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Episode 1 - The power of goal setting
40 Plays3 months ago
We all know setting goals is critical to being successful, but why? how should we be setting goals? Is there an optimal method?
Research shows us there are 5 factors to consider - clarity, challenge, commitment, feedback and complexity.
But there is much more to mastering the practical aspects of goal setting, in this episode Russ discusses these practical aspects with psychologist Dr. Garret O'Moore and nutritionist Dan Price.
For more wellness content join the LCW app HERE
Or watch podcast clips on our YouTube channel
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Transcript
00:00:01
Russ Harris
and we're rolling.
00:00:02
Garret
Oh.
Introduction to Goal Setting
00:00:03
Russ Harris
Hello and welcome to this the first episode of the LCW podcast. um In today's episode we're going to be diving into the power of goal setting.
00:00:14
Russ Harris
Researchers Locke and Latham are quoted as having said that goals have an energizing function that the higher the goal the greater the effort invested ah Do you ever feel like your goals are too far out of reach or wonder how to stay motivated and on track?
00:00:32
Russ Harris
If you would like to know how goal setting, clear and achievable goals could transform your mental and physical health, then stay
Expert Opinions on Goal Setting
00:00:42
Russ Harris
tuned. To help me unpack these questions, I'm joined by qualified psychologist, published author and LCW consultant, Dr. Garrett O'Moor, and renowned certified nutritionist and LCW consultant, Dan Price.
00:00:50
Garret
Hello.
00:00:56
Dan
Hello.
00:00:57
Russ Harris
All right, Chaps, I'm going to kick things off. I did a little bit of research for this episode because I was quite interested in deep diving on goal setting. And Locke and Latham have been researching this stuff since the 60s and have released a huge amount of research on this area. And one of the things I wanted to kind of kick off by saying is that I think goal setting gets a bit of a bad rap.
00:01:21
Russ Harris
for not being, you know, people almost like passing it by and going, oh yeah, yeah, whatever. I've done i've done some goal setting in the past and didn't really work very well. ah But these guys are asserting that goal setting in itself can increase the likelihood of being successful by up to 25%, which is obviously enormous. Anybody who's ah ever tried to do anything with their health and wellbeing or business or anything in life, 25% advantage is worth grabbing if you can,
00:01:50
Russ Harris
if you can get it. And these guys understand effective goal setting to require five essential key elements. Clarity, the less clarity, the harder it is to go after a goal and the less likely you are to achieve it, which I think I would probably agree with. ah Challenge, the right level of difficulty is is essential. There's a kind of Goldilocks zone for how challenging a goal is. Too challenging, overwhelming, and results in poor outcomes. Not challenging enough,
00:02:21
Russ Harris
And people kind of walk away from it and don't really feel like they want to take it on.
Challenges and Motivation in Goal Setting
00:02:25
Russ Harris
um Commitment, which they talk about in the terms of like acceptance by the person. Accepting that as a goal is a key thing ah to them then ah committing to achieving it. ah Feedback, giving the correct type of feedback. And then finally,
00:02:42
Russ Harris
complexity. So the right level of complexity is also re required. um i so i mean I certainly was reading through those and and when I think about anything that I've tried to do myself or with clients when it's been successful, there's been a fair degree of adherence to those to those general principles. Where where do you guys sit on on goal setting? Effective, not effective, underrated? Where where are you at?
00:03:09
Dan
Yeah, I could jump in there. i Certainly, in terms of ah this time of year, January, goal setting. The two that really speak to me there are the idea of the complexity of for the goal and also kind of how difficult it is. Because quite often when you have kind of this this big push of motivation, it's tempting to set a very difficult or really big mountain to climb. And often when you undertake that, there's no harm in maybe starting with the motivation to take on something challenging.
00:03:37
Dan
but What i was trying to have with my clients is kind of the safety nets so if we're setting ourselves this expectation of what we're going to do is really important to have slightly lower expectations set beneath that which are still progressive rather than going if i can't hit this it's over and it's nothing so it's kind of like just being wary of the gold being so big that it's very easy to feel like you're failing it.
