[Mad Hatter] Don’t squash the banana

[Mad Hatter]

I really don't know where this challenge went. I was so busy summering that it all but disappeared. The main goal was to find some goals and to reflect on goal setting and commitment. I never committed to any real goals, so it's difficult to say whether I squashed the banana or not. I'd say on the whole the challenge was mushy but not entirely disintegrated. 😜

 

While I didn't set any goals, I did do quite a lot of reflecting and journalling. I just kept running out of words in my job to spare words on NF! Which is the main reason I haven't been around much. Next challenge I really need to be strict about work balance and not let it be such an energy vampire.

 

I might as well mention some of the things I've been pondering from the podcast. Some of those have been training specific things, like spending all my time on moderate climbs, not trying hard enough, seldom repeating harder climbs. But there's two topics (other than the one about goals and commitment) that go hand in hand which have really stuck with me. It's all in the context of climbing, but you can replace climbing with just about anything.

 

The false ceiling

When I started moving it was as an adult, and at that point it had never ever crossed my mind that it'd be possible to do crazy human tricks like handstands as an adult. Circus was only for circus families and you had to start when you're five, right. It turned out that it wasn't the case at all and even late starters can achieve some pretty awesome things. My mindset had shifted to much more of a growth mindset, at least when it came to physical ability. Cool!

 

But at some point it's regressed. I don't know when or how or why. But particularly when it comes to climbing I realized I have a hard time even entertaining the idea that I can improve. I can perhaps see myself climb reds a bit more often if I get a little stronger. If I really go wild I can imagine myself climbing the next grade up. Like once or twice a year, if the climb is soft and perfectly suits me. I can't imagine having a complete enough skillset to climb even my current grade level consistently. And the thing is that my grade level is not more than say low intermediate, and that's with soft indoor grades. Logically it makes no sense that I couldn't improve or that I'm anywhere near my physical potential. And yet I don't really believe it. After all I've been climbing "for years" right.

 

When it comes to climbing I can at least do the thought exercise and realize there's a problem. With other aspects it's much trickier to pinpoint. Do I really believe I can improve at art or is that the reason why I'm shying away after each completed project? And no wonder I'm stuck on ideas for a career change.

 

The send matters

I haven't had proper goals here for a very, very long time. Sometimes not having goals is a good thing. It allows you to stay in the moment and enjoy each training for what it is. I love climbing with my friends and hanging out and enjoying the movement for the sake of movement. I can even enjoy those bad sessions when I can barely climb my warm ups. This didn't use to be the case. A few years ago I'd get upset and take bad sessions personally and it was awful.

 

I started taking things less seriously. Awesome you might say. In one way yes. No more childish tantrums! But there's always a flip side. I fell into a trap where I started telling myself that the send doesn't matter, it's all about the process. But now I see it for what it is. It's another cop out, another way to protect my ego. If I stop setting goals, there's no way I can fail. Logic. Except I still failed, because looking back I haven't made progress in anything in a very, very long time. And if I told myself that it didn't matter it'd be a big fat lie. Not everyone trains to improve, some people love to work out, and that's absolutely ok. I've never been interested in working out though. For me it's always been about learning and improving, and that includes sending. 

[Elastigirl]

Great thoughts. Improving in workouts is what I find motivating, so I hear where you are coming from. Goals can be great. But what happens  when after your beginner gains things move slowly? Often improvement can be so gradual, that it doesn't feel like improvement. And if you are looking for that quick high of improvement , that can be tough. When I say it's all about the process, I quickly lose interest and stop doing it. I'm not sure what the answer is, I'm still working on it. Shorter term goals seem to work better for me. Also, smaller, specific goals. When I was working on the L-sit, and I saw that I was bending my leg, my goal was to work on straightening that. Having progress videos helped with that. I also like on NF, how they have the skills broken down into levels, with specific goals for levelling up. That seemed to helped me focus. With my pressing goal, I made a goal to lift  30lbs 3 x by challenge end. The drawback of that can be that sometimes you don't always know how fast you will progress, but I felt like it was a bit of a stretch, but fairly likely that if I did the workouts , it could happen.

[WhiteGhost]

7 hours ago, Mad Hatter said:

The false ceiling

 

7 hours ago, Mad Hatter said:

The send matters

 

Hmm, I like both of these concepts and it has gotten me thinking as well.  The first one not so much because I have been able to learn a lot of cool new things as on "old person", but the second one is really big for me.  I like to pretend that I don't care if I can't reach the target but when I stop to think about it, I don't really believe it.  Thank you for sharing these

[Mad Hatter]

20 hours ago, Elastigirl said:

Great thoughts. Improving in workouts is what I find motivating, so I hear where you are coming from. Goals can be great. But what happens  when after your beginner gains things move slowly? Often improvement can be so gradual, that it doesn't feel like improvement. And if you are looking for that quick high of improvement , that can be tough. When I say it's all about the process, I quickly lose interest and stop doing it. I'm not sure what the answer is, I'm still working on it. Shorter term goals seem to work better for me. Also, smaller, specific goals. When I was working on the L-sit, and I saw that I was bending my leg, my goal was to work on straightening that. Having progress videos helped with that. I also like on NF, how they have the skills broken down into levels, with specific goals for levelling up. That seemed to helped me focus. With my pressing goal, I made a goal to lift  30lbs 3 x by challenge end. The drawback of that can be that sometimes you don't always know how fast you will progress, but I felt like it was a bit of a stretch, but fairly likely that if I did the workouts , it could happen.

Thanks for sharing! It can be tricky to find that sweet spot for sure. 

 

15 hours ago, WhiteGhost said:

Hmm, I like both of these concepts and it has gotten me thinking as well.  The first one not so much because I have been able to learn a lot of cool new things as on "old person", but the second one is really big for me.  I like to pretend that I don't care if I can't reach the target but when I stop to think about it, I don't really believe it.  Thank you for sharing these

You're killing it on the cool human tricks front! I should clarify though that I'm not sure whether I doubt my physical capability, or my inability to commit and stay consistent for log enough to achieve those higher level skills. 

 

I think pretending to not care is a a common way of protecting the ego. But the ironic thing is that caring is a prerequisite to achieving those things!

[KB Girl]

On 7/25/2021 at 8:40 PM, Mad Hatter said:

Haha #sorrynotsorry.  And yes, totally, but I'm working on reframing that part. Goals are not necessarily made to be met, but to provide a direction. It's your hypothesis if you will.  If you fail to complete a goal, it doesn't mean that you suck. It means that your process is broken and/or timeline doesn't make sense and has to be revised, that's all. And if you do complete it, you take note on what did work and try to repeat it for the next goal.

 

Yes! I've been working on getting that one into my brain too. 

Goes along nicely with that sending matters reflection. I find with my athletes it's a trade off- the ones that really care have performance issues because of that and the ones that pretend not to care have training issues. 

[Mad Hatter]

On 7/29/2021 at 11:22 PM, KB Girl said:

I find with my athletes it's a trade off- the ones that really care have performance issues because of that and the ones that pretend not to care have training issues. 

I love how succinctly you put this!  

 

I think I flipped from the first to the second and now I'm struggling to find that middle ground.

[Mad Hatter]