How do I set goals I actually keep?

I would spend an hour or so at the gym after work, which is actually a two hour time commitment or more after factoring in the commute and shower time and, of course, conversations around the waterfowl. This wasn't sustainable, because I felt guilty for not being home with my family and I was missing out on important moments. Having spoken about this with my coaching clients, I know that this is common for many people.

4. Can you believe it I'm Dai Manuel, coach, mentor and fellow journeyman in this pursuit of better. With nearly three decades of coaching under my belt, I'm here to guide you into what I believe can be your best year yet. Today it's all about Monday motivation for the new year, focusing on the mindset and the science of change. Remember, 2024 is a blank canvas and it's hours to paint with the colors of choices, chins and our attitudes. So let's dive right in. I'm going to share five strategies today to make the most of 2024 and how to stay resilient even when the going gets tough. We're all about turning those small 2% shifts into massive impacts. So you ready, let's get into it. So, first up, setting clear, achievable goals.

And so. Derek, today is going to share some amazing tips to get you reignited, but also next time you find yourself in a deep, intentional, goal setting period of your life, you're going to have some strategies to really set yourself up for success. So today, you know, let's get a little bit of background on you, derek, just so everybody can get a little bit more understanding, and somewhere where your knowledge and experience comes from, but especially your leadership experiences in the US Army specifically, and how they shaped your approach to life coaching, which I know is a big component of how you serve people today. So take us back and walk us through that. Yeah for sure. Great question. So I grew up as an Army brat, meaning my dad was Army. So I grew up as a child in Germany. My father was stationed there. I was there with my mother. My mother is also German.

We all face all kinds of mountains and handcuffs and challenges, and that's why, like, I try to share lots of different perspectives on this general notion, cause the reality is we should all be in touch with what matters to us, we should all find ways to achieve what we actually care about in life and then we should pay it forward right, like if we're better people, we're infecting those around us with that betterness, and that's a good thing. So the purpose I keep talking about is there's some fundamental aspects of that that I talk about, and it's like when we talk about weight loss for goals. You know it's like beach season or high school reunion and you want to make them look, even be, jealous. Or you're going to your ex's wedding somehow you got invited to that. I don't know what kind of.

Welcome back to the 2% Solution Podcast. You're beacon for making meaningful incremental improvements in life. I'm Dai Manuel, your navigator through the maze of personal development and goal setting, and in today's journey we embark on a critical exploration of goal-setting strategies that can either pave your way to success or lead you completely astray. We're dissecting the battle of smart goals versus dumb goals. Armed with historical insights and some practical wisdom, let's dive in. Let's start with the power of smart goals. Smart goals the acronym for specific, measurable, attainable, realistic and time-bound Act as your personal success blueprint. By dissecting each component, we reveal how these criteria set the stage for victory. Let's start with the S, which is specific Aim with precision. Florence Nightingale didn't merely aspire to enhance healthcare.

More on this strategy I've got some great articles on my website, just daimanuel.com, if you're interested, but I'll be sure to also put in the show notes today some additional resources to help with this goal setting strategy, because it's pretty important If sets the tone, sets the vision as well, gives you some actionable step by step processes that you can plug into, take action on and start to realize some of those goals. No-transcript. Well, embracing the growth mindset Stand for. Psychologist Carol Dweck's research shows that people who believe their abilities can be developed are more likely to flourish. So in 2024, let's be learners, not just knowers. Every setback is set up for a comeback.

These goals are based more on what others think you should do rather than what you want for yourself. It's like wearing someone else's shoes they just don't fit quite right. And then, lastly, getting to the B of our dumb goals. Broad, overly general ambitions, such as the quest for white peace, lack the specificity required for actionable progress. Another statement would be like saying I want to be happy. Well, who doesn't? But what does happiness look like to you without specifics? You're chasing a rainbow without ever finding the pot of gold. Now let's talk about why goal setting transforms lives. Goal setting transcends mere achievement and reflects our identity and aspirations. Research from the University of Scranton suggests a staggering 92% of people fail to reach their New Year's resolutions, probably due to the vagueness and impracticality of the goals.

Everything's connected, right, but what happens when you're stuck? How do you get unstuck? The key is finding your why. A research article in the Lancet shows that having a strong personal reason for pursuing health goals significantly increases your chances of success. So dig deep, find your why and let that be your anchor. You know what. To help you with this, I've got a great resource that I'm including in the show notes. It's a link to a PDF you don't have to sign up for anything. Okay, it's just like straight click, boom, you've got access to a Google Drive folder and you can have a copy of the workbook. But it's a workbook to help you get clear on what your why is.

