Why You Should Avoid New Years Resolutions For Pole Goals
It's that time of year again. Everyone is reviewing what pole goals they achieved, comparing their top liked pictures on Facebook and Instagram and wondering what awaits them in the New Year.
You're probably tempted to write yourself some New Year's Resolutions to set yourself some solid targets for the year ahead.
Before you do though, it's important to understand why most New Year's Resolutions actually fail.
Come January 15th the 'fail' posts start rolling in on Facebook. 'I've already ruined my new diet', 'I missed a day of stretching', 'I didn't do my new workout routine every day this week' etc etc.
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What You Will Learn
- Why You Need To Forget New Years Resolutions
- How To Set Pole Goals You Can Actually Achieve
- How Your Mindset Affects Your Progress
- The Most Common Goals For Pole Dancers
- How To Track Your Pole Goals & Stay Motivated
What Is Goal Overload?
As a pole dancer it's highly likely that you have a tonne of goals you want to work on. This is why you need to be careful not to overload yourself.
Take a quick look at the amount of things your average pole dancer is working on improving.
That's A LOT of stuff to focus on at once, but they're things we're all working on. They're already long term targets to improve as much as humanly possible, so why do we need New Year goals?
The short answer is, we don't!
Having said that, you do want to achieve those things right? Well hoping that they will just happen isn't going to get you anywhere either.
Here's what you need to do...
Re-Wire Your Brain
As I mentioned in my article about achieving faster progress, you have to change the way you approach your goals.
First you need to adopt a successful mindset. While this is a huge part of the puzzle when it comes to achieving your pole goals, it's only the beginning.
How To Make Your Pole Goals More Achievable
The next step on the journey to completing your goals is to break them down into shorter more manageable targets.
It's one thing to say 'I will have a straight Needle Scale by 2024'. But how exactly are you going to get there?
When you have lots of long term goals in mind it's really important to break them down into SMART goals.
SMART goals are goals that are; Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Timely.
How To Set SMART Goals
To get started with this I want you to pick one pole dancing goal, yes that's right you heard me.
Out of all of those things I know you're dying to work on I want you to pick just one. Think about which one is the most important to you in the short term.
Once you've decided on your specific focus goal, write it down. Then you'll need to write down some more realistic short term goals for that target.
This could be anything from small increases in strength to an improvement in your splits. Even just sticking to a new schedule - just make sure that you track your progress.
Splits can be measured by their angle using an app, and strength can be measured in kgs of weight lifted. Be sure to keep notes of what you achieve each day.
Keeping a record of your achievements will help to keep you motivated to continue. Don't worry if some days are worse than others, or your progress is not consistently going forwards.
Remember that the path to your destination is a winding road with lots of curves and turns. It may not be straight forward but you are on the right path so stick to it.
So now we have a new 'specific' short term goal that is easily 'measured' and this smaller bite size goal will feel more realistic to you and is more easily achievable.
Finally, you'll want to set a 'timeframe' for your new short term goal.
The 12 Week Goal Setting System
To get the best results out of your new goal, I advise using a 12 week plan to achieve it.
You can even set even smaller stepping stone targets for the end of each week to keep your mind focused on those little wins on your journey!
The idea behind the success of 12 week goal setting as opposed to the annual plans and goals set by most people, is that over the course of the 12 weeks you don't have time to slack.
If you are working on goals over a longer period of time the mind can act against you, allowing you to relax more and become complacent.
This doesn't happen if you keep your short term goals to a 12 week plan, because it creates a sense of urgency to reach your end goal more quickly.
That's not to say you need to progress too fast though. While that's fine for some goals such as those set by businesses, in sports and fitness we need to be careful not to over train.
This is why we have already broken our long term pole goal down into manageable chunks.
The less time you feel like you have to complete a goal, the less likely you are to procrastinate.
The 12 week goal setting system will help you to prioritise your most important goals and achieve amazing results.
Why not try it out for yourself using my Smart & Simple Pocket Pole Fitness Planner.
For more information on this style of goal setting you can read 'The 12 Week Year: Get More Done in 12 Weeks Than Others Do in 12 Months' - by Brian P. Moran & Michael Lennington.
What's most interesting about this style of goal setting is that the results are often so good that you'll progress much further by the end of the year than you first anticipate in your 'annual plan'.
As an optional extra to keep yourself motivated towards your goals, you can have a buddy to hold you accountable.
I found this to be the most driving factor behind reaching my first 12 week goal. The best buddy will be someone at a similar stage of progress to you who is working on similar goals.
If you haven't got a buddy, try looking in groups to find someone working on similar goals to you 🙂
So Where Do I Go From Here?
As a fellow poler I know you're probably wondering, 'what about my other goals?'
If you chose splits as your focus for example, you're probably worried about your back flexibility and strength goals falling to the wayside, but that won't happen.
When you train to achieve your splits your progress will improve your mobility, opening the door to new tricks and pretty shapes.
Not only that, but you are also stretching and strengthening muscle groups that will actually help with your back flexibility!
When you truly adjust your mindset like we spoke about in the beginning of the article, you'll have built the habit of a lifetime over the initial 12 weeks of working on your first short term goal.
With your new found motivation you can chase your pole dance & fitness goals one at a time, like a dog with a bone!
When you've achieved one short term goal, pick something entirely different to focus on for the next 12 weeks. This helps to change it up and keep yourself interested.
That's the beauty of pole dance, we have so many interesting goals to keep things moving!
While you're working on one specific goal, your regular pole sessions will maintain any previous targets you have achieved. So you don't need to worry about losing any progress you've made.
As you set your future goals don't forget to take time to look back and appreciate how far you have already come.
So what is the very first goal you are going to work on in the New Year?
And what are you proud of that you achieved this year?
Let me know in the comments 🙂