HOW to Get the Most out of Your Plan
INTRO
One of the biggest things I see holding people back from any goal is their inability to stay present. They become so fixated on the outcome of a situation instead of the process and just executing the plan, that it overwhelms them and drives them into a state of fear which ultimately keeps them from accomplishing that goal.
Lifting: I see a lot of lifters miss lifts they should actually make because they aren’t staying present.
Missing their openers because they’re already worried about what they’ll hit for their third attempts if they make this one.
Missing PRs they should easily get because instead of focusing on executing the lift, they’re thinking about how it’s an unfamiliar weight on the bar which makes them lift fearfully and miss again on execution.
Dieting: People who know how to diet sabotage themselves into not losing the desired weight.
Looking at the process as a whole, getting overwhelmed, and doing something foolish like taking away too many calories at once, or even just giving up altogether. Sometimes all it takes is a little shift in mindset.
In actuality, if they reverse engineer their actions from their initial goal, it’d make the whole process much more manageable. If this client wants to lose 12lbs in 12 weeks, they’d break it down into 1lb every week for the next 12 weeks and hit the respective macros every day to put them in the caloric deficit that would make them lose 1lb per week.
Suddenly, this 12lbs doesn’t seem so daunting.
I am no exception
When I was cutting for Worlds last summer I had to cut down to 66kg all the way from 74kg because I received the invitation late, which meant that I had to change my initial plans of trying to fill out the 74kg weight class. I had about 15lbs to lose in 3 months. For a while, it stressed me out when I didn’t think I was losing weight fast enough because 15lbs seemed like such a huge number.
Once I had a major shift in my MINDSET, it stressed me out less (which makes you hold onto less water weight anyway), and I was able to see how easy this cut would be if I just trusted the process. If I could lose a little less than a pound every week, I’d be fine then could water cut the last 7lbs. It was hard to follow the numbers because I’d get hungry and crave certain foods, but then I would take it one week at a time, which would make make it more manageable.
I’d say “okay, I’m already 4 days into this week, I can last 3 more to lose a pound this week”.
Once I saw the weight come down it made it easier to follow the macros in the upcoming week. I’d even take it one day at a time and say things like “okay, if I can just eat this lean turkey and get most of my protein in earlier in the day, I can fit some pizza into my macros for dinner” which made me look forward to certain meals.
Before I knew it, the cut was over and it was the easiest cut of my life. I wouldn’t be able to get through it if I were just fixated on the 15lbs I had to lose. Instead, I trusted that that part was taken care of because I planned for it. I was fully focused on the macros I had to hit every single day to make that happen.
In this article I will be talking about a major shift in mindset that changed the way I approach competing, training, nutrition, work, business, and practically EVERY goal I have.
STAY PRESENT
What do I mean by staying present? I mean only focusing on that very moment, not anything before or behind it, and dealing with everything as it becomes relevant.
Just the other day I found myself not staying present and I paid the price. I was hitting deadlift singles and I hit all of my warm-ups very easily. I got up to 628lbs on my heavy single, a weight I had hit in a meet before, and I missed it. It didn’t feel heavy, so I was confused. I went back and looked at the video and saw that the bar rolled forward when I picked it up. I really don’t like redoing attempts in training but I decided to do it again because I knew where I went wrong. My friend even told me he could tell that I wasn’t going to get it just because of how I approached the bar. I realized that before I approached the bar I told myself “I haven’t touched a weight this heavy in a while” and I took longer than I usually do in my setup, because there was some doubt that I’d get the weight up even though there shouldn’t be. Five minutes later I reattempted the same weight with the mindset of staying present and I got it up without a problem.
This isn’t just relevant in fitness, it’s EVERYWHERE. How many times have you walked away from a conversation that felt awkward because you felt like the other person had prepared responses to what you said. The interaction didn’t flow or feel genuine. You probably felt like they weren’t even listening to you, or maybe they were listening JUST enough to tap into one of their prepared responses so that they could get away with being lazy and not listening for the rest of the conversation.
This is a prime example of that individual not staying present. They’re not reacting to what you said to formulate a response, which stifles the true connection you’d be able to have.
[628lb deadlift attempt. In the failed one (not shown) I did more hip pumps than usual. In this second video I did my usual set up.]
THINK BACKWARDS
This can be the same with school or business. How many times have you not started a project or presentation because it seemed so overwhelming, then waited to the last minute to bullshit it because you don’t have a choice with the deadline quickly approaching?
Either that or you thought the deadline was far away so you have plenty of time to complete it, until you start and realize it’s much more work than you expected. All you really need to do is plan it out by working backwards.
Photo by Glenn Carstens-Peters on Unsplash
EXAMPLE: Take that presentation that you have 4 weeks for, and plan out 4 big components that make up the presentation and break it up into weekly assignments.
