October Micro-Goals: Getting Back on Track

For those of you that work in higher education, or education in general, you can attest to what the month of September translates to in the amount of time you dedicate to work. After facilitating a three week training for student leaders and preparing for 350 college students to arrive on campus, it's finally time to get back on track.

Finding balance during these busy times has still eluded me. But that's not the point here, the point is that every one is going to stray away from their routine at some point and time for whatever reason. The difference is in the past you slipped and didn't get back on track. That's not what is going to happen here. I think back to the Sickness, Wellness and Fitness continuum. Every decision we make either moves us closer to Fitness or moves us to Sickness. The goal is to create the biggest buffer possible between the two. This buffer allows us to have a cheat meal...or day, or take a week off or become consumed with work and fail to stick to your normal regime. The buffer means that we aren't going to get sick after the holidays because the buffer is the hard work and blood and sweat and tears that moved you towards Fitness. But the buffer only lasts for so long before we are back to square one.

 

I decided I was going to start setting small "micro-goals" to help get me back on track towards my fitness goals. These goals are only for a week and will be small victories that are so powerfully motivating when facing adversity. It coincidentally worked out that Monday in October 1st. A new month, a new week, a fresh start. I love it. 

This week I'm going to work on a weakness that typically holds me back in WODs. Running. My goal is to wake up at 6am (and that obviously means 6:15ish) and run a mile. This is challenging for a couple reasons. 1) I am not a morning person. Waking up at 6am is challenge enough. But I have also been envious of early risers and I hope this will create a new routine to get up earlier and enjoy the day. 2) I am not a runner. I never have been. A mile isn't much, but it's a start. The feeling that I can envision having Friday morning, knowing that I ran 5 miles this week, in addition to CrossFit classes tastes like euphoria right now. I will have to keep this in mind Tuesday morning when my alarm goes off.

The other goal that I am setting is to simply drink more water. The ideal amount of water is to take your weight (in lbs) and divide by 2. That's how many ounces you should be shooting for. It is clear how much better I feel when I'm hydrated. Listen to your body and drink water.

How do you set goals for fitness? Have you ever tried micro-goal setting? If you're interested in setting your own, let me know, we can all share our successes together.

FBC

P.S. This morning's mile time was 9:19. Not a PR by a long shot, but give me a break, it was early!