Got a Serious Goal? Make it Public.
I, Mr. Money Mustache, am going to gain twenty pounds of muscle mass, AND set a lifetime bench-pressing record…by March 21st, 2013!
You heard it here first, and now I absolutely have to get it done, to avoid an incredible public ridicule and loss of credibility. I’m both nervous and excited as I type this, because I know there is no turning back, and I’m really looking forward to reaching the goal.
There are many useful tips in the old toolkit of traditional self-help tricks. Most of them sound cheesy, but a good portion of them are pretty darned effective. Thinking Big. Optimism. Learning from other successful people. Shedding the burden of stress. They don’t sound all that scientific or academic, so smart people like us have a habit of wrinkling our noses and dismissing them as oversimplifications not suitable for our sophisticated psyches. But we do so at our own peril, because academic-sounding or not, some of the stuff works. And we can get a lot more fun out of life if we can learn to tweak our own mental habits by putting some of these tricks to work.
And so we get to today’s tweak: The Publicly Proclaimed Goal. Why is it so powerful? Why is it worth embracing?
For many of the things we do in life, no particular goals are required. We all go to sleep when we’re tired and wake up in the morning. Most of us manage to keep the fridge stocked, get to work on time, spend time with our friends, and take vacations each year. I can see that making time to read Mr. Money Mustache is proving to be fairly easy for you as well. For anything that is already going just fine, goal-setting may seem unnecessary.
But then there are the troublesome areas. Perhaps you have wrestled with eating, smoking or drinking problems for years. Maybe you’ve wanted to learn a musical instrument or a language, find yourself a better job, or relocate to a better town. And while the desire has been there for a long time, you mysteriously find yourself not acting on it for years on end. Excuses pile up, or unsatisfying filler activities pour in to fill up the space in your life that could easily be used to accomplish the bigger goals.
This is a potentially serious problem, because it’s a form of wasting your life. Your personal “dream” goals are probably more important than the daily habits you’ve formed. Is spending more time car-commuting, scrolling through Facebook or watching TV sports more important than achieving the things you dream about?
To get these elusive things to happen, you may just need a psychological plateau-breaker. Something to shake up your internal Excusitis Cocktail and spur you into a pattern of action that gets you towards your goal. And as it turns out, developing a habit of small but frequent action that moves you in the right direction is all it takes to accomplish just about anything, given sufficient time.
I’ve got plenty of unsatisfied goals circulating around in my own head, most of them related to music. My often-stated goal of being the drummer in a local funk band is no closer to happening than it was the last time I stated it. My skills on the guitar remain similarly rusty. The common factor in all of these things is that I never take action on them. Other things always seem to take precedence over organizing rocknroll nights where people make music together. The results reflect the lack of effort.
Other things seem to work out just fine. I manage to do plenty of bike riding, because I’m out of the habit of using the car. I have no choice but to go out on the bike, because it’s the only way to get my son to school and to get myself to and from the grocery store. So I either bike, or I sit at home starving while my child misses school. Similarly, eating well is pretty easy – I only buy food that is good for you, so when it’s mealtime at the MMM household, you either fix yourself a healthy meal, or you starve. I do plenty of writing on this blog, because the feedback from the real world (You) makes it seem rewarding and urgent to make at least an article or two every week.
These external motivations are powerful forces that allow habits to be built. Meanwhile, my failed musical habits are allowed to continue because nobody shows up at my house every Friday night with guitar and bass in hand expecting to rock.
So today I’d like to try an experiment in motivation, by turning an internal semi-motivation into an external MegaMotivation. And you’re welcome to join me, if there’s anything YOU would like to accomplish this winter.
Right now, I really want to gain some strength and weight. Although I claim to be a weight-training enthusiast, the truth is that I have been slacking off and fooling myself for quite some time. I reached my peak strength way back in my early 30s, with a body weight of just over 200 pounds, maximum bench press of 285 and squat of 360. Although those are far from NFL player numbers, I felt they were a good start for a nerdy computer engineer.
Then I slacked off and started letting other things replace the training schedule. I fooled myself into thinking I was still lifting regularly, but every time I checked the calendar, it had been about a week since the last workout. But nobody was watching and I didn’t have any particular strength goals, so the pattern continued. I changed my eating style and lost quite a bit of fat, and the new lean body seemed preferable to the old stronger but stockier arrangement. Life seemed fine.
However, reality recently caught up to me. I started getting random cases of “old man back” – a sore lower back might spring up after carrying a garbage can full of rocks or sleeping in the wrong position. I started moving from “lean” to “downright bony in places”, my old pants started to look extremely loose, and my strength started dropping along with my bodyweight, which reached a low of 165 pounds. Slowly but surely, I have been turning into a wimp.
