I wanted to discuss a little bit about my views on success. I have talked about the importance of goal setting in my classes, where I challenge of all my students to set attainable goals. I truly believe that we can do anything we want to in life, but the way to get there is to set a goal and strive for it. This is a concept that I picked up from fitness expert, Chalene Johnson. She is constantly talking about setting goals and breaking through those goals to reach the next set.
The first step is to identify the long term and short term goals. Yes, the idea of long and short term is relative, but I define short term as something that can be done in a reasonable amount of time. Many of my students list obtaining their Black Belt as a long term goal, and getting to the next rank as a short term goal. Daily goals are important as well, as they will be the precursor to reaching that short term goal.
One of the easiest and best ways (in my mind) to reach those daily goals is to create a daily to-do list. Check the list frequently and tick off the items as they are accomplished. For example:
To obtain a Yellow Belt, the student must have all of the basic stances, punches, kicks and so on, as well as required combinations, jiu jitsus, and color kempos. A daily goal to obtain this might be to practice each of those things for a certain amount of time. So we start off practicing our horse stance, which actually can be combined with several other things to practice, for ten minutes in the morning. After ten minutes, we check off "Horse Stance" along with anything else we practiced, and then we move on to the next item, and so on until our list is done.
This is a very simplistic and obvious example, however it is easy to see how quickly we can achieve our goals by using this simple method.
In the end, the only barrier that really stands in the way of our attainable goals is ourselves. This leads us back to the ability to accomplish anything we set our mind to doing. I leave with two thoughts:
1) A wise man (ok, my father-in-law) once said: T+A=S, or Thought + Action = Success. You can have an idea, but unless you follow through with the action part, then just thinking about it is not going to get it done.
2) EAR, or Expectations + Accountability = Results. Set your expectations for yourself high, and hold yourself accountable for reaching the goals that you set. The results are the reward for your hard work.
The first step is to identify the long term and short term goals. Yes, the idea of long and short term is relative, but I define short term as something that can be done in a reasonable amount of time. Many of my students list obtaining their Black Belt as a long term goal, and getting to the next rank as a short term goal. Daily goals are important as well, as they will be the precursor to reaching that short term goal.
One of the easiest and best ways (in my mind) to reach those daily goals is to create a daily to-do list. Check the list frequently and tick off the items as they are accomplished. For example:
To obtain a Yellow Belt, the student must have all of the basic stances, punches, kicks and so on, as well as required combinations, jiu jitsus, and color kempos. A daily goal to obtain this might be to practice each of those things for a certain amount of time. So we start off practicing our horse stance, which actually can be combined with several other things to practice, for ten minutes in the morning. After ten minutes, we check off "Horse Stance" along with anything else we practiced, and then we move on to the next item, and so on until our list is done.
This is a very simplistic and obvious example, however it is easy to see how quickly we can achieve our goals by using this simple method.
In the end, the only barrier that really stands in the way of our attainable goals is ourselves. This leads us back to the ability to accomplish anything we set our mind to doing. I leave with two thoughts:
1) A wise man (ok, my father-in-law) once said: T+A=S, or Thought + Action = Success. You can have an idea, but unless you follow through with the action part, then just thinking about it is not going to get it done.
2) EAR, or Expectations + Accountability = Results. Set your expectations for yourself high, and hold yourself accountable for reaching the goals that you set. The results are the reward for your hard work.
