My 2013 goals, part 8 of 30

Original photo by dullhunk

OK, first off, because of P90X and studying for my ISSA personal trainer certification, I'm not doing each of these days consecutively.  For those that have been following along, you've already figured this out.

Anyway, part 8 of the 30 Day PUSH by Chalene Johnson is to map out your course from now to success.

This is a pretty big day in that it helps to keep things in line and on-task.  Defining priorities, setting goals, breaking the goals down (reverse engineering) are all well and good, but where do you go from here?

This map is to help guide you along the path from where you are now to where you want to be in the next twelve months.

Pen and paper in hand (Evernote app at the ready) there are going to be four columns to fill out across the top of the paper; Research, First, During, and Later.

Research is just that, it's finding out everything and anything even the slightest bit useful about your Push Goal.  Like Chalene says, somebody has done it before, so pick their brain personally or find out how they did it some other way (Google Search - or I like the term Google Stalk. HA!)

For me, I need to research other local personal trainers.  I've already taken a look at the types of certifications some of the personal trainers at the gym I go to have.  I need to see what the local market price is for a personal trainer.  I need to research what types of venues local trainers are using, like parks, personal gyms, franchise gyms, etc.  I also need to see what types of exercise is popular and study up.  Right now, off the top of my head I know that Cross Fit is huge out here.  Also, anything with Kettle Bells is a big thing right now.  Yoga is pretty much here to stay in California any way, so that wouldn't hurt to know.  I could go on and on, but you get the point.

As you do your research make sure you keep asking yourself if this goal still fits your priorities and if you are willing to make whatever sacrifices and commitments there may be to achieve your goal.

First is for the things that will be done immediately after your research is done or while it is on-going.  These things are going to be the building blocks for your Push Goal.  So, a lot of my action items are listed above.  Once I'm feeling like I've saturated my research column, I can start tackling some of my first tasks.

During is for the things to be done along the way. Chalene uses the health goal as an example of during tasks.  One of the things I'm doing now with my Lose It! app is to track my daily caloric intake versus my caloric burn.  So, this is something I'm doing during my road to success of following the P90X nutrition plan.   Also, as a part of the whole health goal, I'm working out 6 out of 7 days.  I'm on day seven of week 1 following the traditional P90X DVD plan.  Today was the Legs and Back DVD followed by Ab Ripper X!  By the way, if you've ever done P90X and/or the Ab Ripper X DVD, I hate crunchy frogs!!  They are SO tough.  Those and the roll-up/v-up combo.  UGH!!  I'm already seeing improvements though.  I did more of every exercise today than I have the previous two times I've done Ab Ripper X.

For my ISSA personal trainer certification, I've been studying in the morning before work for a solid 45 minutes each morning.  I've been doing a little bit after work here and there, but it's mostly in the mornings for me.  I need to get hot on doing some actual research on local personal trainers and different exercises.

Later is for anything that doesn't have to be done in the first 30 days.  If it can wait or it doesn't make sense to tackle just yet, put it in this column.  My ISSA personal trainer certification gives me a nice window of eight months to get my ducks in a row.  Assuming I pass the certification final exam, I can launch my business then.  Until then, I need to keep studying and do a lot of research.

So, get to writing.  I'm going to sit down and do the same.  Talk at you later!