If you are waiting until New Year’s to start accomplishing your goals (read “New Years Resolutions,) you are already late, you already messed up, and chances are you’ll accomplish none of what you’ve set out to do.
I always hear people set New Year’s resolutions for themselves that involve doing something in the way off distant future. I see it in jiu-jitsu when guys say, “Oh I want to start competing more” and I tell them when the next competition is (usually inside of a month from that given moment) and they balk and say, “Oh maybe the next one.” I hear it all the time.
You are not a bad person if you fail to accomplish your resolutions or if you set wishy washy goals without an immediate plan of action and steps toward achieving them, but you’d be a way happier and possibly even healthier if you did take immediate action.
If your plan is to start training more in the New Year, start by training tonight. If you can’t train tonight, train tomorrow. There should be no reason to wait until the New Year. Similarly, if you want to start competing more, compete at the very next possible tournament. Don’t wait until you’re ready or else you never will be.
This of course applies in many other areas in life, but I see it the most in the microcosm that is jiu-jitsu because goal setting is so crucial to our day-to-day existence on the mat.
Setting goals in jiu-jitsu is a valuable skill, and there is material out there on how to set them (like this article) but goal setting without urgency isn’t particularly useful. When you set a goal you need to have some sort of immediate plan of action to make sure that you stay motivated and remain on the right trajectory to actually accomplish that goal. Otherwise you’re just emitting hot air and not actually planning on doing anything.
The next time you set a goal, whether it is a New Year’s resolution or a goal for your day-to-day jiu-jitsu training, attach some urgency to it. Attach some immediacy to it. Find ways to chip away at that goal on a daily basis.
Figuring out which goals you want to set can be tough. Setting those goals intelligently can also be tough. But no matter what you do, no matter what goals you decide to set, make sure you start smashing them as quickly as humanly possible after you set them if you ever want to actually enjoy success.
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