Kestrel: Ghost Protocol

[Kestrel Grey]

I have been doing some reading on achievement and goal-setting, and am intrigued by the controversy over whether you should publicly share your goals.  On one hand, it adds accountability and positive peer pressure. On the other hand, there is evidence it damages the likelihood you'll reach your goal. The theory is talking about your goals tricks you into feeling like you have already accomplished something, and you won't work as hard.

 

This challenge the theories are going head-to-head! Team Living has three goals, being worked on in plain sight.  Team Ghost has one goal, worked on in secret.  It will only come to light if is it accomplished by the end of the challenge.

 

Expect plenty of 80s-era ghost gifs

 

Team Living

 

1. Strength train 3/week

This will be a simple, full-body workout followed by my physio exercises and stretches.

 

2. Keep the knee moving 3/week

Can be biking or the Return to Running program as I am able.

 

3. Winter-proof

• Get 2000 IU vitamin D daily
• 20 minutes of sunlamp or walking outdoors
• List 3 items in my gratitude journal nightly

 

Team Ghost

 

4. Ghost Challenge

Spoiler

Nope... it's a secret!

 

 

[Elastigirl]

I love this. Can't wait to hear how the two compare at the end of your challenge.  

[Ann of Owlshire]

I run into the "public accountability" vs. "keeping things private" a lot. I like the community of sharing goals and cheering one another on, but I also don't putting all of me out into the wind. I'm still trying to find that balance. I hope this challenge helps you with the same! 

[jonfirestar]

8 hours ago, Kestrel Grey said:

I have been doing some reading on achievement and goal-setting, and am intrigued by the controversy over whether you should publicly share your goals.

 

This is interesting. I was going to say that stating my goals makes them more real for me. Especially the big crazy ones but then I thought more and I realised that I share my goals here a lot but IRL I don't at all. Am I sharing my goals or am I not? 

 

Following, of course Kestrel  

[Maigs]

Following along of course.

 

I've heard about the different opinions about public vs private goals. I'm kinda with @jonfirestar, I'm very open with my goals here, but not so much in real life so I don't know if I'd call it public or not

[Xena]

Really cool idea! Maybe write some notes to yourself as to how difficult you expect each goal to be at the outset. Some challenges are more challenging than others ;-)

[Elastigirl]

On ‎10‎/‎16‎/‎2018 at 1:49 AM, jonfirestar said:

 

This is interesting. I was going to say that stating my goals makes them more real for me. Especially the big crazy ones but then I thought more and I realised that I share my goals here a lot but IRL I don't at all. Am I sharing my goals or am I not? 

 

Following, of course Kestrel  

Same here. I don't really share them with other people. And putting them on here helps me to make them real too. It also helps narrow them down, so I'm not trying to do a bazillion things

[Kestrel Grey]

On 10/16/2018 at 2:08 AM, Ann of Vries said:

I run into the "public accountability" vs. "keeping things private" a lot. I like the community of sharing goals and cheering one another on, but I also don't putting all of me out into the wind. I'm still trying to find that balance. I hope this challenge helps you with the same! 

 

On 10/16/2018 at 2:49 AM, jonfirestar said:

 

This is interesting. I was going to say that stating my goals makes them more real for me. Especially the big crazy ones but then I thought more and I realised that I share my goals here a lot but IRL I don't at all. Am I sharing my goals or am I not? 

 

Following, of course Kestrel  

 

On 10/16/2018 at 8:00 AM, Maigahane said:

Following along of course.

 

I've heard about the different opinions about public vs private goals. I'm kinda with @jonfirestar, I'm very open with my goals here, but not so much in real life so I don't know if I'd call it public or not

 

22 hours ago, Elastigirl said:

Same here. I don't really share them with other people. And putting them on here helps me to make them real too. It also helps narrow them down, so I'm not trying to do a bazillion things

Interesting, it looks like many of the people here are private about their goals in the non-NF world.  Do you guys talk about your fitness-y things at all?

 

On 10/21/2018 at 6:29 PM, Xena said:

Really cool idea! Maybe write some notes to yourself as to how difficult you expect each goal to be at the outset. Some challenges are more challenging than others ;-)

Hmm... the three Team Living goals, together, are about as difficult as the one Team Ghost goal based on how well I historically do on these things. 

[Kestrel Grey]

Week One - Monday

 

The past week was completely challenge-free; my mother was staying with me and I played the happy tour guide instead. We spent Saturday at the sauna.  It was in one of those geometrically-impossible buildings that is tiny on the outside, but has 8 different types of saunas and steam rooms inside.  Lots of fun, but I wish it had one of those cryogenic chambers for me to try.  (Fun find while searching for gifs: 80s rock band Frozen Ghost).  Then on Sunday we went for our 80s X Run in full regalia! We walked because we are weak but it was a blast nonetheless.