00:04:00
Dan
versus being too small that it's not going to achieve the goal. We want to kind of have those levels between us so we can always feel like we're finding our path towards success.
Types and Alignment of Goals
00:04:10
Russ Harris
Yeah, that's pretty ah pretty interesting. I think from an exc exercise point of view, I was thinking about the difference in performance. If you are in a squat rack trying to squat to failure, i.e. that kind of all or nothing type approach, as soon as you put the squat bars in, it's just supporting bars underneath that they' will catch the barbell if you fail to come up from another squat.
00:04:32
Russ Harris
people are much more willing to give it it give it more of a go. Whereas I think this sort of quitting happens in your mind before your body. And if those safety bars are not there, you rarely see people just go all the way to failure because it results in you being squashed underneath a squat bar.
00:04:49
Dan
Absolutely, but I think it definitely is a sweet spot with it, which I think they're perhaps alluding to there, which is that if the goal is too small and too manageable, it's easy to sort of feel like you're not undertaking enough, particularly when I never want to kind of waste momentum with a client. So if someone comes in and they propose an idea, or I want to try and do this, I want to try and get in the gym five, six times a week,
00:05:09
Dan
even if perhaps we think maybe more realistically, long term might be two or three, there's no reason to kind of waste that early motivation as long as you can have the caveat to go, great, well, let's start with that. And then if that does become a little bit unmanageable, we've still got this option of going to three or even two that's still going to be really, really productive rather than cutting someone straight down to two when maybe they had that motivation to hit the ground running.
00:05:35
Garret
Um, I guess for for me, absolutely. I think there's a huge amount to be said for, for goal setting, uh, probably have like one or two caveats.
Accountability and Values in Goals
00:05:43
Garret
I think where people sometimes get a little bit confused is actually differentiating the different types of goals. So one common way to kind of think about it is is sort of three types of goals. You can think of it more like an outcome goal, which, you know, for example, if say you're a professional athlete, your outcome goal could be, I want to win a medal in the Olympics. so I want to get the goal medal. Okay.
00:06:03
Garret
Um, but you then actually got the performance goals that fit into that, which could be, I'm going to win by getting a world record beating time. So that's a goal. But then you go to the third level, which is like the process goals. There's actually all the training you need to do to get there. And so that's, where we get into the more specific, like, okay, I'm going to train five days a week. I'm going to have like three training blocks, you know, stuff like that. And I think that's sometimes where people can get a little bit lost. So that can be too complex. What I'd often do with people is I try and understand the sort of the,
00:06:32
Garret
the more the outcome goal, then you'd look at the kind of performance goals if that's that's relevant. And then you get more into kind of the process goals, if that makes but makes some sense. so
00:06:41
Dan
Yeah, I think that's a great guy.
00:06:42
Garret
yeah
00:06:43
Dan
It's a really good point. I think, you know, the with the Olympic athlete kind of idea there, it's like that goal of winning and an Olympic medal, that's kind of not really an actionable goal. It's not something you go out and do on Monday.
00:06:54
Dan
What you do is the actionable goal is like, I'm going to train this often, I'm going to follow this nutrition protocol. And then the outcome may come as a result of that. And if we pull that down more to kind of General general people with goals even a goal like weight loss isn't really an isn't really an actionable goal that you go and do Monday morning when you started what you go and do is you follow a set of smaller goals like I'm going to ah Hit 10,000 set a today. I'm gonna do some ah three training sessions a week. I'm gonna eat these meals I'm gonna follow these habits. Those are the actionable goals and I completely agree I think so often people's resolutions are I'm gonna lose X amount of weight rather than I'm gonna I
00:07:33
Dan
My goal is to take on these new habits.
00:07:36
Russ Harris
Yeah, that's sort of like, what do I want versus what do I want to be doing?
00:07:39
Garret
Mm hmm.
