Hopefully by now you guys have done the following:
- Come up with a list of 50 things (Goals)
- Put timeframes to each (6 month, 12 months, 3, 5, and 10 years)
- Chosen 5 or more of your goals and applied the S.M.A.R.T. mnemonic
Goal setting Part 4: Focusing on the future by reviewing past successes and achievements.
Based on my conversations with quite a few of you guys, this whole Goal setting thing seems to be a very, very new thing – eg. For some of you, this is the very first time in your lives, that you’ve really even thought about setting goals. Some of you seem to be overwhelmed by the prospect of locking yourselves into clearly defined end state at a specific date in the future but that’s probably because you’ve forgotten about your past achievements.
Perhaps you doubt your ability to achieve of succeed in the future, so it’s easier to just keep on keeping on, never really failing because you’re never really aimed for anything. For those of you battling with completing part 1 (a list of 50 things) fleshing out your list can be made heaps easier if you first write down a list of your past achievements and successes [wins]…
Capture every win
When it comes to training you should know by now that we want to track your results. Some days are gold and some days aren’t so gold. If you hit a PB today and put 2.5kg on your snatch – than thats a win. If you made it through a session of thrusters without uppercutting yourself in the face – thats’s a win. Training wise you’re going to get these wins all the time. If you’re working on applying the SMART mnemonic and you’re up to the ‘A’ (achievable) part on a specific goal, you should be able to look at your past achievements and realise that what you’re aiming for is indeed achievable – you can see it is because you’ve already got a proven track record of progress.
Beyond my own physical training successes, I’ll try and capture every time I get some positive feedback (it in my notebook or evernote app) and count/track it as a win. I find it not only helps when I’m feeling down on myself in the future it also becomes tangible data. If 1 or 2 of our guys and girls get something out of what I do every now and then, it means that it’s all been worth it and it keeps me motivated to continue to do what I do. I can remind myself that I’ve got a proven track record of helping people to get better and also a defined data point (eg. the amount of positive feedback received) to review my progress towards achieving future goals of helping even more people.
This week’s home work
Start by coming up with a list of 10 notable wins/achievements/successes in your past. You can pull these from the last 12 months or from the last 20 years. Things that you’d look back on and go “Yeah, nice, that was a win… put it on my tab…”
It could be in any of your areas of focus – eg. health and fitness, family, relationships, habits, finances, etc. You finished school or Uni, You got promoted at work. You started your own business. If you’re married and/or a parent, things like the birth of each of your kids is a win. The fact that you’re still married (with your partner) is a win. The fact that you’re back at training after being off with injury/surgery is a win – there, I’ve already given you more than 3?!
You don’t have to show your list to others and you definitely don’t have to limit it to 10 but I find it’s pretty handy when you’re setting future goals, to look back at your past successes and know that you’re totally capable of anything you dream of because you’ve already ‘succeeded’ in the past.
The spooky ‘X-Files’ stuff…
Even if you show no one, the shear fact of writing down your dreams and goals releases something into the ‘ether’ (although I’m not sure what?!) and things get ‘set in motion…’ #spooky? Yes – Well I think so anyway…
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Ben
Monday 23.7.12
A: 1RM Snatch
B: Clean & Jerk VOL
C: 5 rounds for time (8 min cap):
- 10 pull-ups
- 10 Russian swings(24/16kg)
Post loads, times and training notes to comments.
A: Didn’t feel like a golden morning this morning – Failed a lot of reps & ended up well under my max – ended up with a couple @ 50kg’s. On the positive, apparently I am moving quickly under the bar so a win of sorts – thanks Ben
B: @70kg – moved alright – Thanks Ben for the tip of keeping the bar on my shoulders – the Jerk worked much better after this.
C: 4:28 – Rx
Goal – No alcohol & no coffee for the rest of 2012.
Calling myself out and making it public.
No Coffee
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A: 20kg still a bit wobbly but improving
B: 25kg – liking the clean a lot more, need to work on my foot placement in the split
C: 6:12 (dead hang ring rows, rx for KB).
A. 45kg. Tried 50kg, no dice. Same for 47kg.
B. 40kg. Prob could have gone a bit heavier. But last minute change down from 50kg as I had doubts about gettig 50kg overhead.
C. 3.59 Rx’d.
A: 90kg. Fail x2 @ 94 & x1 @ 92.
90 felt pretty good.
B: 92kg. Up from 90 last week. Front squat feeling much better. Made every rep. Felt heavy. In a good way.
C: 5.20 rx. Pullups and grip need a lot of work.
A: 45kg ,lifts were feeling better
B: 40kg might try 42.5/kg45kg when this comes up again still tuff.
C: 4 rounds + 7 KB swings (Yellow Band/24kg).
A: 33.5 kg. pretty happy with my progress. I was stuck at 30kg for months then have had two weeks of pb’s.
B: 35kg. Think I will go higher next time.
C: been working so hard on gettin dead hang pull ups that the volume work today killed me. Timed out with 6 pull ups to go. Orange band and 16 kegs.
Been sick with the flu, not trained for 10 days so tried to dial it back a bit today…
A: 40kg, feeling good
B: 50kg, some good ones, need to work on the dip to jerk and back foot placement
C: 4 pullups into 4th round (purple band). Forearms gave out!
A: 27.5kg – Got a lot to work on for that move.
B: 32.5kg – Technique feeling better, much more comfortable with these now.
C: Yellow Band + 20kg KB in 7:46 – Forearm burn, stoked to make it!
I also got time to try a modified Kelly yesterday – 28:30 with ~280m run (shuttle runs over 20m – so I dropped the distance from 400), 14 pound wall balls and a small box (still getting over my phobia of box jumps). Now I want to do the real thing!
A: 18kg, working on the squat.
B: 40kg, moving easy except for the bottom of the squat
C: 5.38, 2 rounds of blue band then ring rows, 20kg KB
A. 22kg, tried 25kg failed twice
Been stuck on 20kg forever, glad I’ve finally added a little.
B.30kg felt good tonight, will go heavier next time.
C. 6.34, orange band & 12kg KB
A. 32kg
B. 32k
C. 3 rounds 16kg swings went without a band for pull ups but had to jump a bit.
A: 57.5 all over the shop this morning uncoordinated and having lots of trouble stringing it all together
B: 50 shaved some weight off due to weirdness in grip and flexibility of my arms and wrists thanks Ben for the gee up!
C: 3:15 rx
A: 1x 20kg. x2 @ 25 & x fail 1 @ 30.
Was feeling good with the 25 but should have known better to go higher, L Shoulder gave out.
B: 40kg. Was more focused on getting the tech right here. Put the lifting shoes on and they helped a ton. Can put more weight on for sure.
C: 6.20. 24kg and blue band. Found it easier to jump out of the band occasionally and busting out a couple more pullups without that downward resistance, therefore making it more explosive.