Just got through the mid-year review process which is always fun. Cool to look back and see what has been accomplished over the last several months and even more fun is to look forward to the rest of the year and set some goals.
Personal Goals
Power generation goals are cool to me(I currently work at Southern Company which is a great energy utility imo), but probably pretty boring to most of you so I’m going to discuss some personal goals. Starting off the year I had some resolutions including the standard ones… lose weight, sleep more, eat better, read more, spend more time with the girls, etc. I’ve had some minor successes, but only two major successes.
One huge success was to read more – mostly business, achievement and personal development/success related topics. I’ve really done that this year primarily through listening to books on my commute, listening to podcasts anywhere I’m sitting for more than a few minutes and choosing physical books to read that really interest me or that I get glowing personal recommendations to read.
Another decent success is wrapping up Friday. That goal was to work out harder and more specifically the guys I work out with wanted to do a 4 week program to increase your one rep max bench press. Crazy fun and hard, but surprisingly effective. Monday the final 1x rep was what your old one rep max was – since I guessed at 315 and hadn’t really done that much weight in a while I was surprised how easily it went up.
325 is my goal for Friday. Haven’t touched that in a while and if I get really froggy I might jump on 335. Either way I’m really happy with being able to push 315 at 42 years old.
Dreams are not goals!
By evaluating the successes compared to the failures there is one glaringly obvious difference… The successes were real goals. The failures were just dreams, hopes and wishes.
Goals rule! But only if done properly. Inherently you and I both know how to do proper goals and be successful, but it makes a lot more sense to do it strategically and through a process so you don’t get those failures. Because they aren’t really failures, just unrealized dreams. Minor difference but it makes all the difference in the world.
I am going to expand on this concept in a later post, but you already know the short answer… Each of the successes had a time boundary and an aggressive yet attainable desired outcome. The failures were just dreams, hopes and wishes.
Hope, wishes and dream, huh? I think you are right. I guess the key is turning all those wishes that we all have into goals. It is so much easier to just dream, though. LOL!
My dreams are HUGE, Clay. How do even get my head around them to make a goal out of them?
I think you have to have HUGE dreams to even be able to consider HUGE goals! I am reading a Brian Tracy book called “GOALS!” right now that I think is just the ticket for approaching goals of any size.
I found my way over here from DomainShane.com and was surprised to learn that someone who buys the occasional name also knows what a bench press is.
335.. I’ll assume you’re talking pounds, not kilograms. Either way, it’s still too heavy for me. My old ligaments would freak out with that weight.
I’m 40 and have been lifting weights since I was 13. I used to bench out sets of 8 on 130-140 kgs (286-308 lbs), but have dropped back a bit the last couple of years. The body is holding up surprisingly well, but the motivation seems to be lacking.
Having said that, I’m pretty competitive and I’ve got a couple of years on you, so it’s tempting to make 336 lbs my new goal… but it can remain a dream for now.
Yeah, small world of lifters.
My old ligaments are suffering too so I think I am done with relatively heavy weight. At least for a while until I can’t take it anymore…
8×308 is impressive – never been able to do that even back in the day. Actually doing a higher rep rotation for a few weeks right now so maybe I’ll get there one day. Just keep working is the way I look at it!
Thanks for stopping by!