Having an answer at all was the thing. Ask yourself the big question. Whatever you want is one decision away, and the decision is not the how. How do I figure out what I actually want? Set aside two consecutive days somewhere that is not your house, with no screen, and write by hand. Answer What you want, then Why for each item, then How. Most people start with How, which is why the answer never sticks. The first hour is you performing thinking; the useful material arrives after that. Why do I feel unmotivated even though everything is going well? Because external success and self-concordant goals are different things. Sheldon and Elliot's work found that goals adopted out of guilt or outside pressure do not sustain effort, even when achieved. Hitting a target and feeling nothing is the specific signature of a goal that was never yours.

FIG. 01 November 2015. The earliest written record of the two percent framework. Most people have had the experience of starting a new fitness plan, only to abandon it completely or revert back to their old habits. Name one person who has not made working out part of their New Year's resolutions at some point in their lives. We often start with tons of enthusiasm, launching head-on into a brutal workout routine. Perhaps we have tried to cram as much exercise into our downtime as we possibly can, or suddenly begun moving at a pace that is frankly beyond us. Too often the end result is that we crumble as soon as we start feeling even slightly overwhelmed. It is actually quite possible to become overwhelmed at the very thought of starting to exercise, even before you take the first step.

The second kind produce the specific and familiar feeling of hitting a target and feeling nothing. That is the difference between a goal and a should. Your calendar is probably full of shoulds. When my coach caught me without an answer, I did not journal about it for ten minutes and move on. I want to be honest about the scale of what it took, because the scale is the point. Christie and I unplugged. I got on a scooter and rode three hours through the Balinese mountains to Lovina, on the north coast, then spent two nights and three days on a beach on my own with a notebook, working out what I wanted. I came back with a full notebook and reread it for days before I trusted it. And I felt fantastic, because I had clarity again. Now, I am aware of how that sounds.

K. M., and Elliot, A. J. (1999). Goal striving, need satisfaction, and longitudinal well-being: the self-concordance model. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 76(3), 482-497. The 2% Solution. Play it here, with the full transcript on the page. You have done it five times. It is not discipline, and the fix is unglamorous. Two things to notice if you know you are in the wrong place. The origin of MERGE60, republished from LinkedIn.

The men who hold onto progress are the ones whose plan survives a bad week, a work trip and a sick kid. Consistency at 70 percent beats perfection you abandon in week three. The 2% Solution. Play it here, with the full transcript on the page. The least exercise that actually does something, and the part everyone leaves out. You have done it five times. It is not discipline, and the fix is unglamorous. Seven years ago I went looking for four dads over 40 to test an idea. What it became, and what it refuses to promise.

Ask a man over 40 how many times he has started again and he will usually laugh before he answers. Five. Six. He owns the equipment. He knows what to do. FIG. 01 A man who gets six weeks in and stops is telling you about the fuel, not the engine. Ask a man over 40 how many times he has started again and he will usually laugh before he answers. Five. Six. He has lost the same fifteen pounds three times. He owns the equipment. He knows what to do. He has proven, repeatedly, that he can do it for six weeks. That last part is the interesting part, and it is the reason I do not believe this is a discipline problem. A man who cannot do something never gets six weeks in. A man who gets six weeks in and then stops is telling you something about the fuel, not the engine. Because the thing that got you started is not a thing that can keep you going.

What produces that shift is not motivation. It is having felt better for long enough to associate the behaviour with the feeling. That takes longer than most programs run for, which is most of why most programs fail. So the practical question is not how to be more motivated. It is how to survive long enough on external motivation for internal motivation to show up. Everything below is about that gap. I wrote a column in 2016 arguing that goals cannot just be what is on the scale, and the reason is mechanical rather than inspirational. The scale is a lagging, noisy indicator that moves for reasons unrelated to what you did. Water, sodium, sleep, stress, what time you weighed.

Because it will. The results arrive in month three and four, and the men who quit almost all quit in the window between doing the work and seeing the work. In 2016 I got in the habit of asking people one question, and I still open with it: are you worth it? It sounds like a slogan. It is actually a load-bearing question, because a man who has not decided that his own health is worth thirty minutes will negotiate that thirty minutes away every single time something else comes up. And something else always comes up. Why can I not stick to a fitness routine? Usually because the reason you started was external: a number, a date, a photo, a warning. Those work fast and expire at about week five or six, when early results slow and normal life returns.