The Knowledge by Wahoo

Biting Off More Than You Can Chew

Episode Summary

In this episode of the Knowledge by Wahoo, we discuss the topic of goal setting, specifically whether it is possible to set goals that are too big, too many, too intense, or too challenging. Coach Neal Henderson and Dr. Jinger Gottschall review the concept of SMART goals (specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound) and discuss how to set goals that are challenging but still achievable.

Episode Notes

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Welcome to the latest episode of the Knowledge by Wahoo podcast where we discuss the fine art of goal setting. This week, we'll be asking the question: Can you set a goal that's too big, too many, too intense, or too challenging? In other words, are you biting off more than you can chew? 

Remember to be specific about your goals and make sure they're measurable.  Don't be afraid to set big goals, just make sure they're achievable.  Set a deadline for yourself and don't forget to give yourself a pat on the back when you reach them. And remember, if all else fails, just yell at yourself "You stupid idiot!" 

Episode Transcription

Neal Henderson  0:00  

You know, there's kind of an interesting tie there to like what we would consider sports psychology and self-talk. You know, how you manage when you're not quite achieving exactly what you set out. If you were trying to encourage a friend, you would probably use different language in trying to help them okay?

 

Like, okay, you missed today. Tomorrow, we'll get back on it, no problem. But internally, a lot of times, we have a little bit more harsh self-talk

 

Ren  0:27  

You stupid idiot!

 

Neal Henderson  0:30  

And we're not talking to ourselves, like our friend that we're trying to boost up, we get that beat down kind of mean to ourselves thing going. And that's what you're talking about that it's just it doesn't lead to a good outcome.

 

Hello, and welcome back to a new season of the knowledge podcast by Wahoo. I'm Neal Henderson, head of Wahoo sports science.

 

Jinger Gottschall  0:55  

And I'm Dr. Jinger Gottschall, Director of applied research. Today, we are going to chat about goals. This is not the first time we've talked about them. Episodes 26 and 33 are also great to introduce you to this topic, and today we're going to add on whether can you set a goal that's too big, too many too intense, or too challenging so that you bite off more than you can chew. Now, this topic has been extensively researched 1000s of papers on smart goals. So we definitely believe that it is a healthy habit with respect to behavior change. And to that end, the American College of Sports Medicine, the American Heart Association, the National Institute of Health, and the Care Excellence Institute all state that this is your best bet in terms of how to successfully achieve your goals.

 

Neal Henderson  1:45  

So we can start off with defining goal setting a little bit goal setting a goal can be defined as what an individual is trying to accomplish. Another definition is that a goal is an object or aim of an action, we can also think about a goal as trying to attain a specific standard of proficiency usually within a specified time limit. But we do know it is possible to bite off much more than you can chew. When you start setting goals especially early in the year. Let's just say when your motivation is sky-high, you're ready to make a lot of change. And you can get that list out and start writing down way too big of goals and way too many of them, it's easy to overdo it in the goal setting regard even just like training, you can do too much too soon. Pretty easy.

 

Jinger Gottschall  2:30  

Exactly. Quantity is not always the best. And definitely not prioritized over quality. So let's start by reviewing SMART goals. And this begins with the S from the word smart, which is the specific, clearly defined outcome or process. So not just to get better or ride faster, but be specific about how you are going to do it or a specific event, a specific number.

 

Neal Henderson  3:03  

The next part M stands for measurable. So establishing a quantified goal that is relative to your performance. So something that you can quantify that you can measure and assess, are you actually achieving what that set out goal is.

