This week is an absolute killer. Not only is it a heavy week at work, I’m also down to the wire on getting moved. Since I was out of town last weekend (Arnold Sports Festival, awesome as ever!!), I have to get all my moving done this week. I’m putting a load in my truck in the morning, unloading it at the new place on my lunch break, and doing another load after work. Every day. The goal is to have everything that isn’t furniture moved before Saturday morning. The only things I can’t get in my Blazer are my couch, bed, and dining room table. Everything else is definitely doable with just my little red truck.
But I digress. I have a goal and I’m doing what’s necessary to hit it efficiently and with the least possible amount of stress. In this case, the goal was imposed by the expiration of a lease but the plan to get there wasn’t.
Hitting your goals depends on two things. A good goal must be set and then a good plan must be created and implemented to get there. I have a well defined group of goals I want to hit. Some have time limits, some don’t. Each of those goals uses (for the most part) the Well Formed Outcomes model of goal setting that I talked briefly about in another post.
Very simply put, a good goal is one that’s specific and doesn’t rely on circumstance. If your goal is to win the lottery, good luck with that. If your goal is to specifically improve your financial situation, that’s much better, since there are many more possibilities for getting there. If your goal is to “lose weight”, you can cut a leg off and you’ve lost weight. If your goal is to cut to 10% bodyfat, that’s specific enough to be able to form a plan to do it. Specificity also tells you when you’ve arrived.
Whether your goal has a timeline or not can influence your plan to get there. Either way, there must be a plan to get there. Every step of the plan has to be within your sphere of influence (not rely on circumstance) and be as specific as possible. At the same time, the plan must be flexible. If things aren’t working quite right, it must be adaptable.
As it mentions on The List, I have a specific goal of being able to pass the Secret Service Snatch Test. For men, the SSST consists of a one armed snatch of a 24kg kettlebell at least 200 times in 10 minutes. It’s an extreme test of strength and cardiovascular endurance. All parameters of that goal are within my control. I own my own bells and they require very little space. On Tuesday of this week, I began working through the Program Minimum from Pavel Tsatsouline’s Enter The Kettlebell with a 20kg bell. After I am able to complete four consecutive weeks, I will move to the next phase. When I can complete eight consecutive weeks of the Rite of Passage, I will work primarily on snatching that bell until I hit 200 in 10. Once I get closer to that time, I will work up a protocol for getting there. Then I move to 24kg and start again.
There isn’t a single part that relies on anyone else to behave in any specific way or for any special planetary alignment. It’s all me. I take the credit for the successes and the blame for the failures. It makes things easier that way.
I don’t always hit my goals. I set them purposely lofty to give me something to stretch for. When I started the big cut back on September 26, my goal was to lose 62.5 lb by March 1. Well, that didn’t happen. I dropped 52.5. Not what I was hoping for but definitely nothing to be disappointed in. I know where the breakdowns happened. I’ve switched to a more moderate diet protocol for the rest of the trip; one that’s more conducive to the training goals I’ve set.
It probably seems like a whole lot of thought went into all of this. In truth, it didn’t really. Planning out the diet took a little while to do all the calculations (I always build my own plan) but most of it is pretty easy. Once you set your goal within the parameters set out above, figuring out how to get there is pretty easy since the stupid and unrealistic paths are immediately removed. Sometimes, you’ll luck out and synergy will be on your side. Following the diet and training goals, I’ll be able to work toward three separate goals: maintain weight loss, pass the SSST, and (since it’s dependent on bodyweight) go skydiving. Pretty soon, the training will also include preparations for the races I plan to take part in this summer.
What do you want to do? Can you get there without relying on anyone or anything else? If you can, why aren’t you there yet? If you can’t, it’s probably time to go back to the drawing board. I’d say “good luck” but, with a good plan, you don’t need luck.
