The essential first step for success in 2023
By Jack Thomas, BASE founder and CEO
The first step towards success is setting the right goals. Sadly, we often fail at this first hurdle by setting unrealistic goals that look too far into the future.
When we look at where we want to be in, say, 6 months and set a goal to achieve this, this is called an outcome goal. An example of this would be ‘lose 15kg’ or ‘run the Bangkok marathon’.
Outcome goals are good as it outlines what we want to achieve, but often it leads to failure because there is no focus on what we need to do to actually get there.
At BASE, we have found that process goals are far more helpful as they focus on the essential steps you need to follow to actually achieve your eventual outcome goal.
Also, with process goals you can guarantee success – as long as you follow the process, you’ve achieved your goal!
If we take the goal of ‘run the Bangkok marathon’ as an example. This is a great goal, but what do we need to do to get there. A great initial process goal that you could set 6 months before the race could be:
For the next four weeks I will complete three runs per week – two short runs, and one longer run.
After setting this process goal, the focus is now on simply achieving the three runs per week. That’s it, you don’t need to think about anything else, just those three runs. If you achieve this process goal, you will have taken a big step towards your big goal.
For the next month, your process goal could be:
For the next 4 weeks, I will complete one interval running session, one short faster run and one longer slow run.
If you complete this second process goal, you will be in a great position to complete your marathon after two months.
To further improve your chances of success, there are a few extra steps you can take:
- Schedule and book in your diary slots that you will do the process, such as the three runs per week in the Bangkok marathon example
- Find a friend to do it with you! It’s much harder to cancel a session when you’re booked in with a friend
- Get some accountability by announcing your goals to a friend, coach or support group
After working with thousands of clients, we’ve seen it time and again at BASE – setting the right kind of goals is the crucial first step to success.
Need help hitting your goals? Reach out to the BASE team, we’ll be happy to help!
If you’re reading this in January 2023, we’re accepting entry into our 8 week program until 21st January, with our promotional rate ending Friday 13th January – for more information and to sign up, visit our 8 week program page.
