New Goals

Yogi's goal: to make his kisses extra slobbery in 2010

Well, now that this Channel business has been canceled, I am excited to look forward to some new goals. Nothing as single-minded and all-consuming as swimming the English Channel, but I would like to set some challenging, shorter term goals.

There are several factors to consider here:
1) New research is out that states that people are less likely to accomplish their goals when they share them with other people. I was very surprised by this because social support is important for just about everything. However, new evidence suggests that when you share a goal with others, you experience a false sense of accomplishment. This temporary rise in self-esteem from talking about your goal makes you less likely to go out and do the work to make it happen. Also, some people might talk you out of the goals, probably without realizing it.

2) Goals should be SMART (specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, and timely). Vague goals like "swim faster" or "read more" are not very useful. Pick something specific that you want to accomplish and give yourself a deadline. The goal should be challenging, but reasonable. It should rely on performance, not outcome ("Beat Mark in the 500 free" is not a good goal because it relies on an outcome that is beyond my control. "Swim a 5:10 in the 500 free at nationals" is a much better goal. Someone else might have a good or a bad race, but that shouldn't influence whether my goal is accomplished.)


Ok, so I took sports psychology in college. But my point is this: put a little thought into what you want to accomplish in 2010. Write it down someplace where you will look at it often. When you accomplish a goal, athletic or otherwise, or if you fall short but gave it your best shot, tell me about it and I will give you props on my blog. Good luck!!

In other news:


The "Get Fit Durham" challenge has ended. After 7 weeks, my overall fitness score did not change (my points had already maxed out in most of the subcategories when the contest began). But I improved in almost all of the subcategories. My results were the following:

Body fat: went from 28% to 27%
Resting heart rate: went from 67 to 70
Blood pressure: 165/107 to 128/75
Situps per minute: 49 to 54
Crunches per minute: 80 to 93
Pushups per minute: 40 to 52
Max bench press: 145 lbs to 175lbs

Mostly, I'm just happy that my blood pressure is out of the "way scary" zone!