So today I turn to External Motivation to solve this problem. A man of my age has many reasons to maintain a reasonable amount of strength. Having a strong back and core prevents annoying pulled muscles and especially back problems. It makes me a more effective carpenter, since many of the operations on a construction project require all the strength you can muster. And it prevents injuries – a snowboarding or bicycle crash can be a debilitating hospital experience for an unfit and bony or overweight rider, or a comical bouncing experience for the amusement of your friends, with appropriate physical conditioning.
On top of that, I have been summoned to appear as Mr. Money Mustache in a possible (but far from definite) TV series. MMM is a bossy and authoritative character, and he needs to have a BIG physical presence to back it up if he is to make an impression on the television screens of ordinary Americans and frighten them into action.
So I hereby propose an experiment. To gain strength and size faster than I ever have in my life, and set an all-time lifting record even at a lower bodyweight. I have to get it done, because I told you I’m going to do it.
The nuts-and-bolts of it are just two really heavy workouts per week at the local Crossfit gym under the uncompromising gaze of the massively strong (and extravagantly Mustachioed) “Coach D.”, and a third weekend workout at home. Combined with plenty of bike riding, and plenty of calories. Here is the goal, by the numbers.
| Measurement | Current Status (Nov 5) | Goal (March 21) |
|---|---|---|
| Body Weight (lbs) | 165 | 185+ |
| Max. Bench Press | 235 | 300 |
| Max. Squat | 245 (est) | 300 |
| Max. Deadlift | 250 (est) | 300 |
| Bodyfat Percentage (estimated) | 9 | 10 or less |
MMM CHALLENGE:
Do YOU have a pesky goal that you just want to GET GOING on, right now? If you write it in the comments section below, we will all keep track of it and make sure you’re honoring your commitment. On March 21st, I will come back and check up on you, and your success (or, very unlikely, failure) will be shared with the world in that future article.
MMM SUPER-CHALLENGE!
Mr. Money Mustache (left) on the first day of training with coach James D. 20 pounds of gaining to go! (Yes, Coach D does actually have a foot-long braided Mustache)
Do YOU live in the Longmont, Colorado area and want to train alongside me in this mega-ultra-fitness overhaul? I’ll be working out at the Twin Freaks Crossfit every Tuesday and Thursday at 3:30PM with the Almighty Coach D. You can join our exclusive class and make progress faster than you ever have in your life. Crossfit fees will cost you $100 a month (pay as you go), which is expensive. But I’m paying the fee gladly to make a big change in a short time, and it’s an external commitment that makes sure I won’t let myself down. Get in touch through the contact button, or talk to James at Twin Freaks Crossfit to join the class.
Proclaiming your goals in public really gets you off your butt to accomplish them. The only question is: do you have the guts to do it, when there’s no turning back?
Article: How To Start a Blog
Where to next? Check out a Random Article
|
Stay in Touch: Subscribe to posts by e-mail, RSS Feed, or follow MMM on Twitter and Facebook.
Join the Conversation: Learn from Like-Minded Mustachians in The Money Mustache Community |
Mr. Money Mustache is a family man living in the United States who retired from work, relatively wealthy, at about age 30. After several years of retirement, he noticed that his still-working peers were envious of his lifestyle. They were making more money than he ever had, yet they were somehow still broke. So he decided to write this blog to educate the world on how it is done.
Holy freak, you live in my area! Jeez, we should meet up for coffee and talk money. That would be awesome!
As for goals, I don’t have any that would require me to be bulky, sorry, but even though I talk about football, I am a girl and I like to stay lean and mean. I already ran my first race and am training for more later, but none of that requires me to do the workouts you plan on.
As for other goals, I do agree that posting them keeps you on track. I have them all listed on my blog, because of that. Stay in school, pay for it in full, stay out of debt, and save, nothing too drastic. Good luck with the workouts!
Great Post and best of luck ony our goal!
If you want a little extra social motivation or just a fun way to track workouts, I’ve really been enjoying fitocracy (http://ftcy.me/mRrGvE). You can track your workout routines, PRs, earn badges/points, compete against other fitness enthusiasts, etc. It’s been a great tool for me in my fitness goals.
Hi first of all I have 2 goals:
1.My goal is to run the Hollywood Half Marathon in April 6th, 2013… Since I had never run any race in my life before this will be a great challenge for me. I currently start cross fitting as well.
2. Start writing in my blog more! since I already took all the trouble of installing WordPress from scratch, converting my mini laptop in my own server, this without any previous knowledge of “IT” . But still DID IT AND IT WORK!
I have been reading the blog since nearly day 1 but this is my first comment. I am Mr Money Mustache’s age, have saved a significant amount, enjoy carpentry, own the same minivan and don’t believe in clothing that costs more than 10 bucks. Haven’t had the mental fortitude to retire though…
I am a total believer in the public goal. 12 months ago I was fat, out of shape with a bad back. I emailed everyone I knew that I was going to do a half ironman this fall. Lets just say that I spent a lot of late nights running in the dark regretting that email not to mention suffering through crossfit workouts. But sure enough I did the race and am as fit as I have been in 20 years.
