When I look back over the past year before i started working at the DoubleVision Conditioning Centre I had no real goals. I had things I wanted to achieve - I wanted to become a successful Personal trainer, I wanted to help people achieve body transformations and help people to live a more healthy lifestyle, amongst other goals.
The problem for me was none of these goals were specific enough for me to really know when they had been achieved and for this reason I never progressed as fast I could have done before joining the DVCC team.
Upon joining the team, at the end of each day I was asked to write my 3 "wins" for the day gone, and 3 "wins" for the next day.
At first I found this challenging on some days and at times slightly tedious, little did I know at the time I was forming a habit which is now the base of how I plan my goals in a more specific and measurable way.
A "win" can be anything positive you have done that day, and is a great way to focus on the positives each day brings you. I'd like to think that I have always been a positive person, however like everybody I have the occasional bad day. Using the 3 wins at the end of one of these days is where it has changed me completely and has helped me to maintain my positivity through times when normally I would have been negatively affected due to my actions during that day or what happened throughout the day.
There will ALWAYS be three things to take from everyday that you can focus on and help you protect your positive mindset.
Previously when I wrote my three wins for the next day I would write things that were sure to happen, a good example of this is "train hard" or "eat clean".
Training had always been a corner stone of my adult life and I eat as healthily as I can not only to benefit my training but because I enjoy it. These are things that are already habits for me and planned "wins" that I knew would be no challenge for me to follow through with.
After some time writing my wins for the next day I changed the way I would use the "3 wins tool". I started writing wins that I can only describe as mini goals - things that would help me to progress to a large goal a step at a time.
When I write goals down I write them using the 'smart goal template'.
The goal should be: Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Timely. By following the 'smart goal' guidelines, your goals will become a lot more realistic and more likely to be achieved.
Smart goals have more thought put into them and therefore should always be written down. It's a proven fact that goals that are written down are 42% more likely to be achieved than goals that are not!
There's a difference between wanting to be able to bench press 100 KGs and wanting to bench press 100 KGs in 3 months time, for 6 reps, with no assistance, a full range of motion and controlled tempo.
Similarly: wanting to loose 2 stone or wanting to loose 2 stone of body fat, within 1 year, while adding 5lbs of muscle.
The reasons behind why you want to achieve the goals is what will drive you to achieve these goals and should always be in the fore front of your mind.
The great thing about the 3 wins is that they can start of at a basic level with things that are almost certain to happen, just like I did. It's a great feeling to end the day on a positive note recalling the positive moments and actions you have done.
It will improve your mood, confidence within yourself and your productivity.
Everyone will benefit from the 3 wins and it has become a very important tool in my life.
Download the Winstreak App to help you record your "wins" - Win Streak