00:07:40
Dan
yeah
00:07:40
Russ Harris
It's really that, you know, do I actually want to be doing the things that would get me to my goal. And obviously, if not, you've got a big you've got a big hurdle to get over there, which is I think where, I mean, that's what I think where as accountability, whether it's in coaching format or whether it's in more kind of peer support, um sometimes it's it's unknown, unnamed people, just the sort of social pressure of sharing your goal.
00:07:49
Dan
yeah
00:08:03
Russ Harris
It feels like and a sort of accountability to the crowd, maybe, if you're sort of being a bit more public with your goal. I think that's what that those things can come in really, really handy. And that's probably the only feature that I would add to that like kind of list that Lock and Latham have have got there is just accountability.
Complexity in Health-Related Goals
00:08:23
Russ Harris
um I think it's that important I would add it in as as as as an addition.
00:08:29
Dan
Yeah, absolutely. And obviously, ah accountability comes in when you are working with ah a coach or she say in a group setting. But I think sometimes is how can you how can you bring that accountability to yourself? And I think that again, is when the daily actionable goals become what's important rather than just that, that kind of kind of ethereal out there goal. Something I use in my clients because obviously on a day-to-day basis as it's quite difficult to go. We've actually had weight loss success or we've had performance success or we've had better energy success. That's something you might notice over time. Whereas on a daily basis if the goals are a step count, if it's eating a certain number of you know portions of vegetables a day or having a high protein count,
00:09:09
Dan
Whether you're doing that yourself with a coach, you can go through that at the end of every day and tick off those goals. So then actually you've achieved your goal on Monday, not, oh, maybe three months I've achieved my weight loss goal. It's actually chief all on Tuesday, you've achieved your goal.
00:09:19
Russ Harris
law
00:09:23
Dan
And it's that kind of momentum stacking trust across time.
00:09:28
Russ Harris
and what what about What do you guys think about goals that are more ongoing? you know if you've If you've got a definitive goal in mind time-wise, you've got a smarter goal, as it were, a smart goal.
00:09:42
Russ Harris
um Maybe it's a holiday, a wedding, maybe it is a race or a performance, physical performance of some kind. um When you're measuring your level of success and you're taking part in your process goals, there's some ability to be able to get feedback about where you are versus where you need to be in order to hit your performance
Chronic vs. Acute Goals
00:10:04
Russ Harris
target. But with things like health and wellbeing, it's a bit more complicated because ah You could still be having you know bouts of colds or something like that throughout the winter months, but be way healthier you know in inverted brackets than you were before. And you're still going through all those behaviors you've identified, that you those sort of process goals. What do you guys make of make a goal setting with regards to things like health?
00:10:30
Garret
Um, I think for me, I'd probably put something like health into that sort of outcome space, a little bit like with the, that's my gold medal. But what I'd be, looking I'd be, I'd be looking at more of that kind of the, you know, again, what's are within my control, like looking more at where the kind of process goals. And then the sort of the, the kind of the the performance goals, if you will, like, um, you know, in my performance goal in that sense might be looking at, uh, you know, what kind of metrics are you, are you looking at specifically, you know, if it was to do with like kind of health or are you looking at, are you looking at kind of,
00:11:00
Garret
measures of like strength or endurance or fitness or flexibility or something like that. So that's what I'd be kind of working, working towards rather than kind of, Oh, no, I got a cold. So does that mean I'm on track or not?
00:11:13
Dan
You know, i'm I'm making up terms here, Garrett, so feel free to correct me if these have got different titles. But I would differentiate with between what is a kind of a chronic goal and then an acute goal. And so something like health, or even a certain level of fitness, it's almost this is something that almost aligns with your identity of of who you are. And so you view yourself as someone who I want to be kind of in good health, most of the time, I want to be at a certain fitness level where I feel like I haven't got aches and pains in my joints, I've got good mobility, I can run a 5k if I want to have a certain strength level so I can do everything I need to do in my day to day life. That's kind of a chronic goal. with that We don't necessarily need that to improve or we certainly don't want it to decrease, it's just a status that we're we're trying to hold on to. And that's actually a lot of the clients I work with are people who have kind of feel like they've actually fallen out of that a little bit.