 

Today I am ready for this challenge.  Maybe more enthusiastic than I have been in quite a while.  The plan was to start with weights but my gym was taken over with dozens of teenagers from the youth athletics team, so I tried Day 1 of running rehab instead.  It went... okay?  My knee is noticeably swollen and needed to be iced but I think it went better than the last time I tried.  I'll see how it feels tomorrow.

 

Also got my flu shot today, so I may feel crappy tomorrow regardless. 

[Elastigirl]

1 hour ago, Kestrel Grey said:

Do you guys talk about your fitness-y things at all?

 

Not much,really. My best friend is interested,  my other friends not so much. And, even though this probably isn' t true, I don't like sharing my life goals such as get started in the morning because I feel like my IRL friends are so much more together. Hubby and I talk about our goals. He sets up goals for the month and tracks them and buys himself rewards (basically following along with us in his own quiet way)

[Kestrel Grey]

9 hours ago, Elastigirl said:

Not much,really. My best friend is interested,  my other friends not so much. And, even though this probably isn' t true, I don't like sharing my life goals such as get started in the morning because I feel like my IRL friends are so much more together. Hubby and I talk about our goals. He sets up goals for the month and tracks them and buys himself rewards (basically following along with us in his own quiet way)

Understandable.  Some of my NF quests I talk about, even with non-fitness friends.  I do not tell anyone that I set up quests to remind myself to floss.   

[jonfirestar]

7 hours ago, Kestrel Grey said:

Interesting, it looks like many of the people here are private about their goals in the non-NF world.  Do you guys talk about your fitness-y things at all?

 

Not really. Some of my friends and work colleagues are aware of what I do, at least parts of it but I don't really talk about it. Most people I know are very aware that I've lost a lot of weight and that generates a lot of interest but people get a little disinterested when I tell them the 'secret'. Which is that I do a lot of exercise and watch what I eat. The more lifey goals I don't really talk about. Obviously I talk to my Mrs about it because I get excited about what I'm doing and planning but even that's not in any great detail because she isn't really interested in the details. 

[ladymorella]

On 10/22/2018 at 7:24 PM, Kestrel Grey said:

Interesting, it looks like many of the people here are private about their goals in the non-NF world.  Do you guys talk about your fitness-y things at all?

I always kind of wonder that sort of stuff. Interesting how our online life can be quite different from RL. I rarely talk about goal IRL. In general the more important something is to me the less I talk about it. Like in April It was very important to me to do well on a 5k and I talked about it here, but not IRL. I told my coach I was doing it only cause I needed his help. Everyone else at the race would have understood the importance of doing well at that race, but I told zero of them and I consider them friends. I only told my coach in a understated, 'hey thanks. I knocked three minutes off my time'. Weird how that works right? 

 

Quote

The theory is talking about your goals tricks you into feeling like you have already accomplished something, and you won't work as hard.

It is an interesting notion. I've always found goal setting to be somehow silly in some way. Even though in reality we all do it all the time. I can never figure out what I don't like about it. I have felt the way from like 2nd grade or younger. On the one hand I get it, but also somehow goal setting seems utterly ridiculous to me always has.

[Kestrel Grey]

1 hour ago, ladymorella said:

It is an interesting notion. I've always found goal setting to be somehow silly in some way. Even though in reality we all do it all the time. I can never figure out what I don't like about it. I have felt the way from like 2nd grade or younger. On the one hand I get it, but also somehow goal setting seems utterly ridiculous to me always has.

I found it silly when I was young too. I think that's because school uses goal setting to force kids to care about things they don't, rather than to show them how to get the things they want.  Like making us write goals on how we were going to get straight A's when we really cared about mastering Pogs.

[TimovieMan]

On 10/23/2018 at 4:24 AM, Kestrel Grey said:

Interesting, it looks like many of the people here are private about their goals in the non-NF world.  Do you guys talk about your fitness-y things at all?

I tend to give the CliffsNotes version of what I do. Almost everyone that knows me now knows I'm losing weight and doing more exercising, without knowing the details.

 

I tend not to shut up about the results I'm getting, though. But that's because I'm still so overweight that the pounds basically fly off. That'll die down once the speed at which I'm shedding weight slows down.

And it's also because I tend to boast easily. That's mainly because I'm awesome it's a character flaw I inherited from my dad. And I'm on the autism spectrum, so I tend not to notice when the other person stopped paying attention to my ramblings.