Goal for March: First Marathon and bench press 200, squat 220 (man do I hate squats)
Wow! So glad to hear about your existence, Alternative Me! Congratulations on the kickass physical accomplishments so far.. and looking forward to hearing about your eventual early retirement (come on man, you’re over 7 years behind!!).
check out the book ‘The New Rules of Lifting’.
(not spam, just a sports coach sharing his thoughts)
Good luck with the training.
I’m working on similar goals. Currently at bodyweight 140lbs (5’9″, skinny), with approx 180 max bench, 185 squat, 280 deadlift. I’d like to be around 150lbs by March with 200 max bench and 315+ deadlift.
I think you’re underestimating your deadlift potential, MMM. The fact that your deadlift is similar in weight to your bench press is likely due to being more trained in bench (since everyone benches and not everyone deadlifts). So if you train your whole body through March, it’s unlikely that your bench, squat, and deadlift will all be at 300. If you meet your goal of being 185 and benching upwards of 300, then your deadlift will probably be much higher if you train it proportionally.
Wow! That’s an amazing deadlift for a 140-lb guy!
But you’re right – now that I’ve done about seven of these killer workouts, deadlift is increasing quickly and I can see it going way over 300 by that time (I had never done that exercise regularly, which I now realize was foolish). Body weight is up about 7.5 pounds and everything is progressing nicely and feeling very healthy. I should have done this long ago!
I have been thinking about how I what to change several things in my life and just how to go about doing them. With the biggest challenge being where to begin… Then my wonderful son sends me this blog. He is reading it from the beginning to the present and I am reading it from the present back.
Although I have many things I want to change in a short time frame, I have decided to make the first goal going from 166.8 lbs to 145 lbs by March 21, 2013. A difficult but not impossible task when you have a Thyroid issue.
~
2006 New Year’s Resolution: Decided to run the National Capital Marathon (late May). As a healthy person, but non-runner, I went around telling everyone that I was going to run it. Had lots of nay-sayers and many that didn’t care, of course. But telling everyone helped me get out and run those dark days of -20 (Celsius). (Running on the frozen Rideau Canal at – 5, no wind and a brilliant sun shining off the ice was fantastic though.) Anyway, ran the marathon, slower than my target time, but finished strong and proud of pushing myself. Telling everyone definitely helped the motivation.
Making goals public is totally the way to go!!!! People want to know your progress and how you get through the tough patches and you have someone to hold you accountable…a win-win situation. Love it….thanks for sharing:-)
check out http://www.beeminder.com, it’s a great way to commit to “progress” and they put a really cool kicker in that you have to commit your hard earned money to the goal.
Hi everyone,
I committed to the goal of losing (finally!) the 7 extra kilos I’ve been carrying around since hitting 40…well… they’re not coming off. Basically, the problem is that I am not a sporty person, dont enjoy working out, never have, feels like an obligation, no fun at all…I loved dancing back in the day… and we’re doing Tai Chi, which is excellent, but not getting the pounds off. Following a mostly primal diet (which I found out about thanks to MMM!)…
anyone got any words of advice or encouragement?
Hi Cynthia.
Tai Chi is all well and good, but not the greatest way to lose weight unfortunately.
Losing weight itself is simply a function of taking in fewer calories each day than you use. You can do that in any combination of eating less and/or exercising more.
The secret to exercising or working out, is to find something active that you enjoy doing, like the dancing for example, then it becomes less like “work”.
And if you find it hard to diet, like many people do, instead of eating “less”, eat stuff that’s less calorific. For example, if you like chocoloate digestives, start buying the one’s without chocolate.
Good luck to you and a happy 2013.
Checking in.. how’re those workouts coming, MMM, especially with the Hawaii trip and, I’m sure, some disruptions in routine?
You’re inspiring me to a more modest fitness goal as well. I’m already in good shape by normal people’s standards: I’m a reasonably competitive master’s racing cyclist, my bodyweight has been fairly stable for years, and my strength is decent as a long time (but now occasional) lifter.
My goal is to pare off more body fat to reach my lightest weight in 30 years, while maintaining my strength by lifting at least twice a week, and keeping my cycling fitness. I’m shooting for 170 lbs., ripped, by September for my 47th birthday.
All sorts of benefits combine here: I am eating Primally these days, and cooking much more, which is cheaper and healthier. I’m a better cyclist when I’m lighter; I’d like to go back in 2014 and do the Everest Challenge Stage Race in Bishop, CA and be mid-pack (I’ll never be a 140 lb. climber).
Finally, of course, there is the Looking Good Naked goal..