Ego bustin', goal settin' mania

I promise that as a rule I am a pretty easy going kind of person. I feel really bad about posting another Debbie Downer kind of entry, but I value honesty. And honestly, I have been struggling the month of August. As a re-cap I have been doing CrossFit for two months now and I really like it. It is a mental and physical challenge, but August has been a beast in terms of motivation. Actually, I found some peace in a quote that Runners World sent to me:

"I often lose motivation, but that's something I accept as normal"
-Bill Rodgers, Olympic Marathoner

Which snapped me out of beating myself up constantly about how my workouts and nutrition which haven't been perfect. Is this a female thing? Constantly beating ourselves up because we don't reach superwoman status in all things, all the time. Seriously, I should have recognized that my body needed time to heal (Hello scratched cornea, and sharp pain in my hip that wouldn't go away), and my relentless drive (sounds positive, but is a happy way of saying neurotic).

So I took time off to really figure out where my head is at, and I came up with two main problems:

-Ego:

Goodness I know better than to bring it with me to the gym, but somehow it snuck in. Somehow it got past my internal bouncer and it has been tagging along with me like the irritating kid brother you can’t shake (I have a kid brother, I speak from experience).

Except I didn’t recognize it at first. It took the form of frustration when I didn’t work out to my (too high) expectations and I let it force me to work out when my body needed time to heal. The result? Mostly a downward spiral in performance and mental strength.

Ego is a sneaky bastard.

-Goals:

I haven’t had any all month. Well, I had some vague ones like get stronger, get faster…yada yada. Perfectly acceptable goals on the surface but they were missing critical elements. Every year in Corporate America (yay for cubes!) I have to set goals using the SMART acronym.
S: Specific
M: Measurable
A: Attainable
R: Realistic
T: Timely

I know people are out there rolling there eyes, trust me I hate this process as much as the next person. However, it forces you to create goals that work. Vague goals like “get stronger” don’t work because you don’t know when you crossed the finish line. How do you know when to celebrate success or learn from an experience when you don’t quite hit the mark? Instead, if you create a goal using SMART…well there is absolutely no doubt where the finish line is or the outcome.

And if you are worried your goal is going to sound so technical you will need an engineer to explain what the heck you are trying to achieve…fear not! I am working on picking an October 5K, and my run time goal is 30min or less.

See? Super easy.

The goal is specific (or will be once I pick a race), measurable (30 min run time)…umm I am pretty sure attainable and realistic (as long as I pick a late Oct. race), and timely (woo hoo a time frame!). Also, just for kicks, this particular goal is out of my comfort zone (best 5K race time, pre CrossFit, is 33ish minutes. Personally, I do better with longer distances, 5Ks and I have a history of mutual dislike)…which also makes it CrossFit worthy.

If I was really witty I would somehow add another letter to the SMART acronym that incorporated an aspect that made the goal CrossFit worthy. Alas, I have nothin’

(For the record, no one tell my boss I see value in SMART…he knows how much I drag my heels when it comes time to our set our goals for the year.)