Goal Setting

In the past couple of months, several athletes at CrossFit N6 have made some serious strides.  These people are usually the ones who consistently show up to class, and work hard on a daily basis.  Some even started to take…

In the past couple of months, several athletes at CrossFit N6 have made some serious strides.  These people are usually the ones who consistently show up to class, and work hard on a daily basis.  Some even started to take their diet more seriously as they see the correlation between food (fuel) and performance.  The one thing these athletes have in common is a drive to be better than yesterday.  However, we all need to go a step further and start setting serious realistic goals.

Goal setting can be a tricky thing and most people don’t do it for several reasons. Some are too afraid to fail, where as others feel that goals create stress since it keeps them accountable; stress can be a good thing if used to succeed.  Some have a difficult time starting as there is so much to accomplish there don’t know what to focus on.  It’s been said the one should focus on one ting at a time and not set too many goals.  Although that’s true, single goals can lead to an approach that is not measurable and is far too broad.  As a CrossFit athlete, (which is what you all are) you need to have several goals.

I believe we need a personal goal that deals with either gym commitment, or more family time, or going on a date once a week with your better half.  Whatever it is, there needs to be something that you want to work toward personally.

Secondly, we need diet goals.  I’m not a fan of dieting, and “lifestyle change” is way too cliche.  I believe we all need to eat REAL food, and enjoy the food we’re eating.  There is obviously a time and place for Paleo, Zone, etc… but there needs to be some sort of diet goal.  An example would be to eat a complete breakfast every day.  If you want to know what a complete breakfast looks like, check Karen Lamana’s Instagram page.

Finally we need a fitness goal.  Being strong is NOT a goal.  Being fit is NOT a goal.  You need a specific goal like an increase in the squat by 30lb, or stringing together 10 pull ups.  Make your goals specific and you will get a whole lot more from your training. When you feel like  taking it easy in a strength session, you’ll be held accountable by that goal and that extra 5lb moved 30 times adds up to a whole lot of work.  For CrossFit specifically we all need to have a goal that focuses on strength, gymnastics, weightlifting, mobility etc.. Find your weakness or weaknesses and beat them to the ground until you are master of those weaknesses.

How do we set those goals? Here’s a start:

IDENTIFY YOUR GOAL – I want to do 5 pull ups.

BE REALISTIC – If you can’t do a pull up don’t plan on setting a goal to perform a muscle up.

MAKE A PLAN – I’m going to perform 5×5 pull ups at the end of every class working with bands.

MEASURE PROGRESS – KEEP A JOURNAL.

ACCOUNTABILITY – Write your goal down somewhere and maybe try to do it with a partner.

TIME – Give yourself a due date. “In 4 weeks I’m going to string together 5 pull ups.”

Start today and be better tomorrow.