00:12:02
Dan
And what they're trying to do is reclaim more of a sense of themselves, which is I don't feel like myself anymore because I've maybe it's gained weight or maybe I've lost my routine in the gym or I don't feel as mobile or able as I used to be. So we're actually, ah we're trying to restore that kind of that goal, which is really just a kind of chronic sense of kind of wellness.
00:12:24
Dan
Whereas an acute goal might be that on top of that, oh, I'm going to try and do a 10k this year, or I'm training for the marathon, or I want to get a swap PB or something. These are the kind of goals where you can laser in or or even a holiday versus that kind of example, a holiday or a wedding or something. That's when if you have a particular aesthetic goal or whatever,
00:12:43
Dan
you're probably aware that it's maybe a three or four month project and you want to get to a certain angle. But then after that, you're returning back to that kind of more chronic status of health, wellness, ah longevity, all of all of that kind of stuff.
00:12:55
Dan
and I think that those goals are different. And that they kind of always need a different approach.
00:13:01
Garret
you
00:13:01
Dan
The the first thing I'd say with them is those ah those acute goals don't need to quite have the same sustainability factor. as something that's more of a chronic goal. If you want something to to last for your lifetime, certainly in regards to health, longevity, mobility, strength, these needs of activities that you really enjoy and are really part of your life just in the background, whereas an acute goal that's maybe a slightly more aggressive diet approach or quite a vigorous kind of exc exercise routine, those are things that you need to be sustainable for that short period of time, but afterwards you can kind of look back and go, that was pretty full on, I'm quite happy just to be back to my normal state.
Values and Identity in Goal Setting
00:13:36
Garret
I think picking them down, I think one of the ways, I guess, in psychology, we like to kind of conceptualize that is often we're talking about kind of values.
00:13:37
Dan
lets
00:13:44
Garret
And that's sort of how you differentiate that. So you think about what you actually value. And the way you think about a value is something that's more potentially ongoing lifelong, you sort of see that more tied into your identity. Yes, you can think about, of fact you know, a goal is something you can achieve.
00:13:54
Dan
Yeah.
00:13:57
Garret
Another, you know, for example, like to get married, is a goal. You know, you could literally tick box, do it done. A value is potentially more about how do you want to be in the relationship.
00:14:08
Garret
So the idea is like, I want to be a loving partner.
00:14:08
Dan
yeah
00:14:10
Garret
So that's more like a value. It doesn't necessarily have like an end date, you know, sort of ticket and go job done. So that's one way you can think about it. So, you know, do i identify my potentially like my values around sort of health and wellness.
00:14:21
Garret
And then the idea with them is that we we'd have sort of goals that could be short term goals, medium term goals, longer term goals. But the ideal way would be to have goals that are consistent then with your deeper value, which is more about kind of what you stand for, how you want to kind of be in the world, that if that makes sense.
00:14:38
Dan
Absolutely. Yeah, I think that's great. So it's kind of the values really is what I was describing as chronic stuff is it's almost yeah what your what your values are.
00:14:45
Garret
Yeah.
00:14:47
Russ Harris
Yeah, I think when you were talking there about the values I was thinking about sometimes when people who will take on a goal, struggle to maybe show up consistently for themselves. But part of where that values thing interacts with accountability is often they will show up for somebody else. So do I want to continually get up early in the morning at the weekend and go for a run? Maybe initially, but not over time, not consistently, not, as you mentioned, their dance to sustainably. But if I've got a session booked in with the coach or if I've got a run booked in with
00:15:20
Russ Harris
a friend or if I've paid money to go and run an event or if I've got a park run I'm going to, am I the sort of person, ah do I value you know avoiding letting people
Adjusting Goals to Motivation and Circumstances
00:15:30
Russ Harris
down? And is that a stronger motivator than showing up for myself? I think without going too far down that particular rabbit hole, I think I see that a lot in exercise is that just before you get to any technical coaching advice or any ah anything in terms of specific exercise selection or anything that I'm doing as a coach, just simply being there means that people are more likely to turn up for me for our session than perhaps they would on a day when they're not feeling so motivated for them for themselves.
