The importance of setting personal goals can hardly be exaggerated. If you don't know where you are going, you will probably end up getting lost.
To select appropriate goals for yourself, start by giving thought to why you want to exercise in the first place. Is it because you want to become fitter or lose weight? Or maybe improving the state of both your body and mind is what you are after? You might want to increase your endurance capacities or are just concerned about preserving your health.
There may be a variety of reasons for your taking up exercise, and they are all valid. Since different types of classes can help achieve different ends, talk to instructors to find out what would work best for your needs. An important part of achieving goals is knowing which ones to choose and how to define them.
Goals should be
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specific, not general
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challenging, but achievable
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divided into short-term subgoals
Goals that are too general, vague or unrealistic will leave you feeling frustrated and demoralized. Such goals will probably lead you to discontinue your exercise regimen, or make you exercise in an ineffective or counterproductive manner. Crosscheck the benefits of a specific type of exercise with your personal goals to make sure you are doing the right thing. None of us has time to exercise the wrong way.
Plan your weekly workout schedule in advance. If you miss a scheduled class, try to find time to make it up another day, and remember that after a two-week break you'll probably have to start up again at a slightly lower intensity than you'd worked up to. The more regular your workouts, the better your results, but don't forget to give your body sufficient rest between workout sessions.
Goals don't have to be too rigid or easy. They should challenge you and give you a clear direction, but you should be able to revise them or clarify them as you go along. Setting quantifiable goals or subgoals for yourself is also a smart way to keep you motivated. A quantifiable subgoal is something you can measure, like heart rate:
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Record your average heart rate at a constant workload performance of, for example, 10-15 minutes. If you're using fitness equipment like a treadmill, a stationary bicycle or rowing machine, a certain load (resistance) and rate can be set. As you get more fit, your average heart rate drops for a constant performance. If you don't have access to such equipment, you can instead run on an outdoor track or use a set of stairs. Simply walk/run at a certain speed and for a certain length of time or journey.
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As you get fitter over time, your average heart rate gets lower and lower. Correspondingly, your speed increases or time to walk/run decreases at a certain heart rate.