One Simple Way To Increase The Likelihood of Hitting Your Goals

Imagine for a second that someone has thrown you a tennis ball.

Easy to catch right? Now imagine that a couple of people have thrown you two tennis balls. How do you go? I’m guessing a bunch of you dropped them (aside from the superstars).

Now, imagine that there are 10 people, all throwing you a ball at once…I’m pretty sure Bruce Lee would be struggling to collect more than three of those ten things…

It’s commonly known that multi-tasking is a ‘myth’. Human’s aren’t capable of functioning at a high level processing two things simultaneously, instead, they tend to flick from mental application to application when they multitask. It’s why picking up your phone to call someone on a mobile phone is illegal when you’re driving - you’re not only less likely to notice a threat or a hazard that might result in a terrible, terrible car crash with flames, and screams and what not - but you also will have vacant pauses in your conversation as you focus on what’s going on around you… and no one wants that.

The same thing has been noted when people are setting goals. If you set multiple goals at the same time, you are much less likely to be successful than if you set a single goal and are single minded in your pursuit of it. 'Instead, it’s often helpful to pick a focus, and ask yourself, from where I am now, what do I need to do to get there?' Strength training and improving movement also tends to abide by this principle.

If you create a training program that is designed to take 30 secs / km off your 10km time while ramping your deadlift up by 30kgs, you may find that you don’t hit either target unless you’re just starting out. Instead, it’s often helpful to pick a focus, and ask yourself, from where I am now, what do I need to do to get there? What do I need to do to maintain the other things that are important to me, or to ensure that I limit my decline? 'If you’re going to get great at multiple disciplines, you’re going to have to shift your focus from point to point and focus fully.'

For the most part, regardless of your field, you don’t get to have your cake and eat it too, certainly not at any decent level. If you’re going to get great at multiple disciplines, you’re going to have to shift your focus from point to point and focus fully.

So as you decide what goals you are looking to achieve, look at the situation and ask the following questions:

• Where am I now?

• What is my current state and where is it in relation to my target?

• Where am I going?

• What do I want to achieve, and what will it take to get there?

• What is my timeline?

• How long am I willing to commit to achieve this outcome (every day, each week, and until when)?

Once you’ve done this, you should treat this major goal as the thing that everything else bows down to, in other words, if you want to achieve something else, go for it, but if it interferes with the big dog, it’s gotta go.

When you train at Queensland Kettlebells, we take the guesswork out of your programming. Each group fitness class is programmed specifically for a certain time frame that focuses on a particular set of movements to get you stronger and feeling better. Feel free to get in touch for more info on our style of training or jump over to our workshop page and find out when the next beginner kettlebell workshop is happening.