 

Jinger Gottschall  3:20  

And that leads us to the A achievable, that you can just about make this happen, you haven't done it before, but you know that it is within your reach with some hard work and dedication. Next, we move into

 

Neal Henderson  3:35  

our four irrelevant, goals have to be connected to you, they have to mean something to you. So with that, that's going to allow you to be willing to put in the time and effort to create the change, you need to make this goal be possible to attain or achieve

 

Jinger Gottschall  3:53  

tea time-bound concrete deadlines for your goal. When do you want to achieve this by this is also really helpful in terms of the process and the evaluation as you go. Exactly. So

 

Neal Henderson  4:09  

that's the smart part. You're here today. To get a little bit more we covered the SMART goals back in one of those earlier episodes. Today, we're adding on a couple of things. So we're going to be talking about smart earner goals, ie R Oh, I like it a little more. So the E stands for evaluative, and so this is having the ability to assess your progress intermittently toward that end. So just like in training, in some cases, we may do an assessment, in the beginning, to understand what your current capability is, you may then set a goal in the future that might be six months out in the future, right? You should have some period between now and six months from now to see. Are you making progress toward that in an evaluative thing you could do in an assessment maybe in three months and the midpoint or at two months and again at four months, having some ability to assess Are you on that path towards that

 

Jinger Gottschall  5:09  

super helpful in terms of again, getting to the main goal at the end, and the last one of the smart array are rewarding in that achieving the goal is going to leave you with a feeling of accomplishment. And this does go a bit back to irrelevant because you want it to be something that you care about, that you feel passionate about that you're connected to. But in the end, you're going to feel positive and get that serotonin boost from achieving your goal.

 

Neal Henderson  5:40  

Even if you use the smarter acronym and set up all of your goals, it's still possible that you might end up biting off more than you can chew. And it might not just be that you actually had a bad process or you didn't do a good job planning, it's that life, something has changed, maybe your work responsibilities have changed, you have to take on more shifts at work, potentially a change in responsibility with family, you know, somebody gets sick or something like that, that is going to completely change you know, your situation, in some cases, and being able to then make some adaptation and adjustment definitely would be important that aside, you can also be just again, a little over ambitious in that early in those early goal setting. And if you realize you're not tracking towards your main goal, you might want to go back through the process and reset and re-establish that because you could have a goal that actually may be set too low, and it's not going to be rewarding. And so if you realize you're three-quarters of the way there in two or three weeks, and this was supposed to be a long-term process goal, well, you might need to make an adjustment otherwise, you're less likely to stay engaged. Also, if it's underwhelming to it, yes.

 

Jinger Gottschall  6:54  

So Neil is talking about how you can revise and do things differently if you've bitten off more than you can chew. So there are a couple of other strategies for this. And it does go with what you were just saying in terms of the challenging intensity, if it's too challenging, you could maybe back it up and set some easier goals to start with, or from the get-go through that process. If you have a six-month or a year-long goal, then there could be this progressive nature about it, where you have a couple of easier intermittent goals to kind of get you on track as you build up to that larger one. So that's a second strategy with respect to how to do things differently. Anything else that we could utilize in terms of a strategy if we have bitten off more than we can chew? Yeah,

 

Neal Henderson  7:44  

there are a few different things. So number one, having just one focus goal, one real primary, and there is some research that says you're going to be much more likely to achieve a goal, if you have just a single goal single plan, if you have five or six goals, you're going to be spread probably too thin and less likely to be able to consistently follow through and achieve those. So having really one key goal is probably smart for most folks,

 

Jinger Gottschall  8:11  

absolutely, you can easily be overwhelmed by having a list of goals, because let's just be honest, we all have a limited amount of time and energy. So if you want to be effective at achieving your goal, pick one, and make it a process, this will free up your mental space with respect to a list of goals, and you can really focus on achieving that final one. So time, attention, and energy can all limit your ability to do the list. So stick with the single one.

 

Neal Henderson  8:45  

Another thing then is just making sure that that goal is challenging. And within reason, again, I know it kind of comes back a little bit too is it that achievable? You know, going back to the A, but there's still a lot of work that's been done looking at whether a goal has been set too high, too low, or not specific enough. And we just see reduced effectiveness and follow through when we have vague goals or goals that are too easy or exceedingly too difficult to achieve. And so making sure that that you're in that right range, not too hard, not too easy. I mean, it's you know, the three bears, right?

