Achieve Difficult Things: Method Superior To Goal Setting (Goals Vs Minimums)
PLUS 2x black belt shares his insight on achieving difficult things
This isn’t about the goal-setting process. There’s already plenty written about that.
We often think of goals as “I want to get this” or “I want to do that”. Goals are the big things, the outcomes. Jim Rohn talks about them being these things out in the future, that we place for ourselves. I like to think of them as anchors, dragging us into the future.
How useful are goals?
Day-to-day I don’t think they are that useful. I have a different method, and it helps me achieve difficult things without always feeling like I’m pushing shit uphill.
I talk about it in the following video. Enjoy.
Once you watch it (and leave a wonderful comment, thank you you rock), return and read the notes from a conversation with my brother, about this topic. He’s a 2 x black belt martial artist (Shootfighting and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsui) and knows about playing the long game.
🔥 Chapters 🔥
0:00 I have this idea about goals
0:33 Goals as anchors from the future
2:08 Goals are not good at keeping us in the game
4:24 Minimums make achieving your goals inevitable
7:23 No shame and guilt anymore
My brother (2 x black belt) called me after he watched the YouTube video above
We talked about his journey with martial arts, beginning as a part-time hobby and sticking with it over time. After a bit of a chat, I realised what he was saying added another layer to my video. I asked him if I could hit record to share it with you. He said yes.
Here it is, enjoy :)
Gerrard Sgro
Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu black belt, Shootfighting black belt
[Gerrard] Yeah, while I was watching the video, I drew a parallel in my mind.
The problem you're talking about is what everybody does with goal setting. We don’t realise that there are actually multiple goals here. We've got the Big Chief head goal. And then you've got a whole bunch of daily or weekly task-orientated goals that you have to hit in order for you to reach that big overarching goal.
And, the overarching goal is the one that everybody gets upset that they're not there yet.
And when speaking about it from a Brazilian Jiu Jitsu perspective, everybody wants to be a black belt. That's the big goal. That's a big overarching goal. But that's a 10 year plus journey.
What they should be focusing on is these small goals, what you call ‘minimums’.
Example, “I'm going to make a commitment to get to the gym for two sessions a week, that gives me two hours on the mat minimum.”
“And if I can make a free rolling class with other grapplers, actual instruction, then I'll try and make one of those a month. So there's four opportunities to make a rolling session, free training. And there's there's also two opportunities a week for eight opportunities a month to sit, under my instructor for an hour session.”
It's when you fall off that wagon, and you start going to one session a week, and then one session every two weeks. And it's like, well, they are the small goals, or as you’ve called them “the minimums” that you're dropping, and they're the ones that you need to beat yourself over the head for missing because that's the important stuff that's gonna get you to that overarching goal of a black belt.
[Pat] So, you're saying, don't be hard on yourself for missing the big goal because the big goal is too big. Be hard on yourself, or be strict with yourself for the small pieces.
[Gerrard] Exactly, right.
And then, obviously, there's a mindset that you've got to go through in order to get your black belt, there's so many.
What it comes down to is the reward ratios. There are only five belts in Brazilian jujitsu. And it roughly equals out to one belt every two years. So you're on the same belt for two years, it's actually quite a long time, compared to any other martial art. So you're rolling up to 50 to 100 sessions. You know, you're doing two years without any supposed gratification until the end.
And the reason you can do that is because you've got the big overarching goal, the top one in your head, in the background going, that's why I'm doing this.
Sometimes, you know, you'll go through seasons, you'll go through months, where you think you're not getting any better. You talk to your training partners, and you go shit, man, am I getting any better? I think I'm plateauing. I sometimes I think I’m going backwards. And the reality is, everybody in the room is getting better. So it's really difficult to track where you're at personally. It's not until you roll somebody that you haven't rolled for six months, and they go “Woah, dude your game’s changed heaps”, and you're like, “Really, I can't see it”
So without even knowing it, you're changing your mindset, because you are going, you know, a long time between drinks in that regard. You got a long time between somebody slapping you on the back and going, here's the next belt, you know, you're doing really well. Sometimes you don't get it for ages, because you're rolling with the same people. You know, and it's only once you roll with somebody that you have rolled before, like I said, so.
You know, my coach says it all the time “The only way to get better at this is to keep showing up, keep putting the hours in. You will one day walk out of these doors, a black belt, it's just inevitable.
And you've got to put the time, effort and energy into thinking about your game, just like thinking about your business. You've got to pull apart every little thing that you've done. You start to see patterns and draw parallels. So, yeah. Does that make sense?
[Pat] Yeah, Alex Hormozi talks about it, he puts it in really simple terms. He said, “The work works on you” Meaning, it's not about the work that you do. It's about how you’re changed over time because you did the work -- you end up just getting really good at it, whatever it is you’re doing.
[Gerrard] That's exactly right. You just get really good at it. I'm now in a coaching role, so I have people come to me and say, “Hey, look, I'm really struggling with this. How can I fix this?”
And a lot of the time it'll be, “You know what, you need to wait until you’re blue belt, then come to me with the same question if you haven't figured the answer out.”
And, I do that because they need to figure that journey out themselves. I'm not hurting them by allowing them to stretch their mind and work through a process of problem-solving. I'm helping them.
Yeah, if I give them the answer straightaway, it doesn't. It actually doesn't do them any favors.
[Pat] That's right. Yeah, the answer is “Wax on, wax off”.
[Gerrard] Yeah, exactly. Do the work.
What are your views on goals? Let me know your thoughts in the comments, I’d love to hear them.
We’ve only been in Edinburgh a few days and I’m thoroughly enjoying it. Going to love the next month exploring Scotland. Whenever we land in a new city one of the first things we like to do is get on a walking tour, either history or food (or both!). Digging all this gothic architecture.
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Pat Sgro
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