00:15:54
Garret
my like
00:16:01
Dan
Yeah, massively. I think that's a practical takeaway. I think Russ is is almost um an approach of when you're feeling motivated to try and set up inconveniences for your future, less motivate itself.
00:16:14
Dan
So so a good example with a lot of clients I've worked with is if they struggle with that idea of a Friday night, maybe being alcohol heavy or staying at late restaurants.
00:16:21
Garret
I don't
00:16:22
Dan
let's probably If they're booking in a class somewhere, Saturday morning, it quite often takes care of that because then they're not going to stay out because I want to get out for that class i'm booked together on meeting friends of the class.
00:16:24
Garret
know.
00:16:32
Dan
And then they're very thankful for that when they've managed to do the class, and they haven't missed it again. If they just let that down to, I'm going to see how I feel when I wake up Saturday morning, it would probably be a very different outcome that if they already had that booked in place.
00:16:44
Dan
So it's almost thinking how can I set things up? So as I'm going to end up behaving in a different way even if I don't want to in the moment I've already set up things so I find myself doing the habits that I wanted to do in the first place.
00:16:58
Russ Harris
ah Just on a slightly different tack, um one of the things that's specific to exercise goal setting, and obviously at this time of year, there'll be lots of people thinking about news resolutions.
00:17:11
Russ Harris
um maybe coming off the back of having a period of a few weeks where they didn't do as much exercise and possibly feeling really motivated, like hyper-motivated. One of the things is that there there are still, with certain goals, certainly with kind of weight loss, ah fitness goals,
00:17:31
Russ Harris
There are hard physiological limitations to how fast your body can go from being ex-fit to Y-fit. There is a process of exercise, relax, recover, exercise, relax, recover. And you can't make that go faster by being more motivated. There there are just some hard limits.
00:17:49
Russ Harris
So I think there is an element with goal setting where if you're feeling particularly ambitious, ah that still has to be kept in check with what's actually realistic, what's actually achievable, which is where you get into that kind of smart goals thing. And I think sometimes it's very difficult to know what's achievable. And then if you have a sort of slightly rose tinted glasses of being feeling very motivated and ready to go, it's It's tempting to be over-optimistic about how fast things will happen. So I think it's to your point, Dan, of not putting a stopper in the motivation when people have got it, but then helping people realize that perhaps the way you achieve the goal might need to change partway through. You can use that motivation to start very fast, but then recognizing that you might need to slow down at some point without falling completely off the bandwagon, which I think is something that happens quite a lot.
Learning and Skill Development in New Activities
00:18:43
Dan
Yep.
00:18:45
Garret
I think maybe some to add to that. One of the kind of limitations I found with goal setting is if you're approaching something that's actually novel. So if you don't have much experience with it, that's you need to be a little bit careful with the goal setting, because actually that's you can get yourself to trouble. So this idea of actually, how do I know what the kind of the sort of the idea level of of um difficulty is for me, if it's something that's quite new to me. And they often talk about like the the Goldilocks idea, you know, the kind of Goldilocks level of difficulty, like it's it's it's just right.
00:19:14
Garret
But if it's if something I haven't done before, that can be quite tricky. And so, you know, you might have, the expectations might be a bit off, whatever it might be, and that in itself could be demotivating. Sometimes, you know, and yeah it's going to be very casey case-by-case basis. But sometimes if you're approaching something that's quite new to you, you're probably a little bit better off actually focusing more just on learning how to do the particular things. And maybe that's almost more the goal, actually, like how to actually sort of develop my skills in this rather than having a really specific things you want to achieve, because if you've never done the thing before, you you don't really have a baseline to know what is realistic for yourself.
00:19:49
Dan
Yeah, I think that's a really good point, Garren, and it kind of dovetails a little bit into that idea about with the values aspect you were talking about as well. If you're almost trying to take on a new set of values or almost move into a place where you're you're living your life in a kind of holistic sense quite differently to how you are at the moment, to save fitness and wellness and things like that, it isn't very part of your current picture, that it is going to take an adjustment. And you often hear this idea of, you have to start living living like you're already there, if that makes sense. So it's like when you imagine in your mind, ah say it's a big weight loss goal, or say it's a kind of health overhaul goal, and you think like picture myself in a year's time when I've achieved that goal, how would I see myself living then, and then start living like that now, when that's the kind of vision to get you there.
