Its called Setting and Achieving Goals. I call it my 5-Step Magic Goal Achiever Formula.

I give it to all my clients and their muscle gain results have been astonishing. But you make the formula work. 

Inside This Article: 

• Why goal setting works for muscle builders
• 3 Reasons most muscle builders don’t set goals
• My 5 step goal setting formula
• Recommended Goal Setting Programs
• Summary and Action Points

Why Goal Setting Works for Muscle Builders

"Your mind is the highest goal seeking mechanism".

Even best GPS needs two things : Your present location and your future destination. And between the two is your reason for the journey.

Goal setting is a key skill you need master both in bodybuilding and in life. Imagine your life if you can set clear goals and knock them off one by one. Soon your ideal life will be a reality.

Let’s concentrate on building muscle for now.

I have a favourite saying, "Muscle Building is Goals. All else is Commentary."

When you set a goal, write it down and visualise it, strange things happen. Since humans are goal achieving organisms, you will quickly find yourself taking action on your goals. 

Just the simple act of writing your goals and making an action plan gives you immense mental clarity. You will know where to start. You develop the focus and motivation to take the all important first steps.

And as they say, a journey of thousand millraces begin with a single step.

By setting goals, you would have taken that first step. Then momentum kicks in. You will see small success. Since nothing succeeds like success, soon you will become unstoppable. Your goals will be within your reach. But I am getting ahead of myself.

Let’s first set accurate goals and make your plan of action.

So if goal setting is so important and works like a charm, why don’t people set goals? Let’s find out.

Why Most Muscle Builders Fail to Set Goals

Initially I sucked at goal setting. I had got it all wrong. I was too short-sighted and impatient. And I want you to avoid the mistakes I made.

I find 3 reasons why most muscle builders don’t set goals

1. They don’t realise the importance

The bodybuilding community never talks about it. When was the last time you find someone talking about their workout goal? most are busy thinking which exercises to do!

2. They don’t know how

Did you ever found  class called Goal Setting 101 and Goal setting 202? No school gives importance to this importance life skill. Since most muscle builders never learnt this skill, they lack the info on proper goal setting.

3. They fear failure or criticism 

What if I fail? What will others think of me for setting such a goal? Fear of failure and criticism from others are important reasons for not setting goals. Most muscle builders are happy trotting along week to week without seeing if they are making any progress.

These reasons might be true but never should never be enough from stopping you set and achieve your muscle gain goals.

My life lesson: In training hundreds of hardgainers like you I have found that you too have unbelievable potential for gaining muscle mass. But most don't have the self-belief and that's a self-limiting obstacle.

Accurate goals created with right expectations and steps to overcome obstacles are the keys to unlocking your muscle building potential.

Are you ready to unlock your Muscle Gain Potential? If yes, then its time for my magic 5 step formula...

My 5-Step Muscle Building Goals Formula

Your ability to set a targeted Muscle transformation goal, break it down into an step-by-step action plan and and taking the first step immediately is the most powerful muscle building strategy.

And in 5 simple steps you will create a solid action plan to reach your goal:

• Step One: Set a 6 month muscle transformation challenge
• Step Two: Pick the best tool and right battlefield for best muscle gains
• Step Three: Find enough reasons for doing well
• Step Four: Overcome your biggest obstacle
• Step Five: Stay Focused and Master Action Immediately
  
• Surprise Bonus Step

Step One: Set an Awesome 6 Month Transformation Goal

If you have been training for sometime building muscle you know that magical 2 week programs don't exist. 

That supplements don't work half as promised. And that the supplement store sales person who sold you the 2 week weight gain formula promising quick gains was only trying to save his job! ( it's tough economy out there).

It was a simple case of wrong expectations = wrong results.

So what works for building muscle?

A Solid 4 to 6 month muscle building program!

Why 4 to 6 months?

For two reasons:

Reason One: It takes 6 Months!

Because your complete muscle building transformation will take 4 to 6 months, and I have found that in 6 months you can make a total body makeover. 

I am not talking about small, barely noticeable changes. Not half an inch on biceps or legs, but massive changes to shock people around you and change your outlook forever. 

And I am sure that’s the transformation you are looking for.

