Goal-Setting For Long Term Success
There's something that's most guys don't do when they're setting goals. And it stops their long-term success. To explain, last year I noticed I had started to put weight back on.
Ryan and I were flat out looking after our clients, so losing weight wasn't a priority. Plus, I was loving my Friday night feasts…
2 big Garlic focaccia's filled with chicken had become my church. and I was praying a lot!
Nom. I'm sat there, tucking into my Friday feast. Phone rings. It's Ryan. I thought to myself -
Why is Ryan interrupting my tea?
With greasy fingers all over my phone, I finally managed to answer -
Hey mate, what's up?
Ryan -
"Gyms are shutting... lockdown is happening"
I put the phone down, bicep curled the rest of the focaccia into my mouth, booted up my laptop up and thought -
“Right time to find some weights.”
Frantically scouring the internet, I managed to get a pair of dumbbells and some resistance bands. We weren’t sure about the resistance bands as we’d never used them before, but we started using them anyway. After a few weeks spent figuring out how to make training work in my garage, we got into the swing of things.
But knowing I'd gained a few pounds had started to bother me…
So I decided to step on the scales one morning to see what I weighed. I was shocked. I'd gained 10 kilos. In a split second, I was right back to being 120kg again.
If you're reading this thinking, 120kg?! Yeah, that was me a long time ago. I thought to myself -
“This is not happening.”
In that moment stepping on the scales, everything had become so heightened. The sudden rush of anxiety, asking myself what had gone wrong.
It was a big trigger for me. Now I had to do something about it. But as we continued to train, the scales were up and down like a yo-yo. In other words, I wasn't losing weight. Nada.
Truth be told, I was struggling to cut out my Friday night antics…
So I spoke to Ryan -
"I've gained weight, I wanna lose 10 kilos because it's bothering me now”
This highlights what most of us do when we have a goal…
We set outcome goals - which is the big end goal. But we stop here and it's not enough.
It makes the task feel too overwhelming, and it can stop us from even starting. We need to break down our outcomes goals into mini-goals. Which is what most guys don't do. And it's why we created The Insiders Goal Setting Handbook This tool, really helps guys we work with get crystal clear on their goals. It's one part of L6 High-Performance Coaching.
Back to the story…
Just as I finished speaking, Ryan replied -
"Hold my beer mate"
We started bouncing ideas off each other. It was exciting man! As we carried on speaking I blurted out -
"SOD IT... I wanna get back to 85kg"
A huge goal. It felt weird saying it. Didn't seem possible. I thought to myself I'm 46, if I don’t do it now... I never will! Plus I'd said it now, there was no going back. So I put a plan in place. I set myself the target of losing 10kg in 3 months. Here's some of what I did:
This is the second part of goal-setting, mini-goals…
The outcome goal was to lose 10kg. But I broke this down into manageable parts - daily steps, protein and calorie targets. This makes the outcome less overwhelming. Plus, it means you have mini successes along the way, like hitting a PB in training or losing 1kg a week.
I got to work on this plan right away…
Training was as good as ever. I developed a love for resistance bands and I was making a lot of progress. I wasn't missing the chips at lunch either. The veg was so filling and I discovered an Asian slaw recipe, which I still eat 5 times a week.
Stepping on the scales every morning was super motivating. The weight had started dropping off. It made me want to carry on seeing these kinds of results. I started to believe I could achieve the 85kg target.
This really highlights the importance of mini-goals. They're successes along the way.
And they help you to enjoy the journey, In other words, "fall in love with the process". There's research backing this too if you wanna check it out
Now trying to lose this much weight, wasn't plain sailing. And I did have a 'few' hiccups/chicken focaccia's along the way. Friday had become such a habit that on the odd occasion I did slip back into my old ways.
Funny thing is, after indulging in a Friday feast… waking up Saturday morning, stepping on the scales and thinking my weight would've shot up… It hadn't... it'd gone down!
You HAVE to be really careful at this point. It's easy to think, because you've been able to do this once you can get away with it 2,3,4, or 5 more times. But you can't. You will start gaining weight. Trust me on this one.
But I got back on track right away. That was important. Training continued and my diet was on point most of the time. Result? The pounds peeled off. And I was really pleased with what I was seeing in the mirror.
At this point, I was 2 months in weighing 89kg. I had 4 weeks to lose 4kg…
Seemed like it was going to be a breeze. But then - with no change in diet or training - for 3 whole days, the scales didn't drop. I needed to drop my calories.
The one thing people don't realise they need to do is adjust their calories as their weight goes down. Less weight = less calories. It's called metabolic adaptation. Here's how it works:
As I made changes, the scales started to drop again. With one week left and - what was - the final push, I hit my goal weight of 85kg. Check it out.
It felt great to be able to do this. People didn't recognise me! Everyone was happy for me too. And for others, seeing this change in me, made them realise they could achieve the same too.
