When we have a goal, we need a strategy. HOW will we achieve that goal?
I’ve been an avid weightlifter for many years. Disciplined and dedicated, since I was 11, when my Dad bought me my first set of barbells.
It’s always been an important way for me to recharge my battery and clear my head. And, it’s taught me a ton of valuable life lessons, which I’ll write more about down the road.
I was away from my weightlifting for awhile, as I became more involved in karate through the years--something else I love. And then, “life happened” in other ways, my routine was disrupted, etc. . . and somehow my weightlifting fell to the wayside and disappeared. Hard to believe, given how serious I’d been, but I get it.
However, a few months ago, for various reasons, I was able to make my way back to the weight room again. It felt great, like I reconnected with a best friend.
And now I’m back, and my body, little by little, is letting me return to all my old strongman lifts (hey, I’m in my 50’s—gotta ease back in!).
Being back in the weight room has also brought me back in touch with the things that drive me nuts when I’m there.
So, I have 2 lessons for today, relevant for everyone, straight from the weight room.
Here’s Lesson #1: Do the right lifts!
I really hate the word “stupid”, and I rarely use it. I think it’s a horrible word. But I do live in Chicago and drive in Chicago traffic, so hey. It slips out.
However, I see people do some of the stupidest exercises in the weight room (to clarify—the exercises are stupid, not the people :).
I know—very judgmental. But true.
What I mean is that these lifts won’t help the person get any real results, while at the same time is putting them at greater risk of injury!
And they’ll be putting so much energy into their exercising, all proud of their effort! I wanna scream.
Regarding your goals—are you “doing the right lifts”?
In other words, do you have the right strategy? If you want to achieve your goal, you need a sensible, effective, do-able strategy to get you there. Otherwise, forget it.
Back to the weight room: sometimes we actually are doing the right exercises. Excellent, very good.
However, we’re doing them in the wrong way!
I see this ALL THE TIME. People using HORRIBLE form (ok, I wanna say stupid again). Seriously—it’s only a matter of time before they blow out a knee or a rotator cuff, or really jack-up their back.
So, they’re increasing their risk of injury, but they’re also not getting nearly as much out of the exercise as they could.
It’s exactly the same in martial arts—you might know a particular technique that’s very powerful, but if you don’t know how to execute the technique properly, it’s completely useless.
Therefore, here’s Lesson #2: do the right lifts RIGHT ( . . . “correctly”)!
It’s not enough to have a great strategy—do you know the proper way of executing it?
If you’re a manager and you’re ready to do a 360 degree feedback of your team, do you know how to pull off best practices?
Or, if you’re a CEO and you want to do an Appreciative Inquiry process throughout your company, do you know how?
Great strategies mean nothing if we don’t know how to execute them.
And some strategies are great on paper, but if we don’t know what we’re doing, we’ll cause more harm than good—sometimes great harm. I’ve seen this happen both in the weight room and in the professional world.
Application:
1) if you have a goal, you need a STRATEGY to achieve that goal.
2) you need the RIGHT strategy.
3) you need to execute the right strategy CORRECTLY.
Go forth and conquer.
--Sean Cox, Chicago