It's a new year, so everyone is talking about goal setting. I'm not into “new year new you” type goals. I'm constantly working on a new version of myself, so I don't contain these transformations to the beginning of the year only 😉
On December 30th, I was a part of a fantastic panel discussion and Q&A with Petra Ford & Sharon Carrol. You can listen that here.
And, as a follow up to that, I hosted a live inside of my SDS Community to continue the conversation about goal setting and goal getting. The recording is available to members, and being a member only costs $5/month! You can sign up for access here.
And THEN, Sarah Stremming hosted her first Cog Dog Club meeting over in Patreon and we had a fantastic discussion about outcome vs process goals and defining action steps. You can check out her patreon here.
One thing that has stood out to be during all of the discussions is the HABITS of people that are achieving their goals and to me, it boils down to ACTION. Fear of failure tends to encouraged inaction (analysis paralysis, anyone?) The action I need students to make in order to progress on their goals is: Reviewing & Planning.
When you set a goal, you have to make a PLAN for how to reach that goal. This, I think, is hard for people sometimes because we don't know HOW to reach that goal. That is a barrier that you have to work around by finding that information.
Once you have a plan for the HOW, either of your own making, or of someone else's advisement, you have to decide WHEN and WHERE. Some training requires you stay indoors, go outside, buy or build equipment, rent facilities, etc. Figure all of that out and determine any potential barriers, and then make a plan for those barriers.
Now, let's start small. If you're used to training once a week and only ever at home, then it's going to be a big deal for you to go elsewhere and train. Make it an action step to train elsewhere ONE time per week. Do that for a month. Then you can go from there, adding additional training days or locations as needed.
A lot of REVIEW has to happen as well. Between training sessions, usually at the end of the week, you have to review where you are at and then make any necessary adjustments to your plan. This might mean finding a new/different location, a training partner, new equipment, going back to a previous step, or even pivoting to a new plan altogether.
The ability to pivot is a critical skill in goal getting. Our teammates are living breathing creatures with their own strengths and weaknesses and we have to be willing to work with them where they are at, even if that is uncomfortable for us at first.
When you're reviewing your training you're looking for areas that are doing well and progressing so that you can keep doing that. You're looking for points of stagnation so that you can make small adjustments and move forward. You're looking for points of regression so that you can discontinue that training plan and make a new plan for forward progress.
Regular review also may uncover injury or illness with your dog or even yourself and I think we can all agree that catching those things sooner rather than later is better for everyone involved.
I find that sitting down to do my reviews energizes me to do the training – if I put effort into planning out the details, the training feels easier and moves forward more easily. This, in my opinion, is why online instruction can be so successful for so many teams. The lessons within the class or program are the HOW. You only have the plan the WHEN and the WHERE. As you gain more experience with the review process, you'll even find that you're better able to plan what your team needs and troubleshooting also becomes a lot easier.
What I'm saying is that there are a lot of layers that go into goal-getting, but taking the time to review and plan is a critical layer that helps you build all of your skills.
Ready to start goal getting? Click here to sign up for a free PDF download of my goal-getting, action step planning, and review process worksheets!
Happy Training!
