Goal Setting

Welcome to the platform podcast. I'm your host Jordan Kunde-Wright, founder and head coach of the Twin Cities Kettlebell Club And I'm on a mission to help others build sustainable healthy habits I know how hard that can be because I've struggled and succeeded to varying degrees throughout my life But I've lost over a hundred pounds and kept it off for over a decade now the key for me was discovering my passion for lifting weights in Kettlebell Sport on this podcast we'll talk to athletes coaches experts and everyday people about Kettlebell's fitness programming Nutrition, mindset, making an impact and generally striving to grow and leave a legacy of positive change Please join me. Welcome into the platform podcast. Today's guest is none other than myself. I am going to be walking you through a goal setting framework that I use both with myself as well as with clients I think introspection and goal setting are incredibly important and they are skills that we have to work on and things that we need to do I think on a semi-regular basis you need to assess what's important to you in your life, the direction that you want to go in your life But most importantly I think the step that most people skip is understanding the why behind what's important to you If you don't understand why you want to achieve something you will lose the motivation necessary to do it because motivation in and of itself is fleeting And what I mean by that is say you have a goal of I want to lose 50 pounds Okay, that's a very fine goal. There's probably a lot of good reasons behind that goal but if you stop at I want to lose 50 pounds Then you don't understand the underlying motivation behind that and it makes it incredibly challenging when you are faced with a difficult choice You are faced with something that you need to do or that you are tempted to do I guess is the word I'm looking for So when you're at a party and somebody offers you a beer or a margarita And you really want that margarita in the moment but you also know you have this goal of losing 50 pounds Well, what's going to went out? If you don't understand the why behind why you have the goal to lose 50 pounds In the moment it's a lot more likely that you are going to say yes to the thing that is not going to move you closer to that goal So I think it's incredibly important that we understand the why behind the goals that we're setting Then understanding the what are those goals and then you dive into the how of those goals So how are you going to achieve those goals and working backwards from the outcome that you want And then the really nitty-gritty shit is getting into the prioritization and elimination What are you willing to sacrifice to achieve those goals and what is going to give when you understand that resources are limited Your time being the most limited resource, motivation and energy being other very limited resources and then obviously capital So what money can you invest you know you can't invest your money in everything that you want you have to prioritize And then it may come down to goals that you have to eliminate or that you have to deprioritize at the very least You can't pursue everything all at once right and this is a process that applies to your personal life but it's also something that I've harvested a lot from business It's something that we do you know in business on a quarterly basis you know especially in entrepreneurial ventures and startups You will set your prioritization because you have limited time limited resources typically you're on a relatively tight budget And you can't do everything at once because if you try and pursue everything at once You have a lot of work in progress but nothing gets finished right nothing gets achieved And that's ultimately what we're looking for is how do we achieve the life that we want how do we achieve the goals that we want And this is a framework that I think is super useful and I'm taking the time to go through it now because personally I am going through this right now Especially as we come into the fall and we have to start looking at prioritizing taking care of children, the go back to school plan amidst the COVID pandemic You know time and resources are going to be incredibly limited and so understanding what's most important and why it's important is going to be very critical at this time. So I'm going through this exercise myself and I thought this would be a good opportunity to maybe walk through it with you. So we'll get started and I have to give a credit where credit is due. A lot of the start of this basic framework is from Chris Duffin who is an entrepreneur and a strength coach and a world record setting powerlifter from Kabuki strength. So a lot of this basic structure is from his goal setting framework that I've walked through and that I find very valuable. So I'm not passing this off as my own there will be my own thoughts and things throughout here as well and I have some things I've added and amalgamated from other sources, but I want to make sure that I give credit where credit is due. So, you know, I recommend checking out Chris Duffin and the Kabuki strength guys, they are fantastic and he's achieved some incredible, incredible goals in his life already. So obviously it's served him well as he's built out this process. So shout out to Chris and the Kabuki team. So the basic structure here is we're going to start with the introspection like I mentioned. What's the why behind the goals? What is it that you value in your life? And then from there, move into the function of goal setting. How do I get where I want to go and what's the right way to articulate goals? And I shouldn't say the right way. What do I think is the most effective way? So long as you have an idea of where you're trying to go and you have goals, there's no wrong way to go about it. So I don't want to make it seem like this is the right way of goal setting. It's a way, but it's a way that I have found to be very effective. And then moving into the prioritization and