I said it last year, and I’ll say it again: Resolutions are for suckers.
Read here for my explanation of this statement.
But if you’re too lazy to click on that link and read the old post, here’s the gist of it: Resolutions are wishy washy bullshit that are easily broken. Goals have specific end points and are easily measurable so that you know exactly where you stand. I don’t set resolutions anymore; I set challenging goals that I can keep track of, goals that will keep me on track for the bigger things I want in life. So heading into your new year, do yourself a favor and set some specific, measurable goals so that you will know exactly when you’ve reached them.
If you don’t know when you’ve reached your goals, what’s the point in setting them?
So without further ado, here are the things I would like to accomplish in 2013:
Deadlift/Squat/Bench: In 2013, I want to get stronger. I want to get my DL up to 200 lb, my back squat to 170 lb, and my bench to 100 lb. I know I can do it! I think the most challenging one will be the back squat, just based on my experience this year. But I have a lot of confidence that I can accomplish these because I also want to…
Have someone else do my programming: I know a decent amount about strength training and fitness (but I’m no expert). I know a lot about nutrition and sports medicine, so I should be able to just train myself, right? Wrong. Someone on the outside can often see weaknesses that you don’t see, can often pick out faulty movement patterns that you might not even be aware of. There’s something holding me back on progressing my back squat (and I have a feeling it’s my poor hip mobility), but someone on the outside can probably do a better job at corrective programming, because they’re seeing me with a totally objective eye. I would LOVE to get assessed by Tony Gentilcore and get a program from him, so I’m thinking that will be something I splurge on in the near future. I read Tonys blog all the time, and with him being a local guy, how could I not want him to do my programming, or at the very least an assessment? We’ll see if he has room in his schedule for little ol’ me. 
Continue running strong with The Tribe: I’m sure by now we all know how much I hate endurance running (for myself). But if you remember a while back, I wrote a post about running stadiums on Wednesday mornings with a group called the November Project. Well, since I started going, I have become absolutely addicted, and have become obsessed with improving my times each week. There’s just something intoxicating about the positive energy of the group that keeps me coming back for more. I know that it’s stalling my strength progress a little bit, but I love doing it so much that I think it’s worth the trade off, at least for now. My goal is to make it to every single Wednesday morning November Project run in 2013 (with exceptions for travel, work conflict, serious illness, or injury, of course) And NP, if you’re reading, you can consider that my #Verbal.
And to give myself an even more specific goal on that front, I want to get my “full tour” (running all 37 columns of the stadium) down to under 37:00. (My best time right now is 40:58.)
Dream Big: I’ll elaborate more on this in the very near future, but I’ll give you a little teaser now. A big dream of mine is to write a book, and I vow that the process will start this year, in 2013. I’m not saying I’m going to complete it this year, because that’s completely unrealistic. But the ideas are there, the dream and the will power are certainly there, and the only thing left is to just do it.
Talk to my family more: When life gets hectic, I tend to get sucked into a black hole of work, writing, and other things and I don’t always talk to those I love enough. I try to talk to my mother at least once per week, but there have been several times this year where it has slipped by to 2-3 weeks in the blink of an eye. In the wake of the recent Newtown tragedy and my own accident weeks before that, I have really started to think about how very important it is to talk to loved ones regularly, and let them know how important they are. I will call my mother at least once per week, and I will call my sister more often too. It’s easy to take family for granted, but really, without getting too morbid, you never know how much more time you have. Sometimes months can go by before talking to my sister, and that’s just not right. Let’s fix that NOW, while we still can.
Stop being such a pansy and start reaching out to some of the bigger strength and conditioning blogs that I read. Some of those people would make me seriously star struck if I met them (Hello, all of the Girls Gone Strong), but I’m not sure what it is that makes me think that I’m not their peer. Yes, I’m a newer blogger, but I’ve got a lot of good ideas and I need to stop telling myself that I can’t get to their level. I can get to their level, I just have to put a lot of hard work in, and start networking like crazy. So I have set the goal of reaching out to at least one new blogger per month, via email, and start making some connections. Boom! Done.
These are my bigger goals for 2013. Hopefully I can remember to check back in every few months or so to monitor my progress, but I think I’ve given myself some challenging (but realistic) things to work towards. 2012 was a big year for me, and I must say I worked my butt off to make it that way. If I keep working hard, 2013 could shape up to be just as big, with just as many milestones. Only time (and hard work) will tell!
What about you? What are your biggest goals for 2013? Have you ever thought about writing a book? Do you generally meet your New Years goals or do you forget about them by February?
In the meantime, don’t be surprised if I start going a little batty. Just knock some sense into me if my posts get a little too off track.