At least online, people can go "tl;dr" and skip the walls of text where I'm talking about myself.  

[Kestrel Grey]

Week One - Tuesday

 

1. Strength train 3/week - yes

Yesterday went well because I was determined it would.  My husband woke me to talk about silk at 7am when I went to bed at 1am and I couldn't fall back asleep.  Normally I would then lie in bed for the next three hours, feeling miserable and wishing I was still asleep.  Instead I hopped out of bed and went to the gym for a good lifting session.  Point for Team Living.

 

2. Keep the knee moving 3/week - yes

My knee was stiff yesterday, endangering my return-to-running program again.  I iced it after exercising and it feels fine today so we go onwards!

 

3. Winter-proof - yes

 

4. Ghost Challenge - ....

 

[Maigs]

On 10/22/2018 at 9:24 PM, Kestrel Grey said:

Interesting, it looks like many of the people here are private about their goals in the non-NF world.  Do you guys talk about your fitness-y things at all?

Most people around me don't seem interested in improving themselves in the same areas I am so I don't have them in common with anyone. Plus my two big ones (weight loss/fitness and finances) can feel like I'm bragging because I've lost a chunk of weight knocking me from "obese" to "normal" and we are pretty financially secure. And at the same time weight loss/fitness feels like I'm failing because I've been stuck in the same place for so long.

 

I bring up fitness-y things a bit, but mostly in a "I had/have a mudrun last/this weekend. They're a blast, you should try one" kind of way.

[ladymorella]

21 hours ago, Kestrel Grey said:

I found it silly when I was young too. I think that's because school uses goal setting to force kids to care about things they don't, rather than to show them how to get the things they want.  Like making us write goals on how we were going to get straight A's when we really cared about mastering Pogs.

Haha there is certainly that. I think partly for me it has been I have known from a pretty young age about how little control people really have in their lives even if it was more on a sub-conscious level. I do think it is true when in school our goals were all super lofty and no teacher was like, 'that's great, but how do you get there?' Or 'what about a 4 wk goal'. And they certainly didn't care that I wanted to beat Koopa, before Christopher did. 

[Artemis Prime]

On 10/15/2018 at 7:57 PM, Kestrel Grey said:

On the other hand, there is evidence it damages the likelihood you'll reach your goal. The theory is talking about your goals tricks you into feeling like you have already accomplished something, and you won't work as hard.

 

That's an interesting thought. In my experience, it isn't true, but that doesn't mean it doesn't work that way for other people. I like your head-to-head experiment, but I wonder if it would be more effective if you did one challenge with everything posted and the next challenge you don't even post that you are participating until the end. Even though you're not sharing the details of the Ghost Challenge, we all know there is one and we're eagerly anticipating the results, which is its own level of accountability.  I often don't tell people anything about my goals because then I know they will hold me accountable and I like having an exit strategy. Which is exactly why I'm trying to share more, though I do it here more than IRL.

 

On 10/22/2018 at 10:24 PM, Kestrel Grey said:

Interesting, it looks like many of the people here are private about their goals in the non-NF world.  Do you guys talk about your fitness-y things at all?

 

I tend not to share too much about what I'm doing IRL, mostly because I feel like I talk too much about myself and other people can't be that interested. My office-mates did know that I was running a half marathon, but only because I was bringing my running clothes to work so I could change there and run on the bike trail right beside our building. And even though none of them run, they were all very interested and supportive. And it definitely helped me with my training. I was doing my long runs on Saturdays and I knew that on Monday they were going to ask me how my run was. There were a couple of pretty lousy Saturdays that I probably wouldn't have run except I knew I was going to be asked about it.

[Kestrel Grey]

So it is mostly out of politeness and not wanting to bore your acquaintances to tears that you all refrain from talking about your goals?  I'm with @TimovieMan  and am often not so considerate!  When people ask what's new in my life I tell them what fitness quests I am working on.  They don't care but they nod politely.

 

7 hours ago, RangerDanger said:

 

That's an interesting thought. In my experience, it isn't true, but that doesn't mean it doesn't work that way for other people. I like your head-to-head experiment, but I wonder if it would be more effective if you did one challenge with everything posted and the next challenge you don't even post that you are participating until the end. Even though you're not sharing the details of the Ghost Challenge, we all know there is one and we're eagerly anticipating the results, which is its own level of accountability.  I often don't tell people anything about my goals because then I know they will hold me accountable and I like having an exit strategy. Which is exactly why I'm trying to share more, though I do it here more than IRL.