 

Jinger Gottschall  9:30  

It is it. It is tricky in terms of finding that happy medium. But when we go back to Neil's suggestion about revision, that's where you can then modify during the process. But I also want to make sure that we are easy on ourselves. Give yourself a little bit of a break some of the research on goal setting has shown that you actually have negative self-esteem, your motivation decreases, and you're just your personal effect decreases. See, which you don't want to happen. So don't use this as a process to be too hard on yourself, give yourself a pass, if you don't get everything in a day that you had listed, and don't be afraid to modify, make sure that you understand that being flexible can be part of the process. Yeah,

 

Neal Henderson  10:18  

that's, you know, there's kind of an interesting tie there to like what we would consider like sports psychology and self-talk, you know, how you manage when you're not quite achieving exactly what you set out. If you were trying to encourage a friend, you would probably use different language in trying to help them okay, like, Okay, you miss today, tomorrow, we'll get back on it, no problem. But internally, a lot of times, we have a little bit more harsh self-talk use. And we're not talking to ourselves, like our friend that we're trying to boost up, we get that beat down, kind of mean to ourselves thing going. And that's what you're talking about it's just, it doesn't lead to a good outcome. And so when that happens, think about can I step back from my own goal, what would a good friend, a family member, a mentor, you know, a coach say to you, and put yourself in that place, try to hear those words from that perspective and say things that will help you get back on track.

 

Jinger Gottschall  11:19  

Love it, that is huge and critical. Now the last thing we want to chat about is thinking about if your goal involves making a lifestyle change or if it is a habit that you want to actually modify. And if this is the case, then this will require even more patience with yourself and consistency. Because what you're trying to do is a process called automaticity. And that's when you perform a behavior without thinking about every single step. So as an example, I love running in the morning, it's now not the process of what I need to wear. What time am I going to be out the door? What socks do I need for this weather, it's much more of an automatic process, maybe an easier way to think about this is brushing your teeth before you go to bed. It's just something we don't think about, we just do it. So if your goal involves something like this, a habit a behavior change that you want to be automatic, this can take up to 66 days is the actual research number.

 

Neal Henderson  12:22  

Wow, is that day of doing the task or timeframe from starting to try to introduce this day of

 

Jinger Gottschall  12:30  

doing the task. So let's say you want to strike three and three days a week, then we could be thinking about a four to six-month process for this to become automatic.

 

Neal Henderson  12:39  

So it's an investment. And again, you got to have that consistency in what you're doing with it to try to get to that more somewhat automatic habit exactly doesn't have that cognitive inertia that you're trying to overcome. That's what you know when you're beginning to change it is that inertia in changing behavior that you're overcoming

 

Jinger Gottschall  13:00  

Exactly. And this is also why so many people aren't able to make those goals because they're expecting too much too soon. And if you think about it in smaller chunks, three weeks, okay, then I'm at six weeks out, oh, now I'm at nine weeks. Once you get to three months, actually, things are coming a little bit easier. So there are a lot of tips that we understand from the research that can help us understand how to set these goals and how to revise them as we go in order to be successful.

 

Neal Henderson  13:32  

So to rehash things, here are kind of the top things to think about. Number one, still using that smart but add the ER so smarter goal strategy as you set your goals.

 

Jinger Gottschall  13:46  

Develop a specific plan for when, where, and how you're going to attain the goal, and stick to one thing.

 

Neal Henderson  13:54  

And lastly, set your goal high and specific, but be able to adjust it based on the evaluation that you're not tracking towards that. So don't be too hard on yourself. Make the adjustment and reengage. Stick with it.

 

Jinger Gottschall  14:10  

Brilliant. Well, that is another episode of the knowledge podcast by Wahoo. We hope you're able to take away some useful information on goal setting that will make you a better endurance athlete.