Happy New Year. I thought it appropriate to start my first blog post of 2021 discussing goal setting. If you did not give it any thought the last few weeks of 2020, don’t worry, all is not lost for the year if you do not have them established by January 1st. I feel that part of the excitement of goal setting is the anticipation of making the goals. It’s almost like window shopping. In retail shopping, there is a financial exchange. You must give money or use credit to receive the services or product in return. In window shopping, you can visualize and imagine receiving the product or service without the investment.
Goal setting in December is similar. You can see the end results, the increase in wealth, improved fitness, or career improvement without feeling the discipline or sacrifice that comes attached. An effective strategy for goal setting is to use a push/pull/habit/anxiety approach.
One of the first things you should do is determine what is pushing you AWAY from your old ways of doing things? What feels uncomfortable, annoying, or unworkable about your previous routine. A common example of this is going to a gym where you do not feel comfortable or welcomed. The first gym I ever joined had a 15-minute drive from my house at the time. I was 20 years old and was bitten by the bodybuilding bug. To provide context, the only options for me at that time were a racquetball health club (which would later become my first personal training employer), a recreational center (which I had been using, but was out-growing), or the bodybuilding gym with the commute. The larger health clubs at the time made strides to appeal to an older crowd. This was the early 90’s and I did not feel comfortable there. I also felt that the gym didn’t align well with my goals. They had more machines and less free weights. For your new routine to stick, it must feel comfortable.
The next step is to determine what is pulling you TOWARDS a new way of doing things? What looks attractive about the potential new change? What do you foresee the value will be? It was this time last year I started practicing meditation. I wanted to slow and quiet things down in my mind. Operating a business, my family obligations, and managing my personal health, I felt my mind was constantly buzzing with ideas and thoughts. I saw the value to quiet the voices and slow things down. I am still working on it, hence why they call it a practice. A common emotion people share with me when joining the studio is that they want to look and feel like they did when they were younger. I tend to harp on the emotion of how they felt at that time. I do not have a time machine and I wish I could perform that thing in Benjamin Button, you know the movie that stars Brad Pitt as a man who has a condition where he gets in better shape as he ages. I think for many people, it may be looking in the mirror and liking what you see. That I can do.
Once you determine what you want, you must map out the HABITS that will get you there. This can also be referenced as the process. In my last post of 2020, I shared a couple of good books for helping with this. If you did not catch it, please go back, and read it. Legendary College Hall of Fame basketball coach, Mike Krzyzewski, has shared in interviews that one of his biggest objectives with his players is to get them to love practice. If they can embrace and commit to practicing hard, the games will come easy.
The creation of new habits may mean the elimination of old habits or routines. An example of how one habit can affect another may be how you spend your free time. A scenario may be that you decide Saturday mornings are a good time for you to get in a workout. You may also spend Friday evenings going out late for drinks with friends. This in return makes getting up early on Saturdays challenging. A positive habit may be to go out earlier, limit your alcohol intake, or spend the time doing something else with your friends. The habits you create are critical in dictating your success. Spend some time thinking about how you normally do things and what you’ll have to change to keep yourself on the right path. A personal example of this was how I changed one of my workouts last year. I work a hectic schedule (6 days a week) and was struggling with time to get in my workouts without taking time away from my family. I decided to start bringing my son to the studio after we close on Saturdays. I got in my workout and we had an opportunity to spend some father/son time together. I even expanded this and added exchanging one session monthly for an outdoor hike. Here is a pic from our November hike in Pine Creek Canyon in Red Rock.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CHlvGLEnIYE/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link
The final step is dealing with the Anxiety. When you think about changing or doing something new, what do you worry about? What keeps you up at night? It may be that you will fail. Many people never start or take the necessary action to reach a goal because of the fear of failure. I took a big leap forward in my personal development when I realized that failure is part of the journey. Failure is part of the feedback loop. If you accept missteps as feedback, not failure, it can help in making the switch in your brain.
I hope that helps to get your year off to great start. Happy New Year, again, and let’s make things stick in a positive way this year. I’ll see you at the studio.