Case Studies
200 in '24
- Primary Goal:
- Get Fit (murky)
- Subgoals:
- Do 10 Strict Pull-ups
- Various monthly goals along the way
- Why:
- I want to be the fit dad
- How / Consistency Goal:
- metric: Visit the Gym 200 Times
- when: In 2024
As the year has progressed, this goal has really challenged me to try new approaches, to stay committed, to stick with the Consistency Goal even when I did not want to. My commitment is to my health. I want to be healthy for my family. I want to be able to play with my kids. I want to be the fit dad.
As was preparing for the start of the year, I settled on 200 visits because it is a nice round number - but 200 visits over the course of a year is less than 4 visits per week - which to me, seemed almost too easy for someone who was going to the gym consistently. My wife encouraged me to give space for travel, illness, injury, or unknowns. This proved to be wise.
After starting the year with a flurry of 20 visits in January, my wife received a cancer diagnosis and our plans for the year were turned upside down.
As we embark on a new month and near the halfway point of 2024, I am reflecting on my 2024 goal of 200 check-ins at my gym, and May goal of 20 check-ins.
Today I completed my 20-in-May goal. I checked-in on 20 of 31 days, which is roughly 2/3 (64%) of days. I don't find that 64% feels impressive. It is closer to 50 than it is to 100. Zooming out to the 200-in-24 goal, 200/366 days will only be 54%.
By showing up on 54% of possible days in year, I will reach my goal. I will be in better shape than most people. I will push my health forward. I will learn about the power of consistency. Imagine if I set goals that demanded more from me.
Initially, the 200-in-24 target felt a bit low. 200 is a nice round number and leaves room for vacation, injuries, and unexpected speed bumps such as my wife getting a cancer diagnosis.
200 Gym Check-Ins in Year
Mid-Year Progress Report
Tracking my 200-in-24 goal:
Goal Progress: 87 / 200 ████▒▒▒▒▒▒ 43%
Year Progress: 152 / 366 ████▒▒▒▒▒▒ 41%
Overall, I am right on track for the year. This includes taking a week off for an injury and taking many unplanned days off for family care. Planning for a buffer has allowed me to stay on track.
With 30 full weeks left in the year, I have to show up 3.7x per week (16x per month) to hit the 200 mark.
Subtracting 4 weeks for obstacles, my target actually needs to be 4.3x per week (18.6 per month).
Why This Goal is Working
200-in-24 is Specific: Check-in at the gym (and bust my ass) 200 times in 2024.
200-in-24 is Measurable: Every visit gets checked-in, there is a clear place to see the numbers. I keep track of it daily, which motivates me to keep going or to ramp-up my efforts to stay on track.
200-in-24 Supports my Primary Goal: The overarching 200-in-24 goal is the cornerstone to achieving several subgoals that I have, many of which are subjective - Improve my health, eat better, sleep better, fuck better. Some are objective - 10 unbroken strict pull-ups. Success of subgoals is dependent on the overarching goal.
200-in-24 is (mostly) in My Control: Achievement is up to me. If I show up consistently, I will hit the 200-in-24 goal. Showing up is my choice. I might have a hard day, I might never do 10 pull-ups, but showing up is my choice. Yes roadblocks will appear - the gym could burn down, I could have an injury, a family member could become ill - it is my choice how to deal with it.
Reading Streak
- Primary Goal:
- Encourage kid to read more (murky)
- Subgoals:
- Teach power of streaks
- See gain in confidence
- Why:
- I want him to be confident and powerful
- How / Consistency Goal:
- metric: Read daily
- when: 7 days in a row
Feel free to set Consistency Goals for other people! I was able to get my kid onto a reading streak by applying a streak-base Consistency rule.. This all started on a whim, but I was able to get him excited about a streak, with a little 🍦 encouragement.
Some may debate my parenting techniques or how much pressure I should put on him to read. He attends a small Montessori-Based "free range" school, which we love but also leaves us open to many, many questions from relatives about why our child is "not performing" up to certain grade-level expectations.
The conversation started with me simply asking him how he felt about reading - was he nervous? Did he just not like being asked to do it? In my mind, he simply needed more practice, more repetitions... 📚
🍦 Offered him an ice cream outing if he got to 7 days.
