“The gap between where you want to be and where you are is called frutration. Frustration is eliminated by education and action. Get learning and doing”
– Alwyn Cosgrove
Alright, so we found out what we want to achieve, made some great goals and laid out a plan on how to go about it.
If you missed part 1 you can find it HERE, Part 2 HERE, Part 3 HERE
Now it’s all about action. At this point you’re putting thought into action and you’ve gotten a taste of where your hard work is taking you. The question becomes, am I getting to where I need to be? Am I progressing at the rate I need to? Are things going as planned?
Lets continue using my goal as an example. I want to qualify for the Crossfit Regionals and Crossfit Games. I set up my action steps and I’ve been busy working toward these goals.
I set up bi-monthly reflection periods to take a critical look at what I have been accomplishing and making changes accordingly. Your reflection can be weekly, monthly or anywhere in between. The idea is that you want to have a planned interval of time to reflect about your progress and ensure you’re still on the right track.
This is the point where I can change bits of my training, fine tune my eating and tweak my recovery to ensure my actions are matching up with my goals. We’re taking a critical look to see what is working well, what isn’t and then making small changes to realign with your goals for optimal progress.
This is a time to troubleshoot. Are you routinely following through with your action steps? Remember you made a pact with yourself to start working toward your goals. Don’t be weak. To be completely blunt, I really feel like this is the area where most fail. Its pretty simple to get where you want to be in life. The formula is there. Others have done it. You just have to do it. Don’t be a statistic, you’re better then that.
If you are not able to follow through with your action steps for realistic reasons (ie: realistic meaning that you aren’t being lazy and unmotivated) figure out those reasons. Do you have too much on your plate? Can you make time somewhere in your schedule? Does something need to be adjusted, or do you just need to man up and stop making excuses? Figure it out and take action.
Some things I’ve found with the past two weeks of training that I’ll be needing to change in order meet my goals are:
- Begin Squatting at the start of my workouts. My deadlift is looking good. My squat is not as good and I can make better progress in my training if I prioritize that instead.
- Getting involved with other athletes. I’m starting to spend more time around other motivated athletes and scheduling our training together to get better results.
- Continue to frequently work on my squat. Not just the barbell squat, but air squats, wall balls, pistols and the like. I may have to do more then I originally intended. It’s still a large weakness.
- Work my power snatch more. I knew this originally was a weakness but its pretty blatantly obvious over the last few snatch sessions that this needs improvements where as my other lifts have been fairly good. This will most likely mean adding additional sets to hone the technique as well as putting more into met-con.
Another thing I want to look at is whether or not my lifts and met-con times are up to snuff with my competitors who made it to cross fit regionals last year. This is easy to do because all I need to do is look at last year’s results and see if I am better or worse. At this point my strength and conditioning are where they need to be to qualify, which is very gratifying. I have put all the work into training, I just have to let it happen during the competition.
However, I’m still a bit of a long shot from qualifying for the games. I’ll really have to bulletproof myself by bringing up my weaknesses as well as becoming a monster at the met-con. I have time and many reflection periods to test and reassess. (As well as time to train like an animal!)
Another thing to take into account during this phase is whether or not your goals are realistic. You’ve had some time to put your thoughts into action and you can make a better judgement of your goals. Are you capable of something greater? Did you not realize how well you could do and underestimate yourself? If you did the opposite, goals can be scaled down as well.
These bi-monthly periods are nice because they’re motivating. They get you realigned with your goals and passion and can be rejuvenating. Well, thats all I have to offer to everyone right now. Please let me know of your own goals. I’d love to hear them. Thanks a ton for reading and please tell all of your friends!