Yes, you will be seeing weekly muscle gains

But to have a completely new physique you should build 20-25 pounds of solid muscle mass. And building so much muscle will take 4 to 6 months time.

With an average weight gain of 0.5 to 1.0 lb per week, it will take 6 months for solid muscle gain of 20-25 lbs. That means 3-5 inch muscle gain all over your body - bigger arms, shoulders, chest and legs. 

-------------

Imagine meeting an old friend after 6 month

Imagine you meet a friend of your after a gap of 6 weeks, they will notice the difference, but if you meet him/her after a gap of 6 months, he/she will be SHOCKED.

Yes, thats the kind of transformation I am talking about.

---------

Reason Two: It gives you perspective. 

Setting 30  or even 60 day goals never worked for me or most people because having control over life for all those 30 or 60 days straight can be very difficult. 

Too many things can go wrong. But over 4 to 6 months, losing a few weeks is not such a big deal. You can get back on the training/diet horse easily without losing motivation.

With 6 month strategy, time will be on your side, rather than you trying to catch up all the time.

So give 6 months but...

Divide the 6 month goal into smaller cycles of 4-6 weeks each

Peak each cycle with big muscle gains

Why cycles work? Because muscle building is NOT a linear activity, rather it works in a geometric manner.

When I say 1-1.5 pounds of muscle mass, I meant gains on average. You will not be seeing such 1 lb muscle gains every week. but over 6 weeks you will see cumulative gains due to super compensation.

As you can see from the above figure, weeks 4 to 6 yields best muscle gains and make an average gain of 6 to 9 pounds over 6 weeks possible.

I explained the 6 week training effect here.

Once you set your 6 month transformation goal, bear it down in to 4 six week cycles.

Your only job will be to max out the first 6 week wave, take a break, and then plan & execute another 6 week plan.

And here is the big secret: Most people cannot train with consistent intensity or eat big over 6 full weeks.

Sure, a week here and two weeks there is what most do, but consistent efforts over 6 weeks? That’s a different ball game.

But Can you? Will you?

Is it possible for you to give full efforts for 6 weeks and let the 6 week training effect work its magic. I challenge you!

Make deadline work

Procrastination is the thief of time and deadlines are the best enemies of procrastination. Make deadlines and sub deadlines. Work one workout deadline to another.

And reward yourself after you reach a deadline. The brain remembers the reward and associates pleasure with getting things done. There is a huge endorphin release, making sticking to the program easier.

Change a few variables every 6 weeks

At the end of 6 weeks, your body gets adjusted to the training program {muscle homeostasis} and to see continued results, you need to create a new program for next 6 weeks and keep growing.

Most people I train do the same programs month after month, year after year, with same weights, reps and sets.

Their bodies are excellent at performing the same workouts and it see no need to change at all.

And people wonder why they are not changing at all. Now you know.

Write it down {6 month plan}, break it down {6 week plan} and then thrash it down {week by week}!

Step Two: Pick the Right Muscle Building Tool

Free weights are the best muscle building equipment

Your are as good as the tools you use. So to get the best results, you need to use the best tools.

Since you have selected weight training to reach your muscle gain goals, free weights like barbells and dumbbells should be your weapon of choice.  

For fastest muscle gains, you need training and nutrition tools. Tools like:

• Excellent Gym - with plenty of free weights and space, not overcrowded.
• Small kitchen or at least a juicer - to make simple, tasty recipes you will learn here
• Training Partner / Goal Buddy - to keep you motivated and help train harder.
• 45 Minutes Time, 3 times per week - as this is the minimum training time required to stimulate muscles.

Step Three: Find Your Muscle Building Enough Reasons 

What are YOUR reasons to build muscle mass?

If you have a strong enough why, the how becomes easy.

Do you know the best kind of motivation? The kind of motivation that keeps you working towards your dream body no matter what?

It is self-motivation!

You can force someone to work but if they are not self-motivated, then sooner or later they quit. Only self-motivation works.

So what is the best self-motivation strategy?

Enough Reasons!

Make a list of 100 reasons why you want to build your dream body. 

What? 100? You say! Is that’s too many?

You Don't have 100? Why not 20 or even 10?