To keep it exciting, and to keep his streak alive, when he achieved the 7-day goal I dropped a Double-or-Nothing offer: We can get the ice cream tomorrow, or you can go for 14-days and we'll all go Bowling / Putt-Putt and Ice Cream.
This definitely spiced things up. Conversation swirled around for a bit (A trip to Disney World entered the conversation a one point...) and we arrived at this prize schedule - with some tweaks and surprises along the way.
1 Week: 🍦 Ice Cream
2 Week: 🎳 Bowling / Putt-Putt
4 Week: ⚾ Night Baseball Game / Camping
8 Week: 🎢 Day at Amusement Park
Once I got him excited about tracking a streak and seeing it on a calendar, he created his own chart and we put a sticker on it every day that he reads, so he has some visual feedback and reference to how long his streak has been going and how much work he is putting into it - even if you don't want to read right now, is it worth throwing away your entire streak?
He is debating between which order to go for the prizes, but along the way we are achieving my original Soft Goal: Get the kid to read more.
Why This Goal is Working
Get Caught Up at Work
- Primary Goal:
- Get caught-up on work responsibilities (murky)
- Subgoals:
- My team is functioning well
- My client is happy with my team
- Why:
- I want to be proud of the work I do, I want to work towards a promotion
- How / Consistency Goal:
- metric: Do 1 hour of heads-down work
- when: 2x daily, Mon-Fri
As the year wore on and life took some swipes at me, I began to do the bare minimum at work and fell behind on my duties. The answer to this, of course, was not to try and get caught-up on all my work in a single day - that would simply lead to burnout.
Why This Goal is (NOT) Working
Writing This Workbook
- Primary Goal:
- Write a goal setting workbook for 2025 (clear)
- Subgoals:
- Begin notes for other book(s)
- Learn more about my own process -
- Why:
- I want to share what I have learned, and dig further in for my own observations
- How / Consistency Goal:
- metric: Write for 5 minutes a day
- when: 5x week, June-Oct
Shortly after writing the first outline of what would become this workbook, I was taken by the project quickly developed a framework. My Primary Goal was "Create a tool that people can use for goal setting, have it ready for 2025". To have it ready for 2025, meant it needed to be available by November 1st, 2024.
I went up to find the Why - I want to write goal setting workbook. Why? I want to share my experiences with other people. Why? I think other people could benefit from my goal setting methods. Why? I think people focus on the wrong things ... I get a lot of personal growth by analyzing my successes and I think other people could benefit. Why? I also enjoy thinking about and experimenting this kind of stuff.
I went down to find the How - I want to write a workbook. I want it to be useful. In order to write a workbook, I need to spend time writing. If I spend time writing every day, then I will make progress. Write for 5 minutes each day. Even if I don't feel inspired or if I don't know what to write about, I will sit down and grind it out for 5 minutes. Sometimes 5 minutes turns into 55 minutes, sometimes it does not. I felt that I could commit to 5 minutes per day, 5 days per week. This became my Consistency Goal.
Throughout the Goal Timeline, I repeatedly fell into the Pit of Despair. A lot. This is common in Consistency Goals and goal setting in general. Building an app, writing a book, etc. I would fall into the This is Dumb Trap.
About 3 weeks into the writing process, I was making good progress but found that the 5 days per week goal was a bit ambitious, between work and family obligations, I was never getting any writing done on the weekends and it came down to writing every weekday. I alleviate the stress around this Consistency Goal, I lowered my target to 4 days per week. I am now able to better keep up with my targets while still being on track achieve my Primary Goal of producing this book, whatever it may become.
6 weeks in - We have been keeping up, had to make a few adjustments along the way to account for late nights, etc - but the important thing is that he keeps going and picks it up if we miss an evening (reads in the morning if we miss the evening). Then, today, he asked "Can I read to myself at bedtime, after we read books together?"
I had been behind pace for most of the goal, even after switching from 5/7 to 4/7. Then, on day 33 I caught up to the target. I could see that I was close, and making the target adjustments enables me to feel good and stay motivated about my Consistency Goal, without compromising the final output of my Primary Goal.