Some Thoughts on Goal Setting

The last two weeks of 2011, I put in very little training. My last BJJ session of the year was more than two weeks ago, and an unsatisfying one at that. Last training at all was eight days ago; an incomplete, "let's this over with" boxing workout with Bobbi on the mitts, and no sparring. I had my chances. But I regularly gave into, "aw, I don't really want to roll" instincts that crept into my mind even after thinking "I can't wait to train tonight" all day long. Rationalizing is for losers. I hate it. But I was guilty of it everyday. One of the BJJ bloggers I read now once wrote "always go in when you think you don't want to and skip it sometimes when you think you do want it." At least I did something everyday to stay fit ;-).

Another popular BJJ blog post over the past couple of weeks has been "my personal goals for 2012." Seemingly and perhaps fittingly, the more experienced the practitioner, the better the goals seem to focus. There are, after all, rules for good goal setting. Rules that if followed, make for better or at least more efficient accomplishment of the stuff of one's goals.

In one of the myriad leadership courses I've attended in my professional life, I was taught the "SMART" approach to goal setting; SMART being an acronym for "specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, and timely." Here's a nice quick reference post on "SMART." Being familiar with the ideals in SMART goal setting, and thinking that a small package of goals might focus my effort in and increase my enjoyment of BJJ training in 2012, I'll use the approach when I finally sit down to set the table for the year.

In the mean time, here are a few aspirations I won't be considering goals for the year, and why they don't make the grade:

1. Earn a blue belt. Certainly a specific and timely aspiration; maybe even a realistic one. But the measure and attainability of promotion in BJJ is something that the practitioner has input into but no real control over. BJJ teaching has refined over the past decade by leaps and bounds, and many schools have developed curricula defining the difference between white and blue, blue and purple etc. However, the decision to promote still comes down to an instructor's subjective observation of many criteria, the integration of which the practitioner cannot objectively manage. Promotion is an aspiration not goal.

2. Train four times a week. A training volume plan sounds goal-like, but it's not. It might be specific and measurable, but it's not realistic or attainable. If I'm to believe many of the good BJJ writers out there, four times a week would be humble at most and therefore certainly attainable. Seeing that everyone I read appears to be training six or more times a week. And doing their S&C work. And yoga. And surfing. If you're one of those, then holy crap you have my utmost respect and have engendered in me a deep vein of jealousy that would lead me to punch you in the face if we ever met. But if you go one week where you don't train that volume? Goal not met.

I already know even a modest four sessions is unattainable. Sure there will be weeks I train four or more times. But, I'm 49, an accomplished professional doing Federal natural resources policy analysis in a politically difficult field (aka, I have a 'real' job). I have a 13 year old son putting in six days a week in top flight travel baseball. My wife is a professional high achiever working long hours for low pay as the nominal head of a non-profit that protects the environment. Our weekly family life is so fluid and transactional that I can never count on slipping into BJJ training while my wife hosts a board meeting, or my son does his own S&C and meets with his pitching or hitting coach. Aspiration not goal.

3. Submit more, tap less. Not specific. And besides, that's not my mindset to begin with. I came back to BJJ this year after 8 or so years since I last rolled, determined to leave my ego completely out of my practice. This approach has enabled me to completely avoid the disappointment that my body no longer works the way it used to, and my mental state is vulnerable because my body doesn't work the same as it used to. If my ego was tied to my practice now, I'd be done.

So I know what my goals aren't. I'll have to do a little more thinking on what my goals for the year are and write them here when I get the chance.