As we celebrate graduations and the start of summer, our focus can shift from meal prep and tracking our heart rates during workouts, to barbecues and pool time. Summer is seasonal, and the pool is not open all year long, so I agree you should take advantage of these opportunities, but it’s also a good time to re-evaluate those goals we set five months ago.
ADJUST
In professional sports, one of the ways coaches are currently scrutinized is how they adjust during the game. They approach the game with a game plan and strategy, but it’s the adjustments during the game and at half-time that can dictate the winner. You should consider taking a similar path. This can mean adjusting the schedule or time required for a task. Maybe back in December you thought 30 minutes of walking every evening before bed was achievable to only realize that 15 minutes is realistic.
Another thing to consider is that life happens. Work schedules change and family members get sick. Life is fluid and you must create a plan with some slack in the line. This is a step that I
struggled with. I tended to create a schedule so tight, that I didn’t allow time for things such as a casual conversation with one of my studio members. When I was forced into these predicaments, I would attempt to complete the task as fast as possible as opposed to embracing the moment of engagement. You can’t plan to be in the moment, you must accept that as a mindset, which brings me to my next point.
ELIMINATE
Maybe you undertook too much at once. This is one of the biggest mistakes in goal setting. You create a list of five things you want to accomplish. Three goals should be the most. Less is better in this scenario. You must play the long game with goal setting and work towards making things stick for the long term. It’s emotionally a healthier avenue to tackle two to three goals at once, take the six months to a year it may require to in-grain them into your behavior, than to attempt four or five goals simultaneously, eventually quitting on all of them. This takes me to my final point.
A few months into the year is a good time to re-evaluate and quit. Yes, I said quit a goal that may jeopardize your success in achieving other goals. Again, simplicity is the key in making something stick. As a society, we have become surrounded by antidotes that quitting is always bad. You must finish reading the book, you must eat everything on your plate, or you must finish the race. To provide context on how the strength and conditioning field has taken a full 360 degree turn on this, I’ll share this bit of insight. Ankle mobility has become one of the holy grails of sports. Mobility at the ankle joint can provide more power in jumping and running. What has been determined is that by the age of 15 or so, many athletes have already experienced ankle sprain or strain. In sport, the common mantra when dealing with a rolled or sprained ankle was “to walk it off”. You have traumatized a joint, now let’s continue to use it? Ignore that there may be long-term consequences that cannot be undone. We’ve learned that when dealing with ankle sprains it’s better to immediately rest the joint and avoid weightbearing, while still maintaining the proper range of motion. This may accelerate the rate of recovery, while minimizing long term negative outcomes. Athletes have always tended to take the short gain while ignoring the long-term effects. Now with the investments in athletes at such astronomical amounts, you have heard things such as “We’re shutting them down”.
As we cruise towards the mid-way part of the year, my suggestions for examining your new year goals are to adjust and eliminate. Making a change of course and eliminating friction may be exactly what you need to sail your ship successfully to the end of the year.