elimination steps. So we started with introspection. So grab a piece of paper and a pen or have your laptop open and open up a new Word document where you can, where you can answer these questions. So take a few minutes to think about each of these questions. What is it that excites you the most? What are the things that you enjoy doing the most? The things that you would do for free or that you're going to do in your spare time, whether or not you're getting paid for them? What are those things? What excites you? For me, obviously, kettlebells is a big thing, but why kettlebells? What is it about kettlebells? Well, for me, it's the mental challenge of it. It's the objective measurables. It's being able to know concretely that I'm moving towards a goal. It's the perfectionistic nature of it that you need to make incremental progress, and you need to have an incredible attention to detail. You need to show up consistently that you get the nice endorphin rush at the end of a workout. In the moment when a workout goes quiet, the world goes quiet, because you can only think about your breathing or the next rep or the thing that you're focusing on. That's what I love about kettlebells. So that's one thing that excites me. Take a few minutes and think about what are those things that excite you? What do you enjoy? The next question is going to be what type of people do you want to be around? It's important to distinguish who's that you want to be around. Now, we all have people in our lives that we have to be around, especially right now. You might be stuck at home with your family, and you have to be around your family. So don't think of it as who do you physically want to be around right now, because the circumstances are obviously strange. But who is it in your life that you want to cultivate more time with? Because those people are the ones that you should really think about prioritizing. What is it about those people? Are they fun? Are they driven? Are they very positive? What are the characteristics of the people that you want to be around? Do you share an interest? Do you share an outlook even if your interests are different? Think about if you head to write down on a post at note, then the people that you want to spend the most time with, who makes that list? And from the people that made that list, who on that list do you have to be around, and who do you choose to be around? Hopefully the people that you have to be around are also the people that you choose to be around. Hopefully you have that type of relationship with your significant other or your spouse. Hopefully you have that type of relationship with your children where you want to be around them. But what is it about the people that you choose to be around that you really like? Why do you choose to be around them? And if you're not mindfully thinking about the people that are in your life, I would challenge you to do so. Because eliminating negative influences is going to be very important, and cultivating positive influences is also going to be incredibly important. The people that we are around have a tremendous influence on our mindset. They have a tremendous influence on our mental health. They have a tremendous influence on our achievement in life. If you surround yourself with people who are content with being mediocre, chances are you're probably going to be mediocre. But if you are surrounding yourself with people who are trying to improve themselves and you surround yourself with people who are positive, that's going to be incredibly important. Who gives you energy? Who energizes you when you speak to them? Who drains your battery? If there are people that are you're interacting with on a regular basis that drain your battery, that you leave those conversations feeling tired or less energetic than you went into it, should really consider the nature of that relationship and how much you're willing to invest in that relationship. How important is that relationship to you? So think about the type of people that you want to be around, and what do those people have in common? What are their traits? Next, moving on to what do you want to learn? What are the skills that you want to bring to bear? What are the areas of interest that you want to pursue? Do you want to learn a new language? Do you want to learn to cook? You know, these are just examples of some skills or other topics that you really want to become an expert in. Do you want to learn about business? Do you want to learn about kettlebells? Do you want to learn about CrossFit? Do you want to learn about nutrition? Think about what are the things that you want to learn? Because learning is incredibly intrinsically rewarding, especially when it's something that you're passionate about. So think about what are the things that you want to learn? Next thing about what are the accomplishments that you want to achieve? What is that you're trying to accomplish in this limited time that you have on Earth? Is it leaving a legacy? Is it moving your family's socioeconomic status up or wrong on the ladder? Is it leaving behind a nest egg for your children? Is it leaving behind a nonprofit? What are the accomplishments that you want? Do you want to achieve master of sport in kettlebells? Do you want to start your own business? What are the accomplishments that you want? What are the things that you want to be achievements that would be listed in your obituary? So what are the achievements that you want? What are the outcomes that you're looking for? Those things are important because most of us are driven by some level of accomplishment. We all want to matter. We all want to believe that we matter and that we left some kind of impact that we left a ripple at the very least. How big do you want that ripple to be? What's up to you? Some people want to leave a tsunami behind and some people are just content to make incremental improvement for their family or just to leave the world a better place than they found it and they're happy with that. Think about what those