January is the time we promise we'll do better. Better eating habits. More exercise. Less booze. Mostly personal stuff. Something that should be on that list but too often overlooked is better sleeping.
We start with fuzzy ideas. Good intentions, but lacking clarity. It's hard to measure success, or the lack of success, without a clear statement of what it is we are trying to accomplish.
The process of setting goals forces us to be more specific. It takes time, but in the end what began as a fuzzy ideas becomes a clear objective. Now we should be able to tell if we made it.
My long term goals for 2022 are outcome goals. Very simple. My primary goal is to complete Ironman 70.3 Hawaii, and my secondary goal is to complete Ironman Cozumel.
Honu is still almost six months away. That's a long time to go without checking progress. To get started on short term goals I have chosen three process goals. My plan is to start by making them weekly goals, but I may end up extending the time period.
My three short term process goals are Intention, Commitment, and Persistence. Chris Hauth likes to talk about intention. In his words, it is not enough to show up every day and do the work. We must act with intention. We must know why we are doing what we are doing and what we expect to gain from it.
Commitment to me means that I consider everything I do from the context of my long term goals, and my Why. Don't wake up with a hangover because I forgot I had a run scheduled. Don't just blow it off. Be the athlete I want to become.
Persistence is the hardest, for me at least. When Saturday morning comes with rain, get out there and run. When the plan calls for six reps, do all six and do them well.
Another kind of goal to set is performance measures. Run a mile in under 10 minutes. Swim one hundred yards in less than two minutes. That kind of thing. I'll be coming up with some of those, too, real soon.