About this time of year (beginning of November) I have already planned out the next years' events.

Really?!

YES... As athletes, you should start preparing and planning for your seasons....the season BEFORE you prep for your SEASON.....got that? Ha!

For most of you, you have purchased my SG2Victory CONTEST BINDER with the Calender tab. NOW the time to put in the 2010 calender and pencil in Local and National contests. You can find the new listings of the shows in January on NPCNEWSONLINE.COM  . Some 2010 shows are already listed. The PDF file is continually updated often, so keep checking the site throughout the spring!

I would always suggest making two separate calenders

1) - Personal (with Birthdays, kid events, family trips, holidays, paydays, and events)
2) - Fitness (with shows, practice dates, dress rehearsal dates, when to take work off for your contest, when to paint, etc...)

This way you can fill in one with your family and refer back to your contest calender and visa versa.

You are more than welcome to put everything into one, but I like the separation for my own focus....I need to keep my head in the competition game at some times (without seeing cousin Natalie's birthday party coming and me feeling guilty I cannot buy a gift etc..) and other times, I need to focus on my family and friends' engagements without feeling the pressures of "gosh, 44 weeks till my show!)

You SHOULD know when all of your local shows are...how many of them per month, what city they are in, and if it's a show that you might be interested in either competing in, or attending. You can print out the NPC Schedule and keep a copy in your binder for reference. Note: some shows do not have all catagories...some do not have fitness, some only do open figure, and some do not have Bikini - Educate yourself by going to the contest website and read up! I have a folder in my Browser "Favorites" for easy recall for Promoters.

Sketching out a rough draft of training schedules will help you not feel so overwhelmed, and give you a clear direction on your goals...remember, there is a lot of planning that leads you to your contest....you should know exactly what to expect every week leading up to your show, so you can plan, and be at ease...PLUS - we are usually a bit more fatigued than usual, and trying to plan while dieting and training aggressively can sometimes prove tricky!

AND - another added benefit is knowing what you expect of yourself to get you to your fitness goals - knowing that for the next 12 weeks you have double cardio days at least 3 days a week or more, will help you plan family and friend events. Keeping a balanced schedule is key to ultimate happiness...no surprises!

Let's be honest - there will ALWAYS AND FOREVER be things that pop up into your life that will Derail you, Test you, and get your panties in a bunch....as long as things are written down, then you can more clearly plan out your plan of attack....you got to ROLL with the punches...

So - Get those 2010 Calenders In those Binders, and start writing this out!

~Trainer Shannon