TLDR
- Think through detailed processes, milestones and events that pertain to your own lifestyle and goals
Overview
So now you have a concept of an overarching goal with an interconnected series of mid level goals. To apply these in practice you’ll need to have robust detailed goals.
I’m going to suggest thinking in terms of three types:
- Process goals
- Milestone checkpoints
- Event checkpoints
Process goals
The detailed goals you construct to enable your medium level goals should predominantly be process oriented.
Some classic examples are:
- I’ll go to the gym 3x a week for 46 weeks a year
- I‘ll listen to music and put away my phone when I’m inside the gym
- I’ll eat 4 meals a day and make sure 25 out of 28 meals are mostly whole foods
The focus is on repeatable processes that are within your control, as opposed to set targets that may be out of your control.
Optionally, if you are fan of the SMART goals this is where you would construct goals in that fashion.
Process goals should be considered mandatory, if you’re setting yourself up for success you must be framing these.
Milestone checkpoints
This is labelled ‘checkpoint’ and not ‘goal’ for a reason. It’s simply less sustainable and not as important to long-term success.
If you fail a process goal, you know definitively that it’s within your control to adjust next time to succeed. If you fail to reach a milestone by an arbitrary point in time, you may have simply needed more time even if you did everything right.
Sure, it’s useful as an added bonus to keep us enthusiastic and motivated. Having a milestone is a positive thing – it just doesn’t replace process goals.
Some classic examples are:
- I’ll lose 5kg within the next 3 months
- I’ll lift 1 2 3 4 plates for OHP, bench, squat, deadlift
- I’ll hit a free standing handstand
Here we encourage milestones, but they are not vital unlike process goals.
Event checkpoints
Much the same as milestone checkpoints, but simply not everybody will necessarily have an ‘event’, thus making these even more optional than milestones.
Some classic examples are:
- I want to run this 5km race on x date
- I want to compete in this Hyrox race on x date
- On New Years I want to start a new training program
We also encourage events and other temporal landmarks, but they are not vital unlike process goals.