Where Are You Going?

For today’s blog entry, I’d like to share with you a section of a recent newsletter I received from my good buddy Nate Green. He’s an amazing personal trainer based up in Montana. And don’t tell him I said this, but somedays he’s a better writer than me, even though I’ve been reading and writing since he was in diapers. Granted, I was only in first grade, but it still counts. ;)

Jokes aside, Nate is top notch trainer who you will absolutely be hearing more from in the future. The guy’s to-do list is longer than most family’s grocery list for the month. Yet he finds time to run a business (he recently relocated to his own official facility. Congrats!), train his clients, train himself, and still make it down to the café to hang with his pals.

This entry from his newsletter (Think of it as my weekly reading homework assignment to you all. I suggest you sign up [for free] right here.) ties in perfectly with my last blog post where we discussed resolutions and goal setting. So, let’s see what Nate has to say…

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Last week I touched on the importance of your most precious commodity, time, and making sure you’re taking action and doing things you want to do every day.

“Determine exactly what you want to accomplish and make sure your actions are in line with your goals,” was the gist of the letter.

Now that’s all well and good, but I know many people may be a bit confused or stuck.
If you’re anything like me, your brain is akin to a sort of twisted war-zone where ideas shoot off like gunfire but fly away faster than, well, really fast fighter planes.

Ok, that was a horrible analogy.

The bottom line is this:

If you don’t know what you want to accomplish how do you ever plan to get there?

Having absolutely no goals is kind of like preparing for a road trip without a map. You may wing it and have fun for awhile but pretty soon you’re going to have to slow down and ask for directions.

And chances are that slack-jawed Buford from that backwoods gas station doesn’t have your best interests in mind with regard to the route that best suits you.

Wouldn’t you rather just get to point A from point B with minimal hassle and maximum adventure and efficiency?

Take a look at some of the most important areas of your life: your health, family, and career for example.

Break them up into three categories and write down five (just 5!) goals that you want to accomplish in the next year. Want to lose that extra 15 lbs of fat? Want to double your income? Want to spend more time with your loved ones?

Well, write it down.

Now, after you have those five things in place, give me three actions you can do every day to take you closer to those goals.

So if you want to lose 15lbs of fat your three actions may be:

1.Cut out sugary sodas, juices, and fast food
2.Exercise for 45 minutes four times per week
3.Drink 8 glasses of water per day

Now they don’t have to be big actions, just a step or two in the right direction.

Start acting out the way you want to live your life right now. You may be surprised on how fast your reach your goals…

Cheers,

NG


PS: My friend Dax Moy developed an absolutely invaluable product called the ‘Magic 100.’ This system has completely turned my life around with regard to taking action every day and living my dream. Check it out at: http://www.1shoppingcart.com/app/?af=526011

The Resolution Revolution

There's just over two weeks until New Year’s Eve, and that means only one thing...I'm still not crazy enough to go into Times Square to see the ball drop!! Ha. Actually, New Year's also means a sudden tidal wave of enthusiasm that leads people to develop those pesky New Year’s resolutions. Their plans for attacking 2007 and really making those changes they’ve talked about. Drop those 15 pounds. Find that six pack on their abs. Quit puffing on cancer sticks. Cut back on the partying. Buckle down at work and land that big raise. Whatever hopes they’ve been harboring in the back of their minds are suddenly allowed to come forward. Why? Well, because it’s 12:01 a.m., January 1st. That’s when everyone makes those kinds of changes. Right?

Wrong.

If the brief act of flipping a calendar’s page and singing "Auld Lang Syne" was enough to dramatically change your life around and start really working on your goals, people would sing that kooky song every 30 days and the world would quickly become a much better place. But it just isn’t that simple. For some, maybe. But for the majority? Nope.

Goal setting isn’t something that you need to save up and unleash once a year. Ideally, I’d like to see everyone with a few long term goals, but also several smaller goals that get re-evaluated every few weeks. One method often recommended for this type of long term goal setting is the Yellow Paper method. Grab a sheet of lined yellow paper (studies have shown that notes written on yellow-colored paper are more likely to be remembered. There’s a fun fact for the day.) If possible, use a legal-sized sheet. More space means more lines means more writing means more goals. ;) Next, simply list “stuff you’d like to accomplish.”

Don’t stress much about timeframes and deadlines, that’ll be the next step. What we want right now is to think Big Picture, regardless of where you are now. “Fit size 32 jeans without a belt.” “Wear size 6 sexy black dress.” “Complete 10 pull-ups.” “Hold a full split between two chairs while smiling.” “Run a marathon.” Whatever crosses your mind as something that would just be good to do.

Last step, after you’ve jotted down a few larger goals. Take a few minutes with each one and break it down into several smaller bullet points/baby steps/short term goals that work towards them. For example, if I wanted to fit into a smaller size of clothes, some of the shorter steps would be:
- Learn about, and implement, a specific nutrition plan.
- Build lean muscle tissue and burn bodyfat with a specific training plan.
- Consult a fitness coach to find the most efficient ways to do both of the above.
- Go shopping for new clothes.

Mission accomplished.

Final thought: I recently found out about John Goddard, a man in his mid-70’s who has completed a truly outstanding list of tasks: his Life List . When he was 15 years old, he wrote a list of 127 goals he wanted to achieve. Today, he has less than 20 remaining. Some of the to-do's that were done: Explore the Amazon River, climb Mount Vesuvius, dive in a submarine, and learn to play the flute and the piano. Some of the still-to-do's: climb Mount Everest, visit the North and South Poles, and visit the moon. That, my friends, is goal setting.