00:20:34
Dan
I think sometimes with that, because just just to add as well, this is often what i well I'll say to clients is, if that's the goal to ultimately say in a year's time be someone who is fundamentally different in their values to who you are now, the timeframe is kind of irrelevant. on that because if you achieve that in three months, six months or a year or two years, presumably in five, 10, 15 years from now, you're still going to be living within those values if you want to keep ah that but lifestyle, keep the results of that, whatever that change has been. So the the actual length of time it takes to get there is not really that relevant. It's about setting it up so as you can continue to do it for decades, presumably if it's a value.
Adapting Goals to Life Changes
00:21:12
Dan
So that's kind of the first point. And then I think to to bring in where the kind of short-term goals come into it, I think sometimes, particularly with resolutions and things, it's worth being aware that it might take a bit of an acute short-term goal just to get things started with the knowledge that you're going to to kind of dovetail this into a more sustainable a kind of lifestyle goal. But actually it's not a problem to start with something that might feel a bit like a traditional kickstart January resolution kind of thing that maybe gets a bad name. But I think actually as ah as a room in,
00:21:41
Dan
It's not a bad thing if you can view that as something that this is going to just get me into the right mindset to then soften this as a part of the whole picture.
00:21:49
Russ Harris
Yeah, I think that comes back to that level of challenge, doesn't it? It's it's almost that there's a dynamic level of challenge, and it needs to change to suit how you're feeling about your goal. If your motivation starts to dip for some reason, and you don't change this the level of challenge you've given yourself to, you know, whether it's eating eating a certain number of calories per day, you know, whether it's kind of meditating on a daily basis, or if you've gone for something fairly ambitious to begin with and then your motivation just starts to change unless you adapt the plan accordingly at that point and reset the process goals. The level of challenge becomes overwhelming and that's when you risk not not getting to your goal and I think that's where goal setting is probably more of an ongoing lifestyle choice rather than something you sort of do
00:22:37
Russ Harris
maybe a once a year or you know once a month or something, it's it's actually something that needs maintenance um and and and needs updating.
00:22:46
Dan
100% rise up, I was having this conversation the other day with a client um about if you you're thinking about your goal, if you're doing that across a whole year, there's almost sort of seasonal change in your own life about how difficult goals are going to be. If you've got crazy stuff happening at work or family struggles or things like that, your ability to adhere to a goal is of course going to be different. And if you're still judging yourself by the same kind of metrics of success year round when those circumstances are changing, it gives you a false perception of kind of your ability or how dedicated you are. And the way I was kind of describing it, is if you imagine you were doing like a long cycle, something as you'll you'll know from this, and you've got hills, and then you've got kind of downhill sections and flat hill sections. It's like if you were doing that, and it's like you're going uphill, but suddenly your perceptions, you should be going as fast as you are normally, or you it should be just as easy as it's normal. That's completely wrong, right? And you really let yourself down. oh Why is this suddenly so hard? What's wrong with me? It's like you're going up a massive hill.
00:23:40
Dan
And if you apply that to the circumstances in your life, Christmas is an example. It's like you've suddenly got all this stuff going on. If you were to view that a bit more as upright, this isn't the opportunity to suddenly shift gears and really push on. But there will be a point in time, maybe perhaps later in the year, where there really is, and then leaning into it in that period of time. and I think that's how you manage goals over time, is recognize it in the picture of everything else that's going on, rather than just as a linear factor.
00:24:04
Russ Harris
Yeah, right.
00:24:04
Garret
i Yeah,
00:24:05
Russ Harris
Because because you change too, right? So it's your different, your different sort of month, month, one month to the next.
