It’s the start of 2020 and there is the annual flurry of people setting goals and resolutions. Some want to get fitter and start back at the gym. Some want to get leaner. They cut back on the alcohol and chocolate. They are back to eating salads. Others aim to read more in 2020.
Most of us have these goals and go full steam in January. Within two weeks, you are so sore and tired from the gym, you stop going. You can manage ham and salad for most of January, you keep changing the menu from February, but by June you are done. You start reading a chapter a night. Then half a chapter. Then five pages. But after a few weeks, you just fall asleep on the first page.
We all know some of the things we want to achieve. For most people, it’s health and fitness. We can start well, but we never seem to achieve the goal we set out to achieve.
How many of us take the goal seriously and set out a plan or system so that we can get there? Or do we just set out on our goal on a whim? Do we just throw our gym gear into a bag and head to a treadmill to run 10km in the first session?
How can we make sure we achieve the goal we set out to achieve this year?
Welcome to the nine Cs of achievement.
Choice
We have to choose the one major goal we want to achieve. Not the ten goals, not the five goals, not even the two goals. The one goal.
Let’s say we want to exercise more, eat healthier and get good quality sleep. Focus on one first. If you do too many things at once, you become spread too thin. You juggle too many balls and they start to fall one by one.
Choose the one and focus on that.
Clarity
Let’s say we choose to exercise as our one goal. Define clearly what that looks like. Do you want to be able to run a marathon? To be able to deadlift twice your body weight. To be able to walk the U.K. national three peaks.
Clearly define what exercising more or being fitter looks like and create a plan to get there.
If you want to run a marathon then you are going to have to start running. Then slowly start increasing your distance. Maybe two short runs during the week and a longer run in the weekend.
Be sensible and realistic. Build-in recovery days.
Commitment
Now commit to this goal. Commit to spending the next year achieving this goal. Not January, not three months but one year.
It’s not a crash diet or a crash goal. We don’t want a high amount of intensity over the short-term. We want a lower, more enduring, longer-term type of intensity. We want to see this goal through.
Commit to doing this goal for one year before deciding whether to quit.
Community
Some goals you can do yourself but they can feel hard to do. You can struggle to learn the skills needed to be able to accomplish it. It helps to have a support group. A group of like-minded individuals. A group of people with similar goals. A community.
You can share your struggles. You can lean on each other during difficult times. You can share your triumphs. You can help each other see things you can’t see for yourself.
Coach
Most goals have been done before by other people. Even difficult ones. If you have a difficult goal to achieve, find someone who has done it before. Get them to coach you. They have been where you want to go. They can help you avoid their mistakes. They can tell where to find the tools you will need. They can give you hope and encouragement when you are low.
They have walked the path you wish to follow. They can show you the way.
Coachee
To help you learn and understand what you are doing and why you are doing it, be willing to coach someone else. If they have the same goal but you are further along the journey, then share what you know. If you are going to teach someone a subject or an idea, you have to think about it. This extra thinking, this process, gives an extra depth of understanding. This understanding, you don’t get anywhere else. It’s funny, you’d think you are just helping them. You are also helping yourself.
Consistency
Most goals or resolutions fail because people quit. They stop turning up. They stop going to the gym. They stop going to the slimming world meetings. They stop turning up to the salad bar in the canteen. Turning up consistently is what will take you from where you are to where you want to go. In martial arts, a black belt is just a white belt who never stopped turning up. Be consistent.
Courage
When we turn up, if we want to grow, we need to do things we have never done before. Things we have never done before are scary. We feel fear. To feel fear and still take the action is courage. To do things we have never done before takes courage. To grow takes courage.
Contribution
On the journey to achievement, it can be very easy to just take and not give. To be self-absorbed. To only think of you and that goal you are striving for. But are you willing to achieve that goal at the expense of others? To allow someone else to fall and to step over them. Or would you want to help others as you go? To bring others in your journey. Would you be willing to contribute something of yourself? Your time, your energy, your effort, your ideas. In toastmasters, every year we ask members to step forward. To contribute to the club by being on the committee. Taking the stewardship of running the club. If there was no club, there would be no one to speak to and nowhere to speak. Sometimes we need to take action. We need to step up and contribute so everyone may achieve, including ourselves.
Takeaways
I initially started with seven C’s, then eight. Then eleven. I eventually ended up with nine. Whatever the number, I struggle to remember them all. If we create three groups of three C’s, it becomes a little easier to remember.
The first group is about the goal itself:
Choose the one goal
Clarify what it is
Commit to it for one year
The second is about the people we surround ourself with:
Community of like-minded people
Coach to lead the way
Coachee who we may lead, to help us understand the way
The third is about the actions we need to take:
Consistently turn up
Courage to do things you have never done before
Contribute to help everyone achieve the goal
Footnotes
I connected some of these dots from other peoples ideas.
Jay Shetty and his ‘passion to paycheck’ framework
https://join.jayshetty.me/passion-to-paycheck
Frank Shamrock and his ‘plus, minus and equal’ strategy
https://bjjmentalmodels.com/plus-minus-equals/
Angela Duckworth’s book ‘Grit’ refers to committing to an activity for two years.
https://www.google.co.uk/amp/s/www.thegameoffew.com/blog/2017/3/12/the-hard-thing-rule%3fformat=amp
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