Since you are visiting the NICROS Training Center, it’s probably safe to say that you are a motivated climber with great passion for recreating in the vertical extreme. I’d also bet that you’ve already formulated some goals for the new year, and perhaps you are even pondering a new training program to help you reach these goals.

For many people the arrival of the New Year is a unique time of heightened reflection, gratitude, and perhaps even redemption. I encourage you to pause for a few hours (or even days) to reflect on the past year, taking a personal inventory of all you’ve done and achieved in the past year. Think back on the challenges you’ve faced, both climbing and non-climbing. Relive the feelings of your successes and review the lessons of your setbacks or failures. Most important, remind yourself of all the great places visited and new friends made—these events and people are the most valuable life experiences of all.

Taking such a personal inventory should underscore how blessed we are as climbers—many flatlanders will never know the acute experience and joy we gain from climbing. And, I trust that you will agree that we are all very lucky to have the freedom to pursue self-actualization in this way, when many people around the world are struggling just to get by.

Given this perspective, we are now in a position to look forward and imagine what is possible in the year ahead. What places will you visit, what great climbs will you send, and what new people will you meet? To make the most of the year ahead, it’s essential that you have a game plan that will integrate your training, climbing, and travel with all your other commitments like family, work, and school. Without specific goals and a detailed game plan, your life will live you, instead of you living your life.

Effective goal setting begins with gaining absolute clarity as to what activities are of highest value in your life. So, before you set goals for the New Year, you first need to develop a hierarchy of values in your life. I encourage you to take out a sheet of paper and make a top-10 list of the activities and things now comprising your life experience—rank the most important thing (whether it’s your family, work, climbing or whatever) as #1. Rank the second most important, as #2, and continue down the list to the activities of lower importance, perhaps things like passive entertainment, socializing, and such.

The list you have just created is a hierarchy of personal values which, by the way, will change as you grow older or as circumstances in your life change. Throughout my teenager and 20-something years, I’d say that climbing was #1 on my list, while now that I’m in my 40s, my family and work rank #1 and #2, respectively, with climbing not far behind. Anyway, knowledge of your true values is fundamental to effective living, because you will feel happy and successful in proportion to the amount of time you are engaged in high value activities. It’s a fact that people produce the most dramatic results in their life to the degree they can remain focused on taking daily action in their high value areas. Many people who fail to produce significant results do so, not because they are low-quality people, but instead because they spend so much time focused on and acting in lower-value areas.

Let’s now focus on steps for setting some longer-term goals in each of the top three to five areas on your top-10 list of personal values. I call these “mega-goals”, because they relate to your high-value activities and, ultimately, they define your current “mission” and life trajectory.

Create each of your mega goals according to these three guidelines:

1. Define your goal specifically and with as much detail as possible. For instance, instead of just setting a goal to, say, “go on an exciting roadtrip”, write down specifically where you want to go, what month it will happen, and who you hope will join you on this trip. This thought process will really get your juices flowing and compel you to make it happen!

2. Make your goals lofty and challenging, but keep them realistic. For example, setting a goal to redpoint one number grade harder next year is lofty, yet it is achievable given a disciplined effort. However, setting a goal to boulder V12 next season when you currently boulder only V5 is unrealistic. And, of course, don’t forget to set some non-climbing goals—set one mega goal for each activity near the top of your hierarchy of values.

3. Write down one or more activities that you will sacrifice in order to reach these mega goals. This final step is vital and, interestingly, it’s a step missing from most traditional goal-setting exercises. It’s a simple fact that you cannot elevate your life without giving up something lesser. Therefore, you must review your hierarchy of values and determine what lower-value activities you will completely give up in order to have the time, energy, and focus needed to reach your mega goals.

Once you have established your longer-term goals, it is critical that you begin a never-ending process of setting short-term goals to guide your day-to-day actions. Just as you climb a mountain one step at a time, your short-term actions accumulate to elevate you closer and closer to your mega goals. In this way, writing down your daily and weekly game plan is essential to making your goals reality.

Clearly, your short-term goals must be based on a sound strategy for reaching the mega goals. While creating such a strategy is beyond the scope of this article, I will provide you with five tips for effective planning and execution.

1. Establish a monthly game plan for making measurable progress on all of your mega goals. Define one or two benchmark steps and make a deadline for each.

2. Take meaningful action every single day on one or two of your mega goals. By the end of the week, you should have taken action on every one of your goals.

3. Constantly evaluate the effectiveness of your short-term actions. Are you achieving your monthly benchmarks or have you veered somewhat off course? Is there a conflicting activity preventing you from taking the necessary actions? Do you need to modify your approach or even develop a new strategy?

4. Determine what personal weaknesses might be holding you back. What skills must you acquire in order to improve your effectiveness? Who might you enlist to help out in these weak areas? What resources can you tap?

5. Constantly evaluate what fear might to be holding you back from taking the necessary actions. If you identify a fear, determine if the fear is legitimate or self-created. Push forward through bogus fears with the courage and resolve to live big and reach your goals!


Copyright 2010 Eric J. Hörst. All rights reserved.