Week 1 could be research where you’re only looking for credible sources and sifting through good information to use.
Week 2 could be spent writing the actual powerpoint, which would actually be much easier because you’ve already summarized your information. What most people do is try to find sources while they’re writing which takes much longer.
Week 3 could be spent cleaning up the presentation visually by making the fonts look nice and adding visuals.
Week 4 could be spent rehearsing the powerpoint and making notecards if you need them, so that you’re prepared to present.
The same should be done about the weekly assignments. Break down each week into days that you’ll spend doing very specific and focused tasks.
So for the first week, if you only plan on working on your presentation for 5 days out of the week, spend each day researching 5 different sources or subjects.
Spend each day of the second week writing different slides. Maybe the first day is writing slides 1-4 and the second day is spent writing slides 5-8.
DEALING WITH OBSTACLES
Make no mistake, the problem with planning isn’t the planning aspect. You want to plan, but once you reverse engineered a way to accomplish it by making sure every small, manageable step is with the intention to accomplish that bigger goal, you want to lock that plan away somewhere safe. The problem with planning is obsessing over the outcome, and being too rigid with your plan.
Have you ever heard “things never go as planned”? Well it’s true, they don’t. You have to be able to adjust your plan when obstacles find their way into your journey, because trust me, they will. It’s not even always things you can control internally. If you’re too fixated on the outcome you’ll ignore these obstacles and not make adjustments.
There’s a reason Bill Belichick is the greatest football coach of all time. He has MASTERED the ability to make halftime adjustments. Although he has a gameplan, he’s not too rigid with it and will make adjustments or keep doing something if he feels like it’s been working. That’s how he led the Patriots to arguably the greatest comeback in Super Bowl history against the Falcons a couple of years ago.
LIFTING OUT OF FEAR
I’ve noticed a lot of lifters who frequently hit rep PRs but have trouble on executing singles. Of course there’s lifters who don’t have as many fast-twitch lifters and are better at volume than maximal effort reps, but that’s not what I’m talking about here. I’m talking about those lifters who should be able to hit a certain weight because they clearly have the strength for it, but have trouble executing singles because they deviate from their known-to-work pattern. Far too often, I’ll see a lifter execute a squat single and they’ll slow down in the hole and they’ll either miss the rep, or they’ll make the rep but it’ll be harder than it should be.
A lifter will have a pattern that they can execute for all of their warm ups and rep work, but overthink and change everything on a heavy single. With rep work they’ll think something like, “okay, I know I can do this for 1, so there’s nothing to worry about. I can just take it one rep at a time.” For singles it’s not as easy because they’re unsure if they can even hit that rep for 1.
But really, that doesn’t matter because lifting out of fear or uncertainty doesn’t do any good for you. If you would’ve gotten the rep, you probably won’t now if you’re changing something about your form of set up out of fear that you won’t get the rep or that it will be slow. Execute and visualize the heavy single the same way you would on any other set. Think about it: whether you lift the same way you always do even if you’re unsure you can lift it, or lift it a different way because you’re scared you won’t get the lift, the amount of weight on the bar doesn’t change. It’s constant, so you might as well just lift the way you always do.
Image by Calven Quach
Another thing I notice is that lifters look too far in the future, even in the short-term. They worry about how the single would impact the rest of their workout or prep. “What if I overshoot? What if I fail? I won’t be able to finish my workout.” Adjustments can always be made for that. Just worry about what matters at that time. The only thing that matters is executing that chosen single.
There is nothing you can do in the span of one workout, besides an injury, that would greatly impact your entire prep or training career. And even then, lifting out of fear wouldn’t help you or change anything for the better. You can’t be scared to fail, period.
I would bomb out, or go 3/9, 4/9, and 5/9 at meets until I had that major shift in mindset. If I missed an attempt it’d be because I wasn’t staying present. It was never a matter of strength. Then when I missed attempts, I couldn’t recoop to be able to change the gameplan so that I could recover and still have a good meet. This is mainly because I would come in with numerical expectations and placings to hit at meets, and I wouldn’t be willing to change them, instead of just taking what I could get that day. Now I’m able to have good meets even if I miss attempts. At meets I’m always thinking, “okay, if I want to win this meet I need to hit as many attempts as possible. I can only do that if I take it one attempt at a time.” I’m not worried about what numbers I’ll hit because I won’t know my next attempt until I finish the current one. Sure, I may have to hit lower numbers at the meet than I wanted too, but at the end of the day it doesn’t matter what you can hit in the gym, you have to bring your best performance on the platform.
HOW TO PLAN
TL;DR:
Have a goal.
Devise a plan.
Think backwards to find steps that lead up to that end goal and make that plan more manageable.
Stay present and execute each step of the plan without looking too far ahead.
Be open to adjustments as obstacles occur.