Over this past weekend, I had a ton of time to think as I was back home on a hunting trip with my dad.
When we go hunting for deer, there’s a lot of patience that’s involved. If you hunt yourself, you know what I mean…
With all the waiting I did, I had a ton of time to just sit there and collect my thoughts and think for a bit. Since I’m out in the middle of nowhere with practically no civilization around me, it’s extremely quite and peaceful. This is something that I don’t get enough time of… Peace and quiet… 😉
Anyways, I got to thinking and one of the main thoughts that came to my mind is that 2011 is almost gone. This year has just flown by and its felt as if it’s been just a few weeks! There’s been so many things that have gone on this year it’s been crazy.
Along with the thought on looking back at the past year, I got to thinking even more about how much progress I’ve made personally on my goals within this time. When I look back, I can honestly say that I was able to hit many of my goals, just not all of them.
Many of the goals I set out and hit were for both my physical self (fitness) and business / financial. I’m happy to say that I made great progress but, at the same time, I’m not 100% satisfied.
There are still MANY goals I haven’t met yet…
However, something else that I started to think about that’s a HUGE issue is that most people out there can’t look back and say the same thing. Not because they didn’t hit most of their goals but because they didn’t have any goals set to begin with.
This is a HUGE problem and I want to help you fix it.
When you don’t have any goals to begin with, how do you track your progress? How do you determine if you’re successful? What will keep you motivated and driven?
These are things I want YOU to think about.
With the end of 2011 steadily approaching (Just 47 Days as I write this), there’s not that much time left! But, at the same time there is time… What I mean is there’s still time to set up some goals and hit them before 2011 comes to an end.
Now, here’s where the main problem comes into play… Towards the end of the year, most people tend to start slacking off a bit and let their hard earned gains dwindle away. To justify this regress in progress, they say what most people say at this time of year which is “its the holidays“…
On top of that, people start to follow along with the herd and do what everyone else is doing it….
Instead, you need to focus on Ending the Year Strong! This isn’t the time to slack off and go easy, instead it’s the time of year to be at your best!
I say, go against the grain and be the 1% that FORGES their own path! Be the person that leads from the front and does their own thing.
Be the wolf not the sheep…
Stop doing what everyone else is doing and lead by example. Be the person that everyone else follows and inspired to be.
Don’t be apart of the crowd…
You will never be the person that leads if you are one of the sheep.
Now, to get started off in the right direction, what you must do right now is to follow and implement these 5 steps…
Step 1 – Look back at what you’ve done.
Take out a piece of paper and draw a line down the middle.
On one side, write at the top, “Strength” and on the other side write, “Weakness“.
Now, on the Strengths side, I want you to write down all of the things that you’ve accomplished or made great progress with thus far this year… This can be anything from certain lifts you achieved, dietary / nutritional stuff, body composition, weight, ect…
Anything that is a personal victory to you goes on the STRENGTH side of the paper…
For the Weakness side, I want you to do the same but now, write down all of the things you would have liked to accomplish or, you can even write down all of the different barriers or road-blocks that prevented you from achieving certain milestones.
These will turn into your focused goals to accomplish in the future…
Now, look back and assess your overall progress. Note your mistakes and weaknesses and from those, look to where you can make the most improvement on but still focus in on your strengths.
- Assess your strength and note how you got to those strengths.
- Assess your weaknesses and note how you’ve been prevented from overcoming or eliminating these weaknesses.
Now, based off of what you have found, turn the paper over and create some NEW goals…
Come up with at least 5 detailed and solid goals and write these out on the back of this paper.
Step 2 – Don’t focus on just weaknessess.
Now, after you’ve looked back to see how far you have come and what has held you back, you need to progress forward by still doing the things that got you up to this point (your strengths) while also putting emphasis on your weaknesses.
The problem is, too many people put too much focus on weaknesses and in turn, lose confidence and overall moral. When this happens, they lose the strength they have or worse, they quit.
When all you do is focus on your weaknesses and all the different things you’re not good at, you’ll start lose interests in what it is you do.
Instead, you must have small victories along the way by still focusing on your strengths. This will keep you POSITIVE and focused. You must have some victory with your defeats.
The main objective is to learn how to implement your weaknesses into your strengths so that you can steadily improve on both. The last thing you want to do is take steps back with your strengths in sacrifice of trying to improve on your weaknesses…
For me, one of the main things I’ve done to work on my major weaknesses (pistol squats being one) is that I’ve started to implement them into my warm ups. This way I don’t put too much focus in on them during my actual sessions, where as before, I would and when I did I would get super frustrated and lose focus and major confidence within my training session.