00:24:12
Garret
I'm not
00:24:12
Russ Harris
And I think that's probably the only the final addition I'd make to that that initial set of five is just, is it the correct goal in the first place? So I could have Really good clarity, the right level of challenge. I could commit to the goal. I could organize getting the right sort of feedback. It could be the right level of complexity. It could just be aimed in completely the wrong direction, because I've cause i've changed. it might not be It might be the right direction when I start the goal, but it might be the wrong direction, particularly for the really long-term goals. You hear people saying, oh, this is my five-year plan. This is my 10-year plan. But a lot can change in 10 years.
00:24:49
Russ Harris
to make that something that is now less appropriate or just or just or just you were not you're well-intentioned but not well-informed at the beginning, which I think is probably a lot of the goals I've chased so far in life.
Nutrition and Feedback in Goal Setting
00:25:03
Garret
I think maybe just just me, I guess one one thing that it's quite easy to forget sometimes is actually the idea that goal setting one way to think about goal setting is actually really to see more actually as a motivational technique, if that makes sense. So the goal setting in itself can be motivating. You know, that's, that's something we sometimes forget, right? So, and that's, again, you know, to Dan's point, you know, if you're going up and down hills to kind of think, actually, there might be times when actually, I've really got to kind of look at that goals and actually go, especially if they're these kind of smaller goals, are they sort of realistic given all that's on in my context, right? Because
00:25:35
Garret
If they're not, then that might be demotivating. So if you want to think about it that way, my goal setting actually is a motivation technique in and of itself. And if I'm willing to kind of adapt and flex how I do my goal setting framework, then actually I stay on top of that as a motivation technique.
00:25:51
Dan
Yeah, yeah.
00:25:55
Russ Harris
does that I mean, does that pan out? That pans out like that in nutrition surely, Dan. um In terms of keeping yourself motivated to to stick to changes until they become more automatic default.
00:26:09
Dan
Absolutely. um You know, all of all of this stuff works very well to nutrition. I think, you know, anytime you're trying to change body weight, it's an acute goal, really. Even if it's long-term weight-grossing, there's probably going to be broke up into smaller acute goals, and that's just because of the nature of the way the body works. it's not It doesn't enjoy being in a calorie deficit. Even a calorie surplus, it will fight against you a little bit if you're someone who struggles to to gain weight. um So this this is a concerted effort, whereas the the general
00:26:41
Dan
The difference with a health goal is there is a positive feedback link to that. If you're including more vegetables, if you're drinking more, if you're sleeping more, if you're eating better quality food, managing energy levels better, all of that's going to make you feel better and subsequently be happier to continue pursuing that. Whereas with something like weight loss, sadly, no matter how well you're doing it, the better you're doing it, probably the worse you're going to feel as you restrict calories throughout that period of time, which is why we need to use things like diet breaks ah You know, something I try and do with with my clients a lot is almost sense when a weight loss plateau is coming or get that feedback for when it's coming and actually put a diet break in ahead of time. So we're not in this situation where someone's struggling for weeks and weeks getting demotivated when it's like, actually, this is probably coming, so why don't we pull back a little bit, just focus on maintenance for a little bit, reflect on how well we've done, and then build up that motivation to to go again. um and And certainly to that, as resonating with the point you're making there, Garrett,
00:27:36
Dan
often, even just from talking to my clients, it'd be very clear that right now in their life and everything that's going on, there is not space to suddenly go, let's really restrict calories and try and lose weight. But the person, the client may be saying they want to do that, but it's like, look, this is not the time to do this. So your point Russ about is it is it the right goal? It's like, let's get through this period of time.
00:27:57
Dan
Okay, let's take that motivation, put it on, eat well, resting, feeling recovered, and now let's go for it when that opportunity presents itself. Because I think sometimes we ourselves may be the worst people for for necessarily knowing. ah Sometimes you can be very blind to the amount of stress or things going back when you've kind of got accustomed to those things.
00:28:14
Russ Harris
Yeah, almost feels sometimes when I've experienced that in the past, it almost feels like you're going down a narrowing corridor and the inability to I don't know whether that's a sunken cost type thing where you you've already poured some time into achieving this goal or whatever it is.