accomplishments are that you want. What is it that you want to achieve? Now, sticking with the slightly morbid thought frame of writing your own obituary or listening to your own eulogy, what are the virtues that you want people to say about you? What are the traits? You want people to say he was passionate. He was selfless. He was driven. He was caring. What are the words that you want people to say about you? What would you want to hear at your own eulogy? What are the virtues that you want to focus on? What about challenges? What are the challenges you want to overcome? This can overlap with the accomplishments that you seek. But also think about what are the obstacles that you want to overcome? What challenges do you want to face? Now, think about what's unique about you? What are the values? What unique value can you bring to the world? What are the things that you do better than anyone else? Or even if you don't do them better than anyone else, what are the things that you do best? What is the unique value that you can contribute to the world? Because you could set out to be a pro basketball player. Well, that might be something you could do if you're six, eight. But if you're five foot nothing and not very athletic, that's not a unique value that you can contribute to the world. So you have to look at it from the frame of what are you strong at? What are you good at? What are the unique values that you can bring to the world? Where can you make the biggest impact? Where do you have the skills to bring to bear to make an impact? The last chunk on introspection is how do you want to spend your time? Do you like working? Do you like challenging yourself? Do you seek achievement? Or do you like relaxing and spending time with your family? Does working a 60-hour week not phase you? Or does working a 60-hour week drain you because you would rather be relaxing, reading? There's no wrong answer. This doesn't come from a place of judgment. Neither of those is right or wrong. It's just important for you to understand how do you want to spend your time. Do you prefer to be with people? Do you prefer to be alone? What gives you energy? If you think about your ideal vacation, what does that look like? Where would you go? What would you do? Who would you go with? How long would you stay? When you think about how you spend your perfect day, what would it look like if it was your perfect day? What time would you get up? What would you have for breakfast? Who would be with you? Would you go to work? If so, what would your job be? What would you be doing? If not, what would you be doing in lieu of work? What does your perfect day look like? Then open the aperture up a little bit. What does a perfect month look like for you? What is a perfect year? You can take it to whatever level of granularity makes the most sense to you. But really think about how do you want to spend your time? Because ultimately, we all get the same number of hours in the day, the same number of minutes. We don't know how much time we get on the planet before our clock is punched. So thinking about how you want to spend that time is very important. So think about how do you choose to spend your time? How do you want to spend your time? So take a few minutes, answer those questions, circle in the areas that you're struggling with. You can always come back to it. And it's good to do this multiple times and see how it evolves over time. Because your priorities change over time. So take a few minutes now and I want you to write down affinity words, words that resonate with you. For me, it's passion, family, health, growth, impact, legacy, challenge, community, autonomy, power, security, wealth, leisure. Achievement, recognition, freedom, comfort, experiences. These are all examples. So think about the words that you want to hear when you think about what matters to you. What are the things that attract you? Why do you want to achieve the things that you want to achieve? What's behind those things? Now that you have an idea of what some of the accomplishments that you're looking for, why? Ask yourself why? I want to do X because I want to make a million dollars. Why? What does a million dollars get you? Is it because you want to be able to have the freedom to make your own schedule? Or is it because you want the prestige that comes with being a millionaire? Do you want the security? What does money mean to you? Because in and of itself, it has no inherent value. We create value from it. But what it means to different people is different. So what does it mean to you? Think about the why behind each of your accomplishments. Ask yourself why do I want to achieve that? For me, I want to coach my athletes to be the best that they can be because that gives me a feeling of impact. Having an impact, a positive impact on others is important to me. I want to grow my audience so that I can have a greater impact. I don't intrinsically value money very much, which you probably picked up on from the way I talk about it. But what I do value is freedom. I value autonomy. I want to have the ability to do what I want to do, and focus on what I want to focus on, without having money dictate what I can and can't do. I don't care about being on the Forbes list. I don't care about ever being in the top 1%. But I do care about security for my family. I do care about the ability to choose where I go on vacation. If I choose to take a vacation, I want to be able to choose to go where I want to go and not be limited by resource. Achievement matters to me. It always has. I don't know why. Well, no, that's not true. That's a lie. I know why. I like recognition. I like achieving things because I like the recognition that goes along with it. I like the feeling of accomplishment of knowing that I have achieved something and especially when it's something hard. I like that feeling of achievement and I like that recognition. I want to achieve things so that I am recognized as an expert or that I am validated and perceived at the level that I want to be perceived