GOALS

At our academy the coaches urge the students to schedule a time to sit down and talk about goals. To be honest, I’ve only done one of these sit downs thus far, and I will likely do my best to skirt around ever having to do one again. For some, setting goals may work. I see that there is some value in having an end goal, but rather than setting a goal up in the distance, I’d rather worry about the day-to-day grind. I’m sure there’s a sports analogy there, but honestly, I don’t watch too much of that crap- just enough to know that basketball is full of prima-donnas, soccer players flay at the slightest breeze, baseball is the Nascar of team sports (zzzzz’s), football is un-American and ice hockey is hands down the most interesting team sport out there.

During this chat about goals, there were some specific talking points. For example, I recall being asked about competing. I expressed that I had no interest in it, if at all, maybe an in-house tournament of sorts. Then it was much more generic, short-term, long-term goals and things that could get in your way.

I gave them some generic answers to their generic prompts. But even looking back, my “goals” were not much of end goals. The only goal that would have had a definite end point was I mentioned as a short-term goal was to get my blue belt. My long-term goal was something about being able to keep training, i.e. avoiding injury, managing work/life/Jiu-Jitsu balance, etc. Outside of that, I don’t remember much of the conversation. It wasn’t all it was cracked up to be. Honestly, I didn’t see the point.

When I competed- no coach talked to me about achieving, or actually exceeding that goal. When I got my blue belt, there was no conversation about what my next short-term goal was.

An honestly, that’s fine. They probably won’t like my new approach to these “goals.”

If you’ve been around a while, you might know that I am not a fan of the competition Jiu-Jitsu scene. So, if I were to be re-asked what my competing goals are, there wouldn’t be an answer for that. I didn’t like competing, so I am not going to.

If it came down to a conversation about my short- and long-term goals, the answer would be the same. Consistently train 2-3 times a week. That’s it. I don’t care about stripes, the next belt, awards or accolades. My short- and long-term goals in Jiu-Jitsu are one in the same. To consistently train 2-3 times a week. Anything else, any other “goals” I could come up with or that other people come up with can and will be achieved by consistently training 2-3 times a week.

In reality, I didn’t even set a goal. What I did was set and form a habit. And I’d rather have a consistent habit than sprint towards a goal and achieve that one thing. Sure, I have other things I want to do in my Jiu-Jitsu journey, but they are side notes to the train consistently 2-3 times a week. For example, I’d like to drop into train at other gyms- but that aligns with the training 2-3 times a week. I want to train more with my family at home- again, that supplements the training 2-3 times a week. I want to get to and maintain a certain BMI- that will be achieved partially because of training 2-3 times a week. I do want to get to that next belt, but that will be attained by training 2-3 times a week.

See, instead of trying to focus on all these different targets, cross-training, family training, weight loss, the next belt, etc., I can focus all my energy onto that one habit, training 2-3 times a week, and collect these achievements along the way. Instead of being overwhelmed by all these goals I’m going after, I can just keep on the path by simply training 2-3 times a week.

Again, if you are a goal-oriented person, that’s fine. Go for it. Set and achieve those goals. But maybe just give this thought a try. Really, what if you focus on how to achieve rather then what to achieve? Because, like my original short-term goal: earn my blue belt- at some point I stopped focusing on that goal, and focused on being consistent and training 2-3 times a week, and sooner or later, what do you know, I earned my blue belt.

And this doesn’t just go for Jiu-Jitsu or fitness goals. I’m currently taking classes in pursuit of my Master’s degree. If I solely focus on my end date. If I have tunnel vision on the finish line, I’m going to end up exhausted and missing the mark. So, I set the standard that I will work on school work or study for 1-2 hours a day. As I focus on this task, the milestones in my program will come and go and I can keep trucking along and finish the course.

I want to read more. I’ve been slacking quite a bit on this- so I will (re)set the standard of reading 10 pages a day. That won’t land me at reading 100 books this year, but it will set that habit in place, and before you know it, I will have read a handful more books this year.

Nearly a year ago, I wanted to write more, not for school, but just to write for the practice of it. So, I set the standard, I would write a couple hundred words three nights a week. And here I am, eleven and half months later, and having written over 40,000 words on this blog alone. I could have never even imagined coming up with the goal to write 40,000 words. But writing for a bit, three nights a week made that 40k milestone achievable.

So what habits and standards are you going to set going forward?

Thanks for reading.