00:28:27
Russ Harris
And you know, it's not quite going well enough, but you haven't got that ah objectivity coming in from outside to to pull back and and reset and in a different direction. And the the amount of time and energy that I've probably wasted in sort of slightly narrow corridors where I could have just reversed back
00:28:38
Dan
Yeah.
00:28:42
Dan
Yeah.
00:28:44
Russ Harris
and and and and gone a different direction.
00:28:44
Dan
Yeah.
00:28:47
Russ Harris
um I think that's a sort of region beta paradox ah theory, isn't it? Where it's kind of like it needs to be, sometimes things need to get worse before you recognize them and then you reallocate your resources going in a different direction.
00:29:02
Russ Harris
If things are just not quite working, but it's okay,
00:29:02
Dan
yeah
00:29:07
Russ Harris
we kind of unfortunately just human condition we sort of stumble along for a bit longer and I think that happens with goal setting quite often is that I'm not quite getting to where I want to be but it's also not bad enough
00:29:12
Dan
yeah
00:29:18
Russ Harris
you know, or going in reverse enough for me to completely abandon this and start again, which sometimes might be the best, you know, the best approach, which is I think where somebody who's not you giving you some feedback, you know, some objective feedback ah to come back to the sort of original point by lock and lay them like that, that feedback, getting the right sort of feedback at the right time from someone you you trust and use opinion, you value ah is is yeah massively beneficial.
00:29:22
Dan
yeah
00:29:42
Garret
No.
Conclusion and Personal Insights
00:29:45
Garret
It's the older, what's going to, if at first you don't succeed.
00:29:46
Dan
i
00:29:49
Garret
nice what what what do we What do we say after that typically?
00:29:53
Russ Harris
Try, try and try again.
00:29:54
Garret
Yeah, but there's the other one is if at first you don't succeed, try different.
00:29:57
Russ Harris
Yeah.
00:29:58
Garret
So that's that's the bit, like it it's how many tries before you go, maybe you need to try different. And that's again where feedback comes in, that's again where an external pair of eyes is really helpful.
00:30:10
Russ Harris
I mean, guys, we could we could we could definitely do goal setting and all of its different component parts forever and ever.
00:30:11
Dan
and see if all of it is on the other end.
00:30:17
Russ Harris
but Yeah, for everyone out there who's sort of attempting a new year's resolutions at the moment, yeah best of luck. But um go and check out some of the theory around goal setting, obviously smarter goals. I think some of the points we raised today, like definitely definitely getting other people involved for me is just ah it's just a massive, massive part of it. I think I could probably get some elements of the challenge wrong.
00:30:40
Russ Harris
so maybe maybe not so much clarity, whatever. But for me personally, I think if I'm going out to achieve a goal and I know that somebody else is invested in that, ah for me that just ups the amount of motivation I have to achieve it dramatically.
00:30:53
Dan
Yep. And i'd I'd add to that for me, my kind of actionable goal would be have though that that wider goal broken down into things you can do every day to achieve. So whether that is steps, whether that is vegetable servings, whether that's protein, whether that is resting, if it's part of your exercise program, have things that you can tick off at the end of the day. So as you're building that positive momentum in lieu of the wider goal eventually happening with stacking those over time, the actionable goal.
00:31:21
Garret
And for me, I'll probably just add that one bit that, you know, if, if you find that you, you know, you put a lot of effort in, maybe things aren't going exactly as you'd like, rather than kind of losing, losing hope, losing motivation, that's really the, really the opportunity for just a little bit of self-compassion, which is really just applying a bit of kind of kindness care to yourself. And typically what we find in self-compassion, actually, if anything, it increases motivation, it increases resilience, it allows us actually to persevere ah in in the face of kind of setbacks, challenges, things like that.
00:31:50
Dan
Bye for now.
00:31:51
Russ Harris
All right, guys, I think it's been a good one. We'll see you on the next one.
00:31:55
Dan
See you later.
00:31:56
Garret
Thank you. Bye bye.