Ideas About Achieving Goals

When we sit down and write out our goals, there is a feeling of excitement that overcomes us. It’s our brain imagining that we could be a better version of ourselves. The new goals spark ideas on how we can get there. When I began competing in powerlifting seriously, I had a goal to gain 50 lbs of bodyweight. This was exciting because it meant ice cream and eating as much food as possible. Much to my sadness, the excitement quickly wore off when I realized that force-feeding every meal was a part of that goal. Over the 13 years of Showtime, I’ve seen many people achieve their goals inside and outside of the gym; and I’ve probably seen just as many have their goals implode into a disaster cycle. When many people think of goals, it’s simply the end result in mind without regard or appreciation for the process involved. This is a trap for many people. It’s worth noting that most of my life experiences and lessons are gym-based that I have seen play out into the business world, relationships, personal well-being, financial health, and pretty much every area of life. Success leaves clues; the gym is just built with sweat equity. 

There is no Finish Line

If I think back to everyone I’ve talked with in almost 20 years of coaching, I’m not sure if I can think of one person who had success saying something like, “I’m going to revamp my entire life and identity for the next 30-90 days to have long-term success in this goal”. When we do this, it seems to add unnecessary pressure and build into the back of our head that once a certain date happens, we can be done doing these things. The older I get, the more I realize that 90 days is a warm-up to take inventory of lessons. I love to think in four-year time frames like Olympic training cycles. Four years can bring significant changes and allow for periods to push and relax. We’re not equipped to red-line our life, but we are designed to bring in gradually more difficult challenges to overcome. Expand your time frame, and amazing things happen. 

Learning—Not Success or Failure

The best business people I know look at everything as learning. They’ll try different programs or marketing ideas, and some of them fall flat. They never sit there and feel defeated because they were able to learn something from the trial. If we’re on a weight loss journey and don’t lose a pound one week, it’s not a personal failure. It’s a chance to look back at the week and examine what worked with our nutrition, training, sleep, and overall stress and also where we experienced troubles that threw us off. 

Consistency

There is an amazing amount of power behind consistency. The ability to show up on days where working towards your goal is the last thing on your mind. For me, these are always track workout days. The great thing is, these sessions bring me the most satisfied feeling after completion. When we set goals, we understand that we’re taking on new things to create a change, and that’ll be uncomfortable. This might mean waking up a little earlier, eating the vegetables we don’t care for, or having a few less drinks each week. I remember when my wife, Claire, was in her Doctorate program for Physical Therapy. The amount of studying and sacrifice in time and social life was unreal to me. To her, it was worth it to achieve the goal. If I were put in her shoes, the effort wouldn’t have been worth it to me. Her consistency in showing up, studying, and going to labs is what got her through. You can’t sprint as hard as you can for a few days, then take a week off to get back to it. In any goal, consistency is the driver. 

Curiosity

I believe one of my greatest skills is being incredibly curious about things I don’t know or understand. I was always nervous Mark Watts was going to fire me from Denison University for the time I would stay in his office asking endless questions or calling him to talk about a new training idea I had just read about. One of the best parts of being a trainer is I get to learn from our clients what helped them in their area of expertise and also what didn’t serve them. This allows me to fast-track in some areas of my goals. Being curious eliminates the feeling of failure and brings a sea of opportunity. 

Honesty

It’s really easy to say that we tried a certain training or nutrition idea, and when we didn’t get our desired results, simply say it doesn’t work! Having honesty in our application of ideas allows us to see where we can improve. Did we really stay in a caloric deficit, or did the weekend pizza and beers put us over for the week? We’re all guilty of this in some regards, but the people who learn to set honest check-ins on a regular basis seem to have a better understanding of why they’re in the position they’re in. The rise in GLP-1 medications has told a story about honesty with calorie counts. People have lost significant amounts of weight after years of swearing they were eating a low amount of calories. Now that the medication is forcing them to eat less, they seemed to have lost the weight after all these years. Honesty is like toothpaste in that a little goes a long way in long-term prevention. 

As humans, I believe we all need goals inside and outside the gym. We also have to be aware of the process of our goals and not be solely in love with outcomes if we want real long-term change. The simpler I can make my goals and focus more on the process of achieving my goals, the better everything seems to go. One of my favorite authors and mentors, Dan John, has a quote that lives in my head and is repeated at Showtime on a weekly basis. “Little and often over the long haul”. 

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