By Coach Nathan

Fitness is 100% goal oriented. The idea of fitness is itself a goal: we want to become more fit than we
were. One of the more effective methods of tracking progression is to set many, reasonably attainable
goals that can be achieved in a relatively short amount of time. You may notice that I chose to refer to
these short term goals as “reasonably attainable” instead of “easily attainable.” The truth is very little
that entails becoming fit, or even life, is easy but divided in small enough bits almost anything can be
found within the realm of reason. In fitness, the long term goal is to become more fit than when we
started. That being said no matter how small I set my goals I’m not likely to become the President (I
have secrets)… but stepping back into my area of reasonable expectations: I can meal prep for a week, I
can eat clean for a set number of days in a row, I can make a certain number of workouts per week, etc.,
etc. With this philosophy I should be able to achieve anything I set out to, right?

But What happens when there is a set back? What happens when we fall ill, suffer an injury, just get too busy to make it to the box…what happens if you attend six holiday dinners in four days and wind up twelve pounds heavier staring at yourself in the mirror while wearing sweatpants (and not even the stylish kind but the kind
with the draw string and the cuffs around the ankle)?? Ok, that’s a bit extreme…but what if we’ve been at this
for a while and its been months since the last PR? Maybe just for a bit we get discouraged or have a
setback and our short term goals have gone up in flames. It would be awfully easy to stay in those
sweatpants of despair. The reality is that we really haven’t lost anything – maybe its underneath an extra
pound or two, maybe its held together by stitches, maybe its one message from your box family away
from reappearing. During tough times we need to look back at the beginning of our fitness journey to
see just how far we’ve come. Every WOD and every healthy decision made before a setback was savings
put back to brace against times when other factors dictate what we can and can’t do. Short term goals
are a means to an end – our most useful tool in achieving anything. But we don’t just want to be fit for a
day, we want to be as fit as we can be for as long as we can. Where we have been is far behind us
and where we are going is on the horizon. Yes, it is important to set small goals but our eyes should be
fixed on a point that rests far in front of us.