The Goal of Setting Goals

Mar 18, 2013

It's been awhile, a long while. I've had surgery since I posted here and post mostly on my own site where I can control pretty much anything. No knock on OH. I love this place. I wanted to start sharing my belief on goals and how you can accomplish them.

In the past I have talked about Establishing Workout Routines and today while running I wondered about goals. I’ve upped my cardio considerably in the time since I posted about My Workout because I wanted to be able to run longer and do 5k runs or more!

Honesty

I feel that this is the most important part of goal setting. We’ve all seen it, even been a part of it. “I’ll do …” for a resolution. We last a day…two? Maybe even a week or a bit more. Then we fall to the wayside. It’s too hard, I lasted longer than I thought and any other reason we can come up with to vouch for why we failed and it is a failure. People don’t like to admit failing at anything but failure should drive us towards our goals, not away.

If you want to improve yourself, quit a bad habit or adopt a new one (good habit that is) it takes some brutal honesty. Yes, you can do it but it may not be today, the next or a month from now but you can accomplish much of what you set your mind to doing.

Dedication

Dedication is secondary to honesty I feel. Perhaps that is wrong as they work very well together and are more symbiotic than they are important in comparison. It’s like love and marriage, you can’t have one without the other! Gosh I miss that show. Anyway! If you set goals that are initially far beyond your means to accomplish ever then you will have no reason to be dedicated to completing those goals. Take it seriously when you set goals, plan it out and then stick to it like a dog with a bone cause ain’t no body got time for that!

Types of Goals

There are different types of goals you can set for yourself and different means to achieve those goals. We’ll talk about achieving them in a moment. For now these are the types of goals I use;

• Micro Goals – A extremely short term goal used to quickly boost confidence and morale.
• Weekly Goals – Goals taking more effort to accomplish but still something that you don’t have to wait overly long to achieve.
• Median Goals – Goals that extend out 1-2 months at a time. They generally require more dedication and work as well as a healthy dose of honesty to stay on track.
• Long-term Goals – These goals are life goals. It may take half a year, a year or more but they require the most dedication and the most work. Accomplishing these goals should be extremely rewarding but require dedication, honesty and drive.

Micro Goals

Micro goals (not sure who coined the saying but it popped in to my head!) are things you can use to push yourself further during your long-term goals. To give an example which I do this often, while running I look at the time, distance, calories burned or whatever other statistic available. Say I have ran 12 minutes, I’ll mentally set a goal of 15. When I near 15 minutes I look at another statistic, calories for instance and try to round up to the nearest hundred. You can do distance or whatever you want but the idea is to make micro-goals and surpass them. You’ll find quickly that you can go the extra 2 minutes or burn those extra thirty calories when you begin feeling fatigued and it will give you a natural mental as well as a physical boost.

Weekly Goals

Weekly goals are just that, goals you set to track progress weekly while improving slowly in areas you feel need working on. To give an example, If someone can comfortably walk a half mile and not be winded then after the first week they bump it up to .75 miles and walk it until comfortable. If that happens within the week then great! If it does not then set your goal to keep walking it until you are comfortable to do so. You’re pushing yourself in small increments that are bigger than micro goals and will see results.

Median Goals

I like to use these goals to make things “worth it” Over time you will see or feel a drop in your enthusiasm or exuberance. This will cause you to doubt and second-guess your choices. If you set goals that you meet month over month that give you bigger results you’re going to be successful.

I say that with 100% confidence because you are feeding sides of yourself you refuse to acknowledge or didn’t know you had. Seeing bigger results visually will ease the vain part of you as well as build your confidence. Sometimes, like for me, I wonder if I am doing something right because I can’t see the difference. People see it but my mind likes to play tricks on me. I hadn’t bought any new clothes until recently. At one time I couldn’t buy clothes from places off the rack because I was just too fat. One day I just decided to go try some clothes and see what happens. I went from a 6XL to a 3XL on my shirts and had not noticed it. Talk about an ego boost! In a way I met a Median Goal I had set for myself without even knowing it. It’s given me the confidence that I need to keep going. That is priceless.

That goal can be anything you want though, it doesn’t just have to be about physical changes. It could be learning a new skill or endeavoring in and being successful in a new job or hobby.

Long-term Goals

Now we’re at the grandaddy of them all. These goals should be taking you 6 months or more to complete. Learning new languages, trips to exotic islands, dating and more. These are almost similar to life goals. Long-term goals are what brings validation to the things you have done and are doing. I have several long-term goals that may sound all over the place but I think are doable. Go back to school (I take my placement test in a few days), Buy a house (year or so from now), Get back down to my high school weight or lower preferably (275 lbs.) and get back in to wrestling, not the WWE stuff but Freestyle or Greco-Roman.

Conclusion

My articles seem to get more verbose as I write. Maybe I just like running off at the fingers or maybe I have something valuable to say. I just like to share and hope it gives someone insight. I don’t expect to meet all my goals, the wrestling one is pretty out there, but I will damn well try and you should too. Life is about living and being adventurous, precarious and also being humble and honest. We have limits and acknowledging them is admirable but there is nothing wrong with striving to be better. Start small and then look back over time at your achievements. They’ll add up and you will see those little goals you accomplished made one big difference in your life and others.

If that isn’t something to strive for then I don’t know what is.

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