Even 10 strong reasons will be the biggest motivator for you when times get tough.

So get out a pen and paper and write 10 solid reasons for building muscle. all should be personal reasons or they won't work.

Pleasure-Pain principle

Need ideas? Write down ten things you hate about being skinny and 10 things you will love to do with your new muscular body.

This is called the pain-pleasure principle.

Attach lots of pleasure for achieving your goal and lots of pain for remaining skinny/weak.

Add an emotion to each reason.

Step Four: Overcome Obstacles in Your body

What has been the biggest obstacle in my achieving this goal?

Once you have the steps covered, ask yourself the above question.

Whatever it is write it down and brainstorm ways to overcome it. Take it as a challenge.

Let me explain with my example:

At 112 lbs I was one of the strongest guy in my gym. Strength-wise I was matching the second biggest guy in the gym. My technique was perfect, focus was great and I handled college very well.

But nutrition remained my biggest weakness. I just could not cook!

But it took a comment from my friend on phone that challenged my thinking!

"You should be real big already. You have being working out since 4 months now!"

I have been consistently training for 4 months, and with such consistency I should be looking great already. But I was not!

So I began to wonder why am I not muscular already! What was my Biggest obstacle?

The answer was my awful cooking skills. I just didn’t have the patience to cook or clean!

But I hated being skinny more. I realised that I was wasting my intense workouts with my short-comings in eating.

I made a decision that I will learn one muscle building recipe per week until i kew at least 20 cool, easy to make, tasty muscle meals.

I already had read about nothing can replace food philosophy but after getting serious about muscle cooking, I can say that I KNOW that no supplements can ever replace food. My results are the proof that makes me say that.

So whats your obstacle?

Is it training? Nutrition? Money? Consistency?

Whatever it is, identify it and in you can overcome it. its like a bottleneck holding your muscle gains to ransom.

Remember its not the resources but the resourcefulness that determines if we create the perfect environment to reach our goals.

Step Five: Take Immediate Massive Action on Your Goals

"Whatever you do, or dream you can, begin it. 
Boldness has genius and power and magic in it.” - Von Goethe.

With a program in place, you need to launch full throttle. No half hearted efforts, no waiting for tomorrows, just launch without guarantees of success. And success will be yours.

Trust the process and you will surprise yourself.

Most muscle builders try a program for few weeks and quite if they don’t see results. Success will be around the corner and they quit. Acres of diamonds missed just few feet away.

Don’t be a quitter. Be a doer. 

BONUS TIP: Get Focused, Master Commitment and Patience

Rome wasn’t built in a day and neither will be your body. But give it time and muscle by muscle you will be building an awe-aspiring muscular body.

All the training programs in the world, all the nutrition tricks, all the supplements will not work until you master consistency and patience.

You should believe that your muscles will change. Its just a matter of time.

It takes 21 days for a hen to hatch an egg. If you looked at the egg for first 20 days, you will not notice nothing as the change is happening only on the inside.

Similarly in your 6 week cycle, your body will be synthesising new proteins, adding new cell volume and firing more efficiently. But it will take 6 weeks for you to see noticeable results.

But just like magic happens on day 21 for the hen and chicken comes out of nowhere, you will see excellent muscle gains after 4-6 weeks. So stick with the program for 4 to 6 weeks. Just hatch it!

I suggest you take before and after photos. They are the best way to gauge results as you will miss small, weekly changes.

So are you ready with your 6 month muscle building goal and first 6 week action plan? Great!

Its time to Launch!

Recommended Goal Setting Programs for Accelerated Life!

1. GoalsOnTrack Software - Excellent Goal Setting Program. My No.1 Choice.

2. Set and Achieve Life Transforming Goals - A 5 Module Goal Achieving Program I highly recommend.

Summary and Action Points

As I said earlier, Setting and Achieving Goals is a Master Skill for success, both in bodybuilding and in life.

Use my 5 step formula to set and achieve goals. Try the recommended programs for accelerated goal setting. And use the discipline you will learn from bodybuilding to master other areas of your life and the rewards will be worth the time and effort. I promise you that.

To Your GOALS, To Your LIFE!

Mateen Sidd
TheMuscleSecrets.com