at. That's why I want my athletes to achieve high rankings. I want to coach athletes to get to master of sport because that means that I have achieved level of coaching expertise necessary to push an athlete to that level. It's a credential to me, but it's important to me because I want athletes that are capable of reaching that level to reach that level. I want them to maximize their potential. If that's where they want to go. So think about what those affinity words are that resonate with you and the why behind all of those things are what we call your drivers. Those are the drives security. If you grew up in an insecure household financially, it's very common for people to work very hard to make sure that they have security and stability in their life. If they grew up not having it as a child, they recognize that money provides stability or freedom. If you felt you weren't able to do the things you wanted to do because you didn't have enough money, you may feel that money equals freedom. I use money because it's the easiest one to get to the drivers behind it because we all have attitudes about money that are usually tied to something else and typically it comes from our upbringing and what we learned about money when we were coming up. So from your list of affinity words that you just created, pick five to seven of them and ask yourself why you would do something like workout or work or study. Why would you put forth the effort? What would it get you? What does it give you? What drives you to do it? Once you've figured out what your drives are, you can start figuring out what the pillars of importance are for you. And those are the things that allow us to utilize and express our drives. So there are the areas of our lives that allow us to express our drives. So for example, if you have a need for achievement like I do, kettlebell sport is great for that because you have objective measurements of achievement. You can achieve ranks as you progress and move up through the process. If you chose money or wealth, look at the wise behind that. Is it freedom? Is it autonomy? Is it recognition? Is it validation? Because the money in and of itself is literally a social construct that means nothing. It's paper or coin or in this case in nowadays it's zeros and ones in a computer program somewhere that say how much of this social currency you have. It is an abstract construction. So when you look at your pillars of importance, start thinking about what are the areas of your life do you spend most of your time on currently? I find it incredibly useful to use a time tracking, either a notebook or an app and look back at a week and see where did your time go? And you can see how you're actually spending your time. Are you sleeping eight hours a day? If you sleep eight hours a day, that leaves you 16 other hours. What do you do with the rest of that time? So if you spend eight hours sleeping and say you work a standard eight hour schedule, then you've got 16 hours accounted for. What do you do with the other eight hours? Those those eight hours are yours to spend on other things. How much time do you spend with your family? How much time do you spend with your friends? How much time do you spend learning? How much time do you spend watching Netflix? How much time do you spend working out? And look at it from a weekly perspective. It helps to log every day and then look at where did your time go for the week? Where are you spending most of your time? Is that investment in line with what you want? Is it in line with what you're prioritizing with your pillars of importance? And in those areas that you're spending your time, what are the areas of your life that make you the happiest and bring you the most satisfaction? If the the one hour a day that you spend with your kids before bedtime is the best hour of your day, is there anything you can do to extend that? Or if your one hour three times a week reading is what brings you the most joy? Can you carve out more time for that? Can you make it five days a week? If the five hours you spend a week watching Netflix isn't bringing you any joy, but the spending the time with your kids is, well then that's a pretty obvious trade-off that you can make. But you have to have awareness. That's why I love data. Data brings awareness where there wasn't awareness before. It's why I like tracking macros, especially if you're new to dieting. It brings awareness that maybe wasn't there before. It brings mindfulness. So think about what are the areas of your life that make you the happiest, bring you the most joy, bring you the most satisfaction, bring you the most contentment. And then again think about where are the areas that are you uniquely good at? And where can you add the most value? Because we're trying to find the sweet spot between adding value, bringing joy, finding things personally and finding things personally fulfilling. You might find something very personally fulfilling, but it might not add anything to the world. And that's not to say that it's wrong, but if you're looking for something that you can add value to the world and that you find enjoyable, those are things that might be a higher priority because you're not the only one who values it. So think about what are those pillars of importance? Where are you spending your time? What makes you happiest? Where can you add value? So I like to make a chart, a matrix if you will, where you write your drives vertically. So what are your drives? You fill in your drives first. And then you write down your pillars of importance horizontally. Right, so for me, my drives, my six or seven drives, I think it's six, passion, recognition, independence, growth, impact, creativity, security. So seven drives, those are my seven primary drives that I captured. And then moving into the pillars of importance. And I put them in what I think is my order based on my own introspection. pillar one is my family pillar number two is my health pillar number three is business or my career pillar number four is