Everything But The Gym: Goal Setting: Part 1

"How can I set good goals this year?"

photo source: http://www.omtorgdev.com/5-high-performance-goals-2013/

Set goals that have meaning to you.

I’m going to say right up front, I have been a terrible goal setter in the past. When I started working out at 16 years old, martial arts kept me motivated. I loved the class I went to, so I didn’t care about setting goals. It was enough that I loved it, and I showed up. My classmates and instructor would guide me and push me on, and I kept getting better. Eventually though I did need some type of goal to keep going. The weeks turned into months and before I knew it I had been training for over a year. At this point, my gains in ability and fitness had slowed dramatically from when I was a white belt (the first belt given in Karate) and I was feeling frustrated.

Yeah buddy, I can relate.

photo source: http://buffetoblog.files.wordpress.com/2011/12/karate-fail.jpg

I want to touch on this point here, about how fast you can make gains. When you start training for the first time you will get what is called ‘newbie gains.’ During those first few weeks or maybe the first month, you will get extremely rapid results. After that things slow down as the body starts to adapt and progress seems harder to come by. Its ok, this is normal, try to not get frustrated. This is your body’s way of trying to conserve energy and maintain homeostasis. Also when you start a new plan you are usually excited to get going! You’ve made the commitment to making positive changes and everything is new and interesting. For most people, this feeling eventually wears off. Now aside from staying motivated (which I talked about in earlier posts), there is something else you can do to keep yourself on track – goal setting.

photo source: http://www.empowernetwork.com/webmillionaire/files/2012/12/home-tuition-goal-setting.png

Ok so back to my story, I was getting a little frustrated… Time kept moving on, and I kept showing up to class. But I wasn’t getting better as quickly as in the beginning. I was working harder and harder to see improvements which only got smaller and smaller. I loved what I was learning, but I was getting discouraged, just showing up wasn’t enough anymore. I needed something to shoot for. What I needed was a goal.

Since I was mainly interested in martial arts at the time, the goal that made the most sense was to reach a higher level of skill. Many systems of martial art have progressions built into them, in the form of a belt system. The highest rank in karate is to receive the coveted black belt. Symbolically it is the recognition of a high level of skill and understanding within the system. In reality it is just a piece of cloth. But boy did I want it! As soon as I set my mind on getting that belt my motivation was renewed, my focus sharpened, and I was determined to get that belt. Eventually all my hard work payed off.

Accountabilibuddy

photo source: http://davidvalefitness.files.wordpress.com/2012/12/23f7de33f6c50aef_running-buddy.jpg

One thing you have to do, even in you think you are great with goal setting, is to have a friend who keeps you accountable. Accountable, accountabilibuddy, get it? Now for me, I had this without even knowing it at the karate school, all the people there who became my friends, the instructor, they all kept me accountable. I didn’t want to let them down so I would train hard on my own outside of class. And I would come in even when I was really tired so they wouldn’t give me a hard time at the next class. The point is, if you have a workout buddy or even just a friend who you tell to check up on you, you are far more likely to stick to your goal. I believe people dislike failure, but people dislike failing in front of others even more. In fact, tell as many people as possible; it will make it harder to skip your workouts. This is true for diet, fitness, or any other goal you want to set to improve yourself.

The best accountabilibuddy will be one you can work out with, who is close to your level of fitness for what you are working on. This will allow you to push each other and do things you can’t alone, like spotting and certain partner exercises like medicine ball sit-ups for example. But your workout buddy above all else will be there for you on those days when you are really struggling to get moving.

So this goal of earning my black belt worked out great for me, and retrospectively I can deduce why.

1. It was simple, straightforward (that doesn’t mean easy).

2. It was measureable, either I got the belt or I didn’t.

3. It was only one goal!

4. I had small goals built in. Other belts to earn between white and black, these were stepping stones to keep me on track.

photo source: http://simonpaulharrison.files.wordpress.com/2012/12/stepping-stones.jpg

Why is number three important? Well remember I said I have been bad at goal setting in the past? That came later, during my time in the military and after my Karate training. At that point my training shifted more towards fitness goals and was less about martial arts. But I also started adding in all sorts of training and had many goals at the same time, and I didn’t have the same support structure to keep me accountable. I would have simultaneous training goals of improving my speed in martial arts techniques, doing more pushups, improving my kicks, doing more burpees in a minute, increasing my muscle size, etc. Well I’ll tell you, I wasn’t too successful at that time. And as I said, it was because I had too many goals, and because I didn’t have people to keep me accountable.

So if you get yourself a friend or two on board with keeping you accountable, you will be successful. Aside from that, keep the four things I listed in mind when setting your goals. This is not the definitive guide to goal setting, but I don’t think anyone would argue with these guidelines.

Keep your goal simple, simple is better. Make it measureable, saying “I want to get fit” isn’t a goal. Goals have to be something you know you have reached. Saying I want to lose 6% body fat or be able to do 100 strict form pushups in a row is a measureable goal. Limit yourself to one large goal like something I just listed. But then have smaller goals that help you achieve the larger one. They should not compete with each other. So maybe your ultimate goal is to run a marathon, a short term goal could be a 5k. And another short term goal after that could be a 10k. This is a simple example but you want to have your short term goals lead up to your long term goal incrementally.

I will have more for you next time on this topic, until then check out these goal setting worksheets. I use my training logs (usually a notebook) to write my goals but if you prefer a nice neat printout, these might be just the thing. Remember goal setting can be used for any area of your life, the same principles apply.