 

Good point.  That would be a better comparison.  In this experiment I assumed everyone knows I am always working towards something (I am a Ranger  ) so it will just see if publicly describing the goal makes a difference.

I like bragging, not ashamed to admit it, so only being able to brag about accomplishments and not lofty plans might be a better motivator for me.

[Kestrel Grey]

Week One - Wednesday

 

1. Strength train 3/week - rest day

2. Keep the knee moving 3/week - yes

3. Winter-proof - yes

4. Ghost Challenge - ....

 

Wednesday I jogged for two minutes, walked eight, three times.  It went as well as Monday's one-minute jogging.  Meaning it was stiff and swollen after but not sore, and it felt okay the next morning.  My friends at work are thinking I should put off jogging for a while longer because they see me icing it; I am on the fence. 

 

[obax]

On 10/25/2018 at 3:26 PM, Kestrel Grey said:

Wednesday I jogged for two minutes, walked eight, three times.  It went as well as Monday's one-minute jogging.  Meaning it was stiff and swollen after but not sore, and it felt okay the next morning.  My friends at work are thinking I should put off jogging for a while longer because they see me icing it; I am on the fence. 

 

 

Firstly, the disclaimer: I am NOT an expert in any way, shape, or form, I'm just sharing my personal experience. But my physio has always told me that pain/discomfort/swelling/etc is not necessarily a bad thing when rehabilitating an injury. He keys on the pain in particular, and is a proponent of, if it doesn't cause pain (or any kind of disfunction), then keep doing it. If it causes pain but the pain is low on the 1-10 pain scale (in the 1-4 range), and/or if it's short term (eg. pain after exercise, but clears by the next morning), then keep doing it but monitor your pain levels. I more or less subscribe to my physio's way of thinking, and it serves me well enough. In general, I find that movement/use of an injured area is better in the long run to keep things well oiled, so to speak, but make sure I monitor my body's reaction to what I'm doing to make sure it's not veering into reinjury territory, and to scale what I'm doing as needed to keep the movement/use in the beneficial territory.

 

All that said, listen to your body, you and it know best. A little bit of rest now and then can be a good thing, but like anything, just don't overdo it.

[Xena]

On 10/25/2018 at 3:17 PM, Kestrel Grey said:

So it is mostly out of politeness and not wanting to bore your acquaintances to tears that you all refrain from talking about your goals? 

I have some friends who I share with. But yeah, a lot of them aren't particularly interested in the details. If someone has a similar goal, then I'm pretty open to talking about it.

I have running friends who are interested(ish) in my running training. I have vegetarian friends who are interested(ish) in the new recipes I'm trying.

No one is really all that interested in hearing about the specific challenges.

 

47 minutes ago, obax said:

 

Firstly, the disclaimer: I am NOT an expert in any way, shape, or form, I'm just sharing my personal experience. But my physio has always told me that pain/discomfort/swelling/etc is not necessarily a bad thing when rehabilitating an injury. He keys on the pain in particular, and is a proponent of, if it doesn't cause pain (or any kind of disfunction), then keep doing it. If it causes pain but the pain is low on the 1-10 pain scale (in the 1-4 range), and/or if it's short term (eg. pain after exercise, but clears by the next morning), then keep doing it but monitor your pain levels. I more or less subscribe to my physio's way of thinking, and it serves me well enough. In general, I find that movement/use of an injured area is better in the long run to keep things well oiled, so to speak, but make sure I monitor my body's reaction to what I'm doing to make sure it's not veering into reinjury territory, and to scale what I'm doing as needed to keep the movement/use in the beneficial territory.

 

All that said, listen to your body, you and it know best. A little bit of rest now and then can be a good thing, but like anything, just don't overdo it.

 

I think all that makes sense.

I would maybe add, that if they pain/discomfort/swelling seem to be getting worse, you should probably dial it back.

[Artemis Prime]

On 10/26/2018 at 7:59 PM, obax said:

All that said, listen to your body, you and it know best.

 

For whatever my very amateur opinion is worth, I am a strong proponent of listening to your body. Pain is your body's way of telling you to stop, sometimes because something is wrong, but sometimes because the body is feeling lazy and doesn't want to move right now. Pushing through the first kind of pain almost guarantees an injury (or re-injury) but pushing through the second kind is the only way to get stronger/faster/whatever your goal is.

[Kestrel Grey]

Happy Halloween!

 

I am slowly catching up after a hectic weekend.  Updating NF is low on my list, but thinking about it is high.  Both strength training and the return to running programs are likely going to be 2/3 for this week.  My SAD protocols are mostly in place.  Proper updates later this week, and I am excited to see how everyone else is doing on their challenges.