athletic pillar number five is coaching and pillar number six is financial or wealth. And so once you have those written out, the idea is to start filling in for each of your pillars of importance, how it helps you express your drives. So for example, when I talk about passion and pillar, my pillar of importance number one being my family, how do I, how does my passion show up in my family? My marriage is a key source of passion for me. Right, and then as I move down and I say recognition, being a good dad is the most important form of recognition for me, having my, having my wife tell me that I'm, that I'm a good dad or having my kids tell me that I'm a good daddy is huge. So you go through, go through each of those pillars and see how much of your matrix can you fill out for each pillar and you can do it, you can work horizontally or vertically or scatter shot. Right, you can fill it out with what you know. Right, passion, I'll stick with passion, right, and if I work all the way across, I can say my marriage is a source of passion for me in my family pillar number two is health. I care about my health and being healthy helps keep me vibrant so that I can be passionate and enjoy life. Right, pillar number three is my career. I get to work with people on exciting projects that I find interesting and I'm excited about and I am also building a business on the side that I'm passionate about because I'm so passionate about kettlebell sport and so passionate about helping people build healthy lifestyles. I've decided to make that a side business, right, so having, having two career paths that are both sources of passion for me, their places where I can express my passion. I don't work in a career that I'm not passionate about anymore, which is great because I did for a while, you know, because it was necessary at the time because it was more important me to take care of my family. That was my primary pillar of importance was taking care of my family, but it was not very healthy for me and it didn't allow much time for anything else, so I found it very draining. I've been fortunate to be able to engineer my life in a move it in a direction that I'm more passionate, I'm more easily able to express my passion. pillar number four, athletic kettlebell competitions and athletic endeavors, I'm very passionate about that, I've always been passionate about competing, I've always been passionate about expressing my athleticism, challenging myself. So athletic competition, very important for me because I'm passionate about it. coaching, you know, helping others improve is a passion of mine, even separate from the even separate from any financial motivation, I coach, I volunteer, I've coach youth football, I've coached high school football, I've coached my daughter's soccer team, I enjoy coaching because I love helping other people, so that's a thing that that I do for free and I also do get paid for, because it's an area where I can bring value that I'm passionate about and that others see value in what I bring, so that's huge for me. pillar number six is wealth or financial, and again for me that's probably mislabel because I call it wealth, and I'm not actually passionate about wealth, so it's actually more independence and security. Right, so it's financial, the pillar is financial, and how that allows me to express my passion is I can afford to travel, I can afford to do the things that I want. Right, so it's certainly not a perfect process, but it really helps, it really helps to be able to fill in this matrix and you might have some blanks in there, you know. Because for me, family and independence are very challenging, I'm not sure that they're necessarily antithetical but it's hard to be an independent family man. The very definition of being part of a family is being dependent or having others dependent on you, so I don't have anything in there for pillar number one of family and the drive of independence, but I have several other areas filled out. So I find that I find that to be very helpful for understanding where you're expressing the drives that you have in your life, and how are they showing up and where can you overlap more right the idea being that the more areas that you can overlap the better. So can you design ways to involve your family in your business or in your athletic endeavors. Right, so getting my kids into kettlebell sport is something that has started to happen organically because they see me doing it and they want to spend time with me, which is great. And so they've expressed an interest and so I'm starting to have time teaching my kids how to do kettlebell sport and that's fantastic because it allows me to overlap my family with my athletic and coaching pillars, right. And the more areas that you can design that way, I feel like the better and the happier you're going to be. So that's the that's the introspection component. Now as we move move into goal setting, I have a hierarchy that I call outcomes, performance and process, and I like to work backwards from the outcome and work my way down, right. So the outcome is what you're hoping to achieve a performance goal are the high level goals that will get you to that outcome on a mezzo level quarterly goals yearly goals, depending on how depending on how big the outcome goal may be, you have to break it down into smaller chunks. And then from there, the process goals are the little things that you have to do every day to set those things in motion to make those things happen. So for example, if we said you wanted to lose 50 pounds in five months, well, we know that that means you need to that's the outcome you want. You want to lose 50 pounds and five months. Well, the performance goals, then are you need to lose 10 pounds every month. Okay, what do we need to do to do that on a daily level from a process level that might mean you need to get in the gym five days a week. You need to eat in accordance with your macros 90% of your meals. You need to hydrate half a gallon of water every day, et cetera. You need to