Never Stop Evolving

As the saying goes, “A rolling stone gathers no moss”. One interpretation of this old proverb equates moss to stagnation;  meaning those who keep moving are never lacking for fresh ideas or creativity.

The same holds true for movement. If one is constantly elaborating on their movement (trying new methods, seeking improvement), then stagnation and plateaus can be held at bay.

But just like Albert Einstein’s quote that says “The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, but expecting different results”, it’s crucial not to fall into the trap of thinking “I just have to try harder”. Look deeper than that – inspect, and pick apart each aspect of the movement you’re having trouble with. Take a video of yourself so you can more accurately identify what the problem is. Have someone else take a look at the issue and try and identify the root cause (a second pair of eyes can sometimes spot things that one can’t). Just because you can’t do something doesn’t mean it’s because you aren’t strong enough or not capable. There’s a good chance it’s because the way you’re trying to do it, or the method of your movement isn’t the most efficient. Even if it is a strength issue, by breaking down the movement and analyzing the specific issue holding you back, it becomes possible to target the exact part of the musculature that might be failing you.

Growth depends on two things – the willingness to experiment, and the willingness to fail. It’s within these two things that we can evolve and become better. By experimenting, we’re trying new things, making sure that the stone is still rolling. By failing, we’re giving ourselves clues to redirect our efforts in a different direction, opening our minds to new knowledge or information, and learning how to create different results.

So the next time you’re stuck, analyze what you’re doing, and change something up. Don’t fall into the mindless repetition of trying the same thing over and over.

Becoming a Juggernaut

Have you ever had a desire to train, but never really got yourself past workout #2 (or even workout #1 for that matter)? You’re not alone, this is probably the biggest thing that people struggle with when starting a training plan. Wolfgang Gullich once said “The hardest part of training, is making the decision to start training at all”.

But, on the flip side of this, once you make it a few workouts in, it becomes easier. And before you know it, you have become a juggernaut – a force that cannot be stopped. This is when you’ll start seeing gains in your training, and before long, sticking to a schedule and training regularly will be a piece of cake.

Not sure where to start? Try one of the following workout challenges:

• Finish every climbing session with a 5 minute circuit of 3 pullups, 6 pushups, 9 burpees
• Finish every climbing session with a hangboard routine – 10 second hangs with 30 second rest intervals.
• Pick 4 boulder problems just below your flash level. Climb each one back to back, only taking time to chalk up in between. Rest 3 minutes, and repeat 3 more times for a total of 4 sets.

So push past those feelings of discomfort and hardship during those first few workouts, because this is the path to achieving your goals!

Making Goals Stick

It’s been far too long since I’ve written anything, so to start the change in that, let’s talk about goals. Or more accurately how to help make you stick to your goals, and not let them fall to the wayside or slip through the cracks we call excuses.

We all know that goals are great – we need a bar of some sort to have something to strive for. But what happens when excuses take over and we let our progress towards our goals slip away? It either becomes much harder to achieve our goals, or they just fade away. So what’s a sure fire way to help you keep on track? Tell everybody. Make your goal public so that you have people that you become accountable to. The more people you tell about your goal, the higher the chance that people will be asking you about how it’s going or how your progress is. And since most of us don’t want to disappoint, or say “oh, I quit”, by telling people what we are working towards, we get a simple way to keep us on track, give us that push that we need to keep us training, learning, moving towards what we want.

There’s a couple other key things to do when setting a goal to help make them real. The first is to make sure there’s a timeline attached to your goal. Know when you want to achieve your goal by so that you don’t just keep putting it on the back burner, to be dealt with later. After you have your timeline, make your plan – how are you going to achieve said goal. Lastly, make it visible. You want it in your face everyday so that there’s no way you will forget about it. This could be a picture of what you want that’s posted somewhere you’ll see it, it could be a video that you watch everyday. What ever it is, make sure you have something to remind yourself about your goal.

So, to give you guys an example of goal accountability, I’m going to share with you my latest goal. This is something I decided on about a week ago, but will take me a full year to achieve. My goal is to make the Canadian National team next year and compete at a couple World Cup events. There you go, it’s now public. No backing out now.

What’s your goal? Are you keeping yourself accountable to what you want to achieve? Share your goals, give yourself that extra little bit of incentive to keep you on track. You’ll be amazed at what it does for your motivation!