How To Set Goals
This was taken from the first section on goal setting from my latest book, Bigger Stronger Better. To get the full book and achieve your goals, click here.
When it comes to setting goals you have two things to consider:
How you look
How you perform (or what you’re physically capable of)
In terms of how you look, the easiest place to start is by thinking about the person who has the look you want to achieve. Maybe you want to look like the Rock, or Captain America. Maybe it’s someone you know, or maybe it’s a version of you from the past. Whatever it is you want, you need to get as specific as possible about what it is that makes that physique stand out to you. Is it how lean they are? Is it the size of their arms? The V taper from their shoulders to waist? Get as detailed as you can when you think about this and write it down.
If you already know what “performance” you want (50 push ups, 10 pull ups, bodyweight bench, 3 plate deadlift, etc.) perfect! If you know you want to be “stronger”, as an example, but aren’t sure what that means, then ask yourself how you would describe to me how someone is strong, the way you want to be strong. If I called you after I left the gym and said, “Bro! I just saw the exact guy you want to be at the gym”, what did I see? Write that down as exact as you can.
Once you’ve got these written down, I want you to start quantifying them versus where you are today.
I’ll give you an example:
Look
Bigger arms - Currently my arms are 14.75”
Better “V” shape - Waist is currently 37”
Abs - Take a progress picture
Perform
Deadlift 405 - Tested at the gym, could lift 205, 4 times
30 push ups - Can do 12 now
8 pull ups - Can do 1, if I kick my feet
The important thing, with any of the goals you’ve chosen, is figuring out an actual measurement, or trackable metric/method that we can use to make sure our plan is working.
It doesn’t matter if you want to deadlift 300, 400 or 1,000 pounds. If you know you can deadlift 205 x 4 right now, we know where we need to go. Up!
Same thing with the look. You might not know how big your arms need to be for you to be pumped when you look in the mirror, but you know they need to grow, or that your waist needs to shrink, or that you want to start seeing more definition in your pictures.
This is the real magic of setting goals 100% honestly, specifically and measurably.
Once you are honest with yourself, you’re going to set goals that will inspire you. It is the inspiration of chasing the dream you have for yourself, that will supply you with the energy you need to make it real.
From there, setting specific goals will allow you to create a plan that takes a direct path to the target. There is an expression that “if a man doesn’t know where he’s going, any direction will do.” This is NOT what we want when it comes to making progress!
Finally, when you’ve got trackable, measurable elements for your goals, you’ll be able to analyze whether or not things are working and make adjustments. I use Google Maps when I drive instead of a paper map because it constantly adjusts the route based on traffic, accidents and any turns I miss. We want the ability to recognize slow downs, or wrong turns, as fast as possible to get back on track.
