Reflecting on the goals I set for 2016
10k weekly readers for my blog
Not even close. I knew it was ambitious to start off with. It’s something I need to keep working on.
On the upside, I published a new article on this site every Tuesday in 2016. And got published in Lifehacker, The Good Men Project, Prsuit and Dan John’s Wandering Weights. Good year for writing.
And although I didn’t reach overly ambitious 10k mark, I saw my readership increase throughout the year. And that’s all I can ask for.
Now, before moving on, a massive THANK YOU to anyone who read, liked, shared any of my blog posts or gave me an idea for one. You know who you are. It means the world to me.
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Recreating focus once it fades
I’ve learned to manage this better. Early mornings are the best for my writing. And I do get distracted if something is out of place in my writing routine. But I’ve also been able to focus outside of the perfect scenario.
To be honest, a lot of it was just a shift in mindset. Where previously everything had to be perfect I now accept that it won’t always be the case. Sometimes work just needs to be done.
I am better at recognizing when my mind is wandering or if I am about to get stuck on checking Facebook, YouTube and such. I don’t really have a system for it, the “secret” is to catch myself early. By the time I find myself watching the third Michael Jordan highlight reel it’s too late.
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Differentiating between easy, medium and hard training days
I had to follow training programs designed by other coaches to make this work. As long as I keep designing my own training plans I have a tendency to do too much. I get that “this is not enough feeling”. But when following programs designed by others I know it’s ok to stop. It’s a mind-fuck, I know.
The saying of “a coach who coaches himself has an idiot as a client” comes to mind.
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Re-visit books that have had an impact on me
Solid yes in here. I re-read and re-visited a whole lot of books. It’s amazing how the same book can have such a different impact when you read it at a different point in life.
“Teacher appears when the student is ready”, and all that.
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Start offering small group training
Yes. But I made it better by making it semi-private where every client follows their own training program. This allows me to train three clients at the same time who all might have completely different goals or fitness levels. And everyone’s loved it so far, including me.
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Constantly revalue what I am doing
Yes, but not enough.
I am better at reflecting on what’s important and what’s not. Instead of thinking “what am I missing out on?”, I go “what does this allow me to do more of?”
That being said, I need work on this. I’ll come back to this in the refocus part.
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Awesome results for all my clients
Well, this was ambitious to start off with. I am really happy with the progress these guys made over the past year. I learned at least as much from them than they learned from me. And although not everyone got awesome results, everyone got better. And that is the key to long-term success with training and health.
Very grateful for all the amazing clients I got to work with. Thank you all for an amazing 2016. You rock!
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Don’t buy new clothing in 2016
Nailed it. This was an eye opening experience, and saved me a lot of money (and time) too. Look out for a blog post about this. Coming to you in near future.
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A month of only eating meat once a week
Hells to the yes! Went above and beyond on this one to the point that my diet is probably 90-95% vegetarian as of writing this. I didn’t do it for health reasons (I believe it’s actually easier to have a balanced diet with a some amount of meat) but because of environmental issues.
It’s my small contribution for a better planet and I am looking to keep this going. It’s something that feels right to me.
If vegetarian something that you are interested in but you struggle with vegetarian meal ideas, I recommend getting a hold of Neighborhood
There, that’s all I am going to say about it. Not going to turn into a tofu-loving-vegetarian preacher. Yet.
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Play Wild Horses on acoustic guitar
Ish. The strumming patterns are still too complicated for me to nail 100%.
I did make progress on the ax by focusing on frequent practice and having the process of practice as a goal. Even if it was for 10 minutes a day instead of trying to do marathon session few times a week. The same chip away – approach I recommend for training.
Also, having a guitar lesson once a week kept me honest and provided guidance and accountability. Thanks Taz, you made me practice the tedious parts I wouldn’t do on my own.
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Goals for 2017
These were quite challenging to verbalize since I hadn’t thought of them, at all, before starting this post. I don’t necessary see the need to write down new goals every year if the old still apply.
I mean, one day it’s the 31st of December and then it’s the 1st of January. What’s the difference between that and say, 31st of May and 1st of June? Except a massive hangover.
But, let’s try to narrow things down a bit anyway.
Keep growing RepsAndTheRest.com
Yes, it is still the professional goal numero uno. Which leads me to…
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Write a blog post every week
My long-term goal is still to be a writer. In a way that when people ask me during a fancy gala-dinner* “So, Joonas. What do you do?” I can say “I am a writer”.
The only way to get better at it is to write a shit-ton of material. Ideally posts that don’t suck either.
*I never plan on going to a gala-dinner. Unless they serve high-end Scotch. And play Slayer.
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80/20 the shit out of everything
I’ve got too many things going on that are pulling me in all these different directions. Two professional things I want to focus on more than anything else in 2017 are the quality of my coaching and, as mentioned earlier, my writing.
And the only way to focus on these is to automate, delegate or stop doing everything else. It’ll be costly, scary and pulling-my-hear-out level of frustrating in the beginning. But It’ll help me become better at the two skills I value the most.
80/20 also allows me to spend more time not working. At the moment I spend a lot of time doing accounting, editing, admin and whatnot which takes time away from quality wife-time, among other things.
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Don’t keep a training log for a month or two
This is going to be hard. I have a tendency to quantify and measure everything, and training is no exception. But after reading this from Max Shank I’ve decided to dabble into the “dark side”.
The reason for this experiment is to learn to trust myself and my body more. Getting better at doing what feels right. While still making progress with movement quality and strength goals.
To quote Buddy Guy, “I go by feel”.
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That’s it. Quite a shorter list than what I had for 2016, and I like it that way. I still have my usual improve as a person and husband, live with integrity, be a better coach, get better at guitar, and so on. But it’s not things I’ve decided on because it’s a new year.
And none of these are resolutions by the way. Oh hold on. I’ve got two: taste more whiskies and spend more time in the nature.
While you’re at it, you might also like:
Retrospect and Refocus – 2016 Edition
Align Your Goals with Your Values