get eight hours of sleep, right. Those are the process goals. So you start with the outcome and depending on how big the outcome goal is, the performance goals will be in smaller chunks. And then you break down into process goals that are the daily actions that you need to take in order to achieve the outcome that you want. And when you're setting a goal, I'm sure most people have heard the acronym, you want to set a smart goal. You want it to be specific, which is a simple, clear definition of what you will do. And I like to write them as will statements, not I want to lose 50 pounds. You say, I will lose 50 pounds. Right. That's a simple, clear definition of what you will do. It's measurable is the M. So it's an objective tangible measurement, right. The scale will either say 250 or 200, right. Or some other number in between, right. That is an objective tangible measurement. You can measure what you're doing. Achievable is the A. Is it something you can actually do audacious goals are fine. They stretch you, right. It's okay to set an audacious goal. But you have to make sure that you set a realistic goal. Right. Is it actually achievable. Again, I'll use the example of the NBA. I could set the goal of becoming an NBA basketball player. I want to be an NBA basketball player in the next five years. Well, I'm 37 years old. I'm six foot nothing and weigh 260 pounds. And I don't have a great jumper. And I didn't play beyond my freshman year of high school basketball. So, is that an achievable goal for me? I'm going to go ahead and say no. Right. So making sure that your goals are grounded in achievable reality. The R is relevant. And relevance is connected to the introspection exercise we just did is achieving the goal in line with the pillars of importance. Right. The more areas that it touches inside the matrix that we just walked through the better it is. Right. Because if it's not relevant to any of the things that truly matter to you in your life, it's probably not going to happen. I could set the goal of I want to learn to play the guitar. But if it doesn't, if it doesn't touch any of the areas that truly matter to you, you're probably not going to have sustainable motivation to do it. Right. Because there's no why behind it that connects to the things that are important to you in your life. So making sure that the goal is relevant to the things that matter to you is incredibly important. So the T is time constraint and time bound. Right. Set a deadline by which you will accomplish the goal. It's especially important for performance and process goals. Outcome goals can be a little bit more flexible. This is something that, you know, an outcome goal can be something that Chris often calls a grand goal. You know, he had the grand goal of being the first human being to ever squat a thousand pounds for multiple reps and deadlift over a thousand pounds for multiple reps. Now each of those grand goals took him multiple years to achieve. So he probably couldn't say I will be the first human to do this by 2020 when he first set out. But he could say I will be the first human to squat a thousand pounds and deadlift a thousand pounds. But knowing exactly when that was going to happen was probably not super realistic because you have to see how the training actually progresses. And on such a long timeline, you don't want to get locked into it will happen by a particular date. But on the performance and process goals. So it's not that you can't set it's not that you can't set a time constraint for an outcome goal. You probably you can and probably should at least set a timeframe. But do it in pencil and be flexible to a degree. Not to such a large degree that it doesn't matter when it happens because then it won't ever happen. But set a timeframe that's realistic, but also flexible. But on performance and process goals, it's in those are very important that they are time bound. So if the outcome is the outcome goal again as we want to lose 50 pounds in five months, then the 10 pounds per month, those are relevant and time constrained. And then the process goals become I will do this every day or per week. Every week, I will work out five times. Every day, I will drink half a gallon of water. Every day, I will get eight hours of sleep. So now that you understand that the three types of goals start with your outcome goals, look at your matrix and the pillars of importance and set outcome goals within that framework that incorporate as many of those pillars or all of those pillars and some of them may be incorporated multiple times. You want there to be overlap, but the structure is flexible. It's a framework to give you clarity. Don't think of it as a constraint. Don't try and make all of your outcome goals fit all of your pillars. Think about the outcomes that matter to you. What are those achievements that you want? So again, going back to my own matrix as an example for pillar one family, the outcome I want is to have a have a fulfilling relationship with my family for pillar two, the outcome that I want is to maintain a healthy body, mind and spirit for pillar three. It's to be successful in my career. That one is more opaque, right? That's not necessarily I completely have control over, right? I can probably refine that to be a more specific goal, right? That's, that's not a great one. So I've got some more work to do there. But for athletic, it's achieve master sport in kettlebell. I want to achieve that rank in kettlebell sport. Right for pillar five coaching. I want to grow the impact of the Twin Cities kettlebell club. Right. And that's another one I can, that's another one I can probably, I can probably refine more. pillar six, build enough wealth to be financially independent. So again, that that shows some of my priority around, around finance, right? It's, it's not wealth in the term of being wealthy. It's merely being financially independent and secure. So those are, those are my outcome goals across my pillars. So take a second and, and think about what, what are your