Setting goals

Day 54 - Thursday, February 23, 2012


Last night, Jay held a mid-challenge pep talk/intervention for those doing the 90 day challenge. It seems that a lot of people were hitting a slump and needed a little boost to get through the remaining 45 (now 36) days.


There was a lot of interesting discussion about whether food is mental or physical. I lean towards the side of emotional, but the debate continues.


There was also an exercise that helped you get in touch with what you were thinking, feeling and doing. Really being present in the moment and recognizing your current state. We were all encouraged to do this several times a day. I think it'll be most helpful for me when I'm craving treats, or wanting to emotionally eat. Really thinking about and acknowledging what's driving the behavior is a powerful weapon to have.
Thinking - this is dumb
Feeling - successful with what I've accomplished for far and sticking with it
Doing - writing


Finally, the activity that gets me to the reason for Bobby Orr making a guest appearance above. Jay also had us write down our Fitness, Nutrition, and Life goals for the next 45 days.
My fitness goal was one of my challenge goals - 10 consecutive real burpees.
Nutrition - continue to try new paleo recipes and foods.
Life - too risky to put out here publicly not knowing who will read it, but I had one.
He then had us think about what's possible. Well, all three of mine were deliberately possible, so I had a tough time with this one, but it really got me thinking about my goal setting overall. 


We then did the freeze game again:
Thinking - I don't have good goals
Feeling - uncertain
Doing - getting anxious


Jay then had a few people volunteer to share and I noticed a trend. Oh shit ... I was supposed to get more positive after the goals exercise?
Oh.
I was the only one who got negative (or at least to admit it). I just don't feel like I've ever been good at setting goals. Not in my personal life, my professional life, my health, anything. When I had to come up with goals for the 90 day challenge, I really struggled with coming up with things that were reasonable, attainable, but still challenging enough. The standard crossfit goals never really appealed to me. I don't really, truly care if I'm ever able to do pullups, or do a body weight back squat, or Rx'd Fran. These are just not things that are important to me.
And then, Chad, one of my fellow challengers said something that truly resonated with me. I'm paraphrasing, but it was something like, if you're having trouble setting goals, think instead about what the goal will get you. Oh! It's like a little light bulb (GE of course) just went off in my head. 
So then I started thinking about the things I want. This is still a challenge for me, but much easier to do. A few examples.

• I want to be able to go for a hike with my boyfriend and my dog without being a hindrance to them.
• I want to look better in the mirror and in the white dress.
• I want to have less joint pain.

So now I'm onto the step of figuring out what goals I need to set to accomplish these things. It's still not easy for me, but switching it around, I think, will help. 

Maybe this approach will help some of you with your goals as well. We're all different and we're all shooting for differing targets in this challenge and in life, but in order to get there, we at least need to know which direction to take that first step.

A content note: I'm no longer blogging my daily food and workout logs. Rest assured, I am still tracking them, I just decided no one really thinks these are interesting.