The Importance of Setting Small Goals: By Coach Victor Lucena

People, Happy New Year!!!

I mean, I know the new year has been around for almost a month, but for me it really started when I came back from Brazil 4 days ago, I’m sorry (btw, was that weather Monday really necessary to welcome me back?)

Anyway, beginning a new cycle always forces us to think about the probable favorite word of every coach: goals. Time for us to think about losing or gaining 5 pounds, getting a muscle up, doing the open RX, fix that back issue, so on and so on, the more specific the better. But once you aim for the moon, what comes next? 

Let’s say you decided to finally work towards getting that muscle up you always dreamed about. So you come to the gym, walk around, do some stretching, smoothly approach the rings, obviously checking if no one is looking at you, jump on the rings, maybe 1 or 2 swings, oops, someone just looked at you, then you hop down, give it 2 minutes, go again, swings and boom: no muscle up. Then you walk around, “yeah yeah, by the end of the year I’ll get it”. Same thing 2 or 3 days later and all of a sudden your moon is now a pointless unachievable blurry circle far far away.

You have be ambitious with your goals, but keep in mind the time table needed to complete them. You want to achieve them in a year, six months, three months. But if you want to accomplish that thing in three months, how do you know what to do today, tomorrow, or the day after? So, let’s say you want to lose 5 pounds, you set a date. Ok, I want to lose 5 pounds in 2 months. What do I need to do TODAY to move towards this way? You need to improve your diet, but not your diet in general, your diet TODAY. You need to have 3 clean meals, not someday, but TODAY. That means your next meal has to be clean. So instead of saying “I need to eat better” set a goal like “Today I’ll have 3 clean meals, with no bad snacks in between”. First meal will be this and this, second this and this, and third that. Much easier to follow and to stay accountable,

Same for a muscle up. What do I need to do today to get it? Oh, just realized I don’t know. Alright, not a problem, no need to quit. That’s what we’re here for! Talk to your coach. We LOVE when we see people interested, wanting to learn more. Coaches will help you and keep you accountable to practice many times a week, doing different progressions, skills, etc. .Then you have clear work to do today, not some vague day in the future.

That’s it guys. Set big goals, break them down. Ask for help if needed. And dream big. My goal right now is really really simple and big. I want to bring summer back. Can anyone help me with that?