outcomes that you're looking for across your pillars and, and try and write those down. And then from there, you start looking at what are the performance goals that you need in order to achieve what you're, what you're looking for. Right. So again, kettlebell sport is is a very concrete example. So I can look at what are, what are the things that I need to achieve in order to achieve master sport? Well, the first performance goal that I need to achieve would be to achieve rank one this year in whatever lift I'm focusing on. You know, and I could add some specificity to my, to my outcome goal, achieve master sport in which lift all three, just one snatch long cycle by athlone, right? Try athlone, five minute, ten minute. I can definitely add some specificity to that. And that will give better clarity to my performance goals. Right. But so let's just say I want to achieve master sport in long cycle. Right. Well, my current highest rank is rank two in long cycle. I haven't been focused on long cycle. But if I want to be master sport in long cycle, well, the first performance goal I need to achieve is achieve rank one in long cycle. And the second performance goal I need to achieve is achieve candidate for master sport in long cycle. Right. And then the third would be achieving master sport. But those two underlying performance goals will dictate the time frame. So how long do I think I need to achieve rank one in long cycle. I would build my framework around that and then look at what are my process goals underneath of that. So those are the, those are the habits that I need to achieve. So the process may be, I need to consistently have three kettlebell training sessions per week focused on long cycle. And I need to do auxiliary cardio and GPP work two to three times a week. I need to do mobility work at least three times a week, etc. Right. And you can have as many of those process goals. And then you need to track your compliance to those. Because if you're not following the process, you're not likely to achieve the outcome. Right. So that's, that's how you break those things down and you can do that across all of your outcomes and all of your pillars. And then your matrix starts to get pretty big because now you, now you have multiple underlying goals and then multiple process goals. And it starts to, it starts to get pretty full. It goes from being maybe one page to two pages. Right. Or if you're tracking it in, in PowerPoint, you know, you, you might have, you might have 40 rows of things. So the list can get pretty big, which is okay because you understand what those things are and you've broken it down to a level that allows you to achieve what you're looking to achieve. But then we start getting into the nitty-gritty shit, the prioritization and elimination. Everyone has limitations on their time and energy that they can put towards their goals. It's a fact. We only have so much time. We only have so much energy. We only have so much battery. So you have to accept and embrace this fact in order to effectively prioritize your effort, your time and the demands on your time and your energy. And you need to be fucking ruthless. I can't be more clear about that. You might need to be really fucking ruthless about some of these things. There will be things that you will have to sacrifice because even though everything that's on your list hopefully has importance to you, not everything has equal importance to you. Right. And it's really important to not conflate what you would like to do with what you have to do. Right. Put that another way. Don't, don't, don't view an elimination of something that you want to do as choosing the other priority over that. That might be true to a degree. But for example, if you need to work 50 hours a week right now to take care of your family and it means that you get to spend less time with your family, you didn't choose work over your family. You chose providing for your family. And it's really important. I think right now especially because, you know, there's a lot of guilt among parents right now. Myself included about not spending enough time with your kids or not being able to help your kids enough with the remote learning or their school or those things, or not being able to spend enough free time with them. My children struggle with the fact now that I'm working from home that I'm here, but they don't have access to anyone I'm working sometimes. So I'm here, but I'm not really here. And I feel guilty when they're like daddy, why do you have to work so much? I'm not really working anymore than I was before. Well, no, that's not true. I probably am working more than I was before. But that's because there are so many more demands on time. Right. And the time isn't as as productive. Because I don't get to go to an office for eight hours and be focused solely on work for those eight hours and get all of my work done. I might get to do three hours and then I have to go help make lunch or help do remote learning or whatever. And then I take two hours out of the middle of my day to do those things. And then I have to go back to work for another couple hours. And then maybe I work out and take care of myself and then I have to come back to working later. You know, so and a lot of us are dealing with those things, but it's really important to not beat yourself up that you're choosing work over your family, because that's not necessarily true. You might be making the choice that you have to make in order to do the things that you have to do. Right. So it's important as you as you look at this to be ruthless with the choices that you're making, but also be gentle with yourself and don't be don't be too harsh on yourself. And don't don't give into negative feelings about the choices that you're making. You know choosing to prioritize your health is not a selfish choice, even though it can feel like one sometimes you may be choosing to spend time working out that could be spent with your family, with your spouse, with your significant other, with your