I started Trainer Tips Tuesday in early January of 2022 with a discussion about setting SMART PACT goals instead of New Year’s Resolutions.
As a very brief synopsis:
SMART goals—Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Timely—are effectively outcome goals. They’re the targets we want to hit.
PACT goals—Purposeful, Actionable, Continuous, and Trackable—are effectively process goals. They’re the steps we need to take (and adjust) frequently and consistently in order to hit our targets.
Not setting both types of goals sets us up for failure. When we don’t have a target to aim at, we experience boredom and minimal motivation. When we don’t have a process for hitting at our target, we end up getting distracted by “shiny stuff” and feeling aimless, confused, and anxious.
Alternatively, setting both types of goals provides consistent feelings of motivation, accomplishment, and confidence. And those feelings give us the mental energy to continue putting in the physical effort required to overcome the challenges we’ve set for ourselves.
Over the past year I’ve been introduced to or reminded of some other related ideas that have helped me refine and improve how I approach my own goals. In the hope that they can do the same for you and any goals you have for 2023, here are the top four ideas:
Recommit to your process goals every day
This idea was presented as “setting New Day’s Resolutions (NDR) as well as New Year’s Resolutions (NYR)”, a similar concept to setting SMART (NYR) PACT (NDR) goals.
The main addition was emphasis that our attention follows our intention. When we recommit to our PACTs consciously and daily (intention), we become more aware of times when we can take action and when we fall short (attention), with the latter case usually inspiring us to take action at the next opportunity.
As mentioned above, taking action frequently and consistently on our process-based goals is what leads to the achievement of our outcome-based goals. And considering that only 9% of the 41% of Americans who set New Year’s Resolutions actually feel like they achieved their goals (according to some research done in 2016), recommitting daily seems to be a commonly missed yet critically important part of the process.
100% commitment is easier than 99% commitment
If 99% commitment sounds like a lot to you, that’s because it is. Committing to something 99% requires a ton of mental energy—that is, discipline—because we’ve given ourselves an option. And any time we have an option, we have the possibility (and, arguably, the probability) of making the wrong choice for our long-term goals.
For example:
- “I can have McDonald’s just this once because I trained extra hard this morning.”
- “My stress has been abnormally high lately, so one cigarette/beer/shot of Cognac isn’t a big deal.”
- “It’s getting late, but I really want to see the end of this game. I’m sure I’ll still be able to wake up early tomorrow to finish studying.”
But committing 100% is actually easy by comparison because we only have to make the decision once.
- “I don’t eat at McDonald’s.”
- “I’ll never smoke another cigarette.” (Or better yet: “I don’t smoke.”)
- “My education is more important than my entertainment.”
The tricks here are to start small and not make commitments lightly. Because, well, we’re actually committing instead of “sorta kinda doing it usually most of the time when we feel like it”. Making that initial decision might be tough, but doing so makes abiding by the commitment much easier when we’re faced with a related challenge later.
Bring a flashlight to your screw-ups
We’re human. That means we’re going to screw up occasionally (and even more often at the beginning of doing something new). When we do screw up, the quickest and most effective way to get back on track is to make note of what has been working and be curious why the mistake was made instead of mentally beating ourselves up while thinking we “just didn’t have the willpower” to implement our plans.
Metaphorically speaking, we need to shine the flashlight of curiosity on the darkness of our brief lapse of judgement instead of bashing our self-esteem to a pulp with the hammer of perfectionism. Then we can use our newly discovered insight to make some minor changes, recommit to our process, and get back to work.
Celebrate your wins
As important as shining a flashlight on our mistakes is to getting back on track, celebrating our wins (both big and small) is equally as important for maintaining our motivation and improving our overall happiness, both of which are factors that positively affect our goal-achieving abilities.
This doesn’t necessarily mean you should throw yourself a wild party after you meet your daily veggie consumption target, although you certainly can do so if you deem it appropriate. Even something as simple as high-fiving a friend, coach, or yourself; crossing off an item from a list; or spending a few seconds reflecting on how much progress you’ve made in the past week, month, or year can be an effective celebration strategy.
Putting it into practice
If you’re a TNT member, we’ll be implementing some plans at the gym in the coming weeks to apply these concepts to your fitness-related goals. So keep an eye open for that.
Whether you’re a TNT member or not, I’ve found the Heroic app (Heroic on Android or Heroic on iOS) to be particularly insightful and helpful for applying these concepts (and more) to a variety of areas of my life. If you check it out, start with Basic Training under the Theory tab. And let me know if you have any questions when you start to move from theory to practice in the pursuit of mastery!