This would make for a terrible training session so I knew I needed to find out how to improve on pistol squats without letting them hinder my other progress. So now, I put pistols into my warm ups so I can hit them when I’m more fresh and focused. This also gets them out of the way fast.
Step 3 – To change, you MUST change…
In order to make real change, don’t continue to do the same old sh*t over and over and expect things to miraculously become better. Doing the same things over and over and expecting a different result isn’t smart, it’s the definition of insanity.
Instead fix the broken wheel… When you look back at the list you created above with your strengths and weaknesses, find out what changes need to be made in order to attack and destroy those weaknesses.
Obviously, if the wheel isn’t broke, don’t fix it! Just focus in on getting even better. You can NEVER be good enough…
Under the 5 goals you have listed on the back, write out the CHANGES that must be made in order to achieve these 5 goals…
Step 4 – Find Some Accountability
Now that you have some ideas in your mind about what you want to accomplish, you must create some sort of ACCOUTIBILITY for yourself.
Without any amount of accountability, I can almost guarantee you that 9 times out of 10, you’ll never follow through with what you originally set out to do.
Why? Because there’s no consequences to face up to if you quit on yourself. The only person you let down is YOU.
When you have someone looking over your shoulder or someone that you have to report back to, then it’s a whole lot tougher to just quit. Now instead of letting yourself down, you let that person down too.
Now, notice I said 9 times out of 10… Not everyone out there needs 100% accountability… There’s a small percentage of freaks out there that can go about it on their own but, I wouldn’t try it.
Surround yourself with POSITIVE people.
Make sure the people you surround yourself with are those that have similar goals in mind as you do. They might not have the same exact goals, but they need to be alike…
Bottom Line – Driven and motivated people breed other driven and motivated people = SUCCESSFUL people.
Now, just surrounding yourself around these people isn’t enough, you need to TELL them what it is your out to achieve. DON’T be shy!
In fact, I would just go yell out your goals out on top of a mountain!
After you tell everyone what your goals are, set yourself some DEADLINES! Without deadlines, you have nothing that is pressuring you to achieve your goals other than the goals themselves. You must have a clear cut deadline so you’re forced to TAKE ACTION and move!
In this case, your dealdine is Dec 31st. What can you achieve before 2011 ends???
Just one last thing with this step…. I highly suggest you find yourself a solid workout partner. Someone who is STRONGER than you, FASTER than you, LEANER than you, and just overall BETTER than you…
Make sure it’s someone that will push you and force you to work.
Just about a year ago, I used to train with one of my wrestlers who is now at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado. I can remember some of the sessions we had where I was pushed to the absolute edge! I know he was pushed as well! Neither of us could have achieved the gains we did alone… You just can’t get that working out by yourself…
One of the BEST things you can do besides getting a serious training partner is to HIRE a Professional….
Step 5 – COMPETE!
Now, before I get into this last step, let’s go over the first 4…
- List out your STRENGTHS and WEAKNESSES then CREATE 5 goals you want to hit BEFORE 2011 ends based off of these strength and weaknesses
- FOCUS in on your weaknesses while still hammering your strengths
- Change your habits – STOP doing the same things that are keeping you where you’re at. Write out HOW you’ll change in order to achieve your goals.
- Create Accountability – Tell people around you what you’re doing and that you have a DEADLINE to meet. Get a training partner that will push you and never let you quit or better yet, HIRE a Coach.
- COMPETE!
Step 5 is to COMPETE! Now that you have goals laid out in front of you, it’s time to take MASSIVE ACTION and attack your goals with all you have.
Step over the excuses and forge ahead until you hit your goals.
Your deadline is EASY. I’ve already set it for you… It’s Dec 31st…
What can YOU achieve by then???
It’s time to COMPETE against yourself… COMPETE against others… COMPETE against your weaknesses!
Now, in my next post I want to talk about the two most important things you must have to succeed and to reach your top potential. I also have a very important announcement to make that you won’t want to miss! But, we’ve got to get at least 20 comments on this post…
In the meantime, I have A few QUESTIONS I want you to answer and give me your feedback on… Let’s get 20+ comments and I’ll post up the next part!
What do YOU want to get done by the end of the year? How will YOU be finishing the year off strong?
Will You be forging your own path to success?
Will you be the WOLF and LEAD or just following around the heard like a sheep?
Post your comments below and if you got some balls, let me and the rest of the hardcore strength fans out there know on my Facebook Fan Page what they are!