As the world gets high on annual benders of goal-setting dopamine in the new year, there’s already a dark cloud forming in the distance. You know the one that comes in the February/March-ish timeframe where all of those carefully laid plans crumble and fall to the wayside and the albatross of day-to-day life strangles any memory of them until about December? Too dark? Maybe. But, let’s use that imagery of future failure as a catalyst for better goal setting.
Why does this happen to so many people every year? Life gets in the way. You forget about what it was you were trying to accomplish because you didn’t have a system in place to make sure that accomplishing that goal was just a simple set of repeatable steps. You didn’t ensure that goal was aligned with the person you are trying to become. Sounds too familiar, right? It’s happened to me plenty of times. I’ll admit that I failed more than one of my 2022 goals. But, for the ones I did achieve there was something different.
One of those goals was riding >1800mi on the Peloton. It’s the farthest I’ve ever ridden in a single year. For reference, when you see it on a map it looks like Brownsville, TX to Winnipeg, Canada (yes, I realize I didn’t travel anywhere on a stationary bike). Riding across the entire width of the US! While an intermediate or pro cyclist can ride many many more miles in a year than that, I wasn’t exactly dogging these 30-60m workouts either. I worked as hard as I could during every one. But, I don’t care about comparing myself to anyone else. Because I know why I do it. And it’s my unique why.
The achievement means way more to me than being able to casually gloat about some arbitrarily large number. It’s about achieving desirable outcomes. It’s about learning and growing along the way. An arbitrarily large number only serves as a measuring stick. You don’t magically become a different person once you hit a number. You change gradually over time as you are striving for that milestone. Think about the outcomes you want and set a measurable goal that will stretch you slightly beyond what you think you are capable of. What you gain in the process of stretching has more value than some numerical threshold.
Define The Why
For me and my riding goal, this means outcomes like maintaining a consistent level of fitness that keeps me healthy, keeping my body in shape and limber to counterbalance sitting at a desk most of the day, learning to maintain discipline week after week, persevering despite big setbacks (e.g. sidelined with COVID for multiple weeks), doing the work even when I don’t want to, learning to embrace the boredom of the work, countering the boredom with creativity and spontaneity by making it fun and/or challenging, learning where my physical breaking points are, and seeing those breaking points improve over time.
Some of these were outcomes I had in mind ahead of time. Some of them were outcomes that revealed themselves in the process. What I’ve learned along the way means so much more than completing the goal itself because I can take those learnings and apply them to the goals I didn’t achieve.
Define the How
Once you’ve got your "why" defined with desirable outcomes you need to create a system that will help you achieve it. A system is just a set of steps or habits with constraints. My system for riding looks like this:
Ride every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday at lunchtime
All equipment is conveniently located where it takes just a few minutes to get dressed and be ready to ride
Every ride starts with 5 minutes of core exercises to warm up followed by 5 minutes of stretching to cool down
That’s it. I’ve made all of the decisions ahead of time so the only thing left to do is the work. A system for writing every morning might just be putting your notebook or laptop by your bedside every night before bed so it’s the first thing you see when you wake up in the morning. A system for writing a song a week could be scheduling 30 minutes of uninterrupted time every day and making it as convenient as possible to pick up your instrument. Every day finish one small piece of the song so that at the end of the week you’ve got a complete song.
Set yourself up for success by creating a system to ensure that showing up is easy. If all you do is show up, at least you’ve won a small battle. Knowing you’ve already won one battle makes it easier to win the next one. “Well, I’m already here, I might as well do the work”. Systems come in all shapes and sizes, but an effective system can be nothing more than the simplest thing that ensures it’s easy to show up every time.
Connect The Why and How
So as everyone is in goal-setting mode for the new year, remember to think about the relationship between your goal and what outcomes you are trying to achieve. Think about the system you’ll create that will help you achieve those outcomes. Use the goal metric as a way of keeping yourself honest and tracking your progress. But, write down and refer back to the outcomes you want to achieve often (weekly is good).
Not only does it keep you focused on the end game, but it also forces you to reaffirm why you started something in the first place. Because hopefully you’re not just doing this so you can say you did a thing. It shouldn’t matter whether anyone else cares or not. It should matter what YOU care about. It should matter that you are doing something in service of becoming a better version of yourself.
Embrace Past Failures
As I think about the new goals I just set for 2023 I am thinking about how I can apply the simple discipline of getting on a bike and pedaling for an hour to these goals. Specifically, in 2022 I wanted to record and release a 3-5 song EP of my original music, but I barely made progress on even one song. I didn’t define meaningful outcomes. I didn’t have the right system in place to ensure that I made steady progress over time. I didn’t think strategically or realistically about when I would be doing this work. I didn’t set aside time to do that work specifically. And that’s ok. Failure makes us better. But, never waste a failure. Learn from it. Use it to reinforce your systems to ensure that you don’t fail the same way twice.
I’m looking forward to sharing the progress of my goals throughout 2023. I’d also love to hear how you are planning to achieve your goals this year.
How have you failed to achieve past goals? What are you doing about it?
What systems do use to ensure you achieve your long-term goals?
What are you most excited to achieve in 2023?
First, big congrats on the Peloton achievement!! I, for one, know the commitment that went into that effort.
Second, I like your articulation of the structure needed to give yourself the best chance for success in achieving your goals. I need to apply some structure in areas that need improvement in my life (sleep, being the biggest one).
Third, failure is part of life and is worthwhile when you learn from it. I’m always excited to hear your original tunes and I look forward to your EP when it’s ready!