friends. Right. But choosing your health gives you more long launch of two. Tutorial time, at least in theory, hopefully, it should give you more longitudinal time to invest in those things. Right. Setting care of yourself is very important because when your health goes, you have nothing else. That's why that's why it's, you know, in my top two pillars of priorities. And I made it number two because I realized that I tend to choose family over my health sometimes. I've gotten better about that and I've made that, you know, a point to have conversations with my kids about and they understand why I work out and why I need that time. But it's important to do that. Right. And all of my pillars are not necessarily in order because I also choose work over my health sometimes I don't get enough sleep because I have to work because that means I need to do that in order to provide for my family. Right. So these aren't always easy, clean distinctions. And that's okay. It's going to be messy. There's going to be gray areas. But it's important to know what the prioritization is so that when there are conflicting demands on your time. You have a framework to draw on to make those decisions. What I should feel guilty about is if I invested two hours in watching Netflix and not two hours and those two hours could have been spent on my health, or they, or could have been, if I had to spend those two hours on my health, I had another two hours to spend with my kids. Those are things that should cause you some pain and pain is the source of change. And in this case, you know, positive change. And that's not to say you shouldn't ever watch Netflix. Fuck sometimes you just need, you need to unplug. Right. Mental health is important too. That's part of self-care and health. Right. So maybe you just need some downtime to watch a mindless show. You know, watching a couple episodes of the office helps you decompress guilty. This isn't from a place of judgment. But just think about those things so that you can make those choices. Right. That that prioritization is super important. So when it comes down to prioritization and elimination, you need to ask yourself, what am I willing to sacrifice in order to achieve the things that I say I want to achieve? How important are those goals? And again, focus on the why behind those goals. Why do you want to achieve those things? Why is it important? Because it's the why that will drive you when the shit is hard. Why I continue to show up and do kettlebell sport session three times a week isn't because achieving master of sport is super important to me. It's important to me. I want that achievement. But showing up consistently and working out is what allows me to show up better for my family and be healthier and take care of myself. And that's my why. Setting care of my family, being there for my family, my grandfather died of a massive heart attack. I have a history of diabetes and heart disease and stroke and cancer in my family. So investing in myself and taking care of my health is not a selfish choice. It is actually an investment in my family. And that's why I choose to do it consistently. And that's what I come back to when I don't fucking feel like doing it. When I start to see the scale creeping up because I'm not being as diligent with my diet, that's the why that I come back to is I need to be there for my family. I need to take care of my kids. I need to be there for my wife. I'm also just a better human when I work out. I don't know about you all but if I'm super stressed out and I haven't worked out in a couple of days, I'm kind of a dick. Not super pleasant to be around sometimes. And that's just being real with myself. So hopefully this was useful for you. Hopefully you find this framework to be a tool that you can use. If you have questions, reach out to me. I know this was a lot of me talking. No interview this week. Hopefully you don't mind that. I promised y'all at the start of this that it wouldn't just be me wrapping into a microphone. I never said there wouldn't be episodes that were just me wrapping into a microphone. So this was one of those. But it's because I'm doing a lot of this work myself right now. And I felt it was important to share this framework back with people again. And to put some of this stuff out there, you know, and make it known so that that's some accountability for me too when it's when it's out there in the public for consumption. You know, I have to be accountable to this to this content that I'm putting out there and I have to walk that walk. So thank you for listening. I hope you found this helpful. Hit me up on Instagram, slide into the DMs. If you got questions, you can email me at Twinsidys kettlebell club at gmail.com. You can reach me on Facebook. I'm not that hard to get a hold of. So hit me up. If you have questions, give me your feedback. If you're finding this podcast valuable, I really hope that you will give us a five star review on Apple podcasts. It does really help grow the reach and help people find the podcast. If you have guests that you think I should connect with, I would love to hear that. If you have feedback on ideas for the format, how it can be more engaging, more valuable for you. Let me know because I'm doing this. I'm doing this because I enjoy it and because I want it to be valuable. I want it to be valuable for the people that are listening. So thank you for listening and give me your feedback and keep growing. Keep pushing. And I am here to help in any way that I can. So thank you very much. We'll see you next time. Thanks for listening to this episode of the platform podcast. I'm Jordan Kunde-Wright. If you have a question, please email me at Twinsidys kettlebell club at gmail.com. Follow us on Instagram and Facebook at Twinsidys kettlebell club on Twitter at tckbclub online at Twinsidys kettlebell club.com. And please help us grow our reach and give us a review on Apple podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher or wherever you get your podcasts. Until next time.