Goal setting...

I've been doing some research on goal setting and improving our capabilities to better help you guys understand the importance of goals, setting them and busting our ass to get to them. I came across a guy named Blair Morrison's blog, for those of you who are unfamiliar with Blair, he is a 2-times Crossfit Games competitor (09'..7th place,10'...23rd place) and an overall intellectually brilliant expert on fitness and all that encompasses. Here's some brief excerpts from the various sections pertaining to goals, potential and exposing weaknesses on his crossfit journal 3-part article "Fitness is..."

"Discovering our weaknesses also gives us the opportunity to improve. If we only do things we are good at, we will have no motivation to train and no knowledge of where we can get better. And the affirmation won from hard fought gains is far more powerful than that which we get after discovering a hidden talent. Most people know this from experience. Think about your first push-up, mile run, handstand or all-day hike. Think about the time you set a personal record of any kind after being stuck on a plateau for months. This type of empowerment only comes from improvement. Nobody is without weakness. In fact, in the history of time, nobody has ever been that good at any one thing that he/she couldn’t get better.

The good news is that physical potential does not expire. It has no shelf life. Whatever state you’re in at whatever moment, you can always be better. So be better.

Too often, people try to do this (goal setting) by setting a number to hit, a person to beat or a mirror to impress, implicitly attaching a finite quality to the process. This focus is flawed. As you change and improve, so too should your potential grow and your ambition swell. Remember that fitness is a goal inadvertently attained through the systematic overestimation of yourself in all fields. It’s a byproduct of setting the bar too high, of striving for perfection and falling just short. It’s knowing that you’ll never get there but trying your damndest nonetheless. It’s constantly pushing your limits in every direction regardless of your skill. Do this and we inevitably yield the best version of ourselves.

This is one of the most important discoveries we get to make in fitness: There is no ceiling."

A little reality check...

"I love fitness because it’s a results-based pursuit, the purest form of meritocracy. You set goals and you reach them. Or you don’t. No list of excuses will ever change the fact that you didn’t make the time, lose the weight or prevent the heart attack. So stop making excuses. Some people have it harder than others, I grant you. Tough shit. The mirror doesn’t care, and neither do I. If the individual reaps the benefit, then so too must he shoulder the burden.

Whatever the challenge, just get it done."

-Blair Morrison Anywhere Fitness. 2-time Crossfit Games competitor