Goal setting is fundamental to the pursuit of excellence. And it's not just me saying that, there's all sorts of evidence showing that if we don't pursue our goals in a structured way, we won't achieve them. That's not to say the structure needs to be cumbersome, but it does need to exist.
Right on cue, all those "New Year's Resolution People" are doing what they do; filling up classes at gyms and Pilates studios but come March, most of them will have become so discouraged that they'll have given up and resumed their former sedentary lifestyle.
There's a relatively predictable cycle to this trend and when we break it down and look at it with our Pilates glasses on, we discover that some pretty fantastic opportunities exist for us to help our current clients and to gently guide new ones through those first few months of a new routine, that high attritition period when most folks give up and quit.
Here's essentially what happens when we, willy nilly, go about trying to change.
Let's say we're really tight and we decide to finally begin a stretching routine. We don't take time to learn about how to perform proper stretching technique, we don't know how to calibrate how much is enough, there is no one in our life to teach us about the stretch reflex and we don't know about the safety protocol for flexibility training. What we do know is that we're motivated, it's the new year and we're going to get flexible. So we begin. I begin.
I begin by stretching the way I always have which, like most folks, I've based on what I've seen other people do. My form is improper, I stretch too far, that stretch reflex kicks in and I actually end up tighter than I was when I started. I decide the combination of the pain plus the reverse result are enough to make me quit and I do. I quit. I not only quit but when others ask how it's going, I tell them the reasons I quit; that it hurt and I ended up actually tighter than before. I now believe stretching is bad for us, or at least for me. I hate stretching.
This same "don't know how/do it anyway/do it poorly/get hurt/quit" cycle applies to any new activity. When we had capacity to take them, I was always suspicious of any new client who signed up for 3 privates a week - they never, not a one, lasted long. We know from countless studies that it's small changes that last. I just read the statistic in the newspaper right before the New Year that it's less than 10% of patients who actually make the change the doctor recommends. Less than 10%, and that includes times when your life is on the line.
Indeed, we humans need just the right combination of circumstances in order to be led to change and to sustain it. Fortunately, we can structure that change, and nurture it along, quite easily within our Pilates relationships. Here's how.
We can co-opt the Weight Watchers model for success.
Information + structure + accountability = results.
There are flaws in the Weight Watchers model - have you ever noticed they're really good at getting weight off but not so successful at maintaining the loss? - but if we copy the basics and continue to set new goals, our clients will benefit tremendously by more fully embracing the finer aspects of Pilates and they'll realize just how much we care about them and can do for them, beyond teaching our best during each discreet session.
Our studio clients have set some impressive Pilates goals for 2008. I'm going to try and post a picture of the list of our client's goals but I'm having trouble with Serendipity, my Nun site software, so forgive me if there's no picture.
I wrote the header up on the board way back in mid-December and we left a bunch of dry erase markers out on the coffee table in the waiting area for clients to use in posting their goals. Virtually every one of them asked what Heidi and I thought would be a good goal and we encouraged reasonable, attainable goals having to do with strength, form and flexibility. We were like Goldilocks; we encouraged goals that were not too easy so they wouldn't come too quickly and not too hard so they wouldn't take too long. We tried, and I think we nailed it, to form goals that were just right.
Over 35 clients went on record and I've left the whole list up until now, mid-February, so everyone could have a chance to peruse it fully. That's at least partially to encourage accountability among clients.
Clients have commented on how many share the goal of untucking a pelvis and smoothing out a Roll Up - there is comfort in knowing you are not alone!
As far as recording the goals, in my studio we have over 80 feet of dry erase board down opposing walls so it's easy for us post stuff like this. If you don't have wall space sufficient to post a list or butcher paper, you could get a big bulletin board and put it on an easel (both are inexpensive to buy) and post 3 x 5 cards for each client's goals. You could also go completely minimalist and simply use a clipboard and legal pad sitting on your reception desk. The vehicle is not at all important.
What is important is that the goal is reasonable, attainable within the year and is documented. As the saying goes, if you think it, you've got to ink it.
Accountability begins with declaration. Simply put, yes, but not so simply done.
For some people, it's more difficult to clarify a goal than it is to achieve it. When people are abstract thinkers, it can be really hard to corral them into thinking about anything linear. Setting a goal and following structure to achieve it is definitely a linear process; you begin at the beginning, one thing leads to the next, you move to the middle and you end with the successful completion of the task. Or as least that's the plan.
One client said she refuses to make resolutions. I asked her to think of it as a goal instead of the typical New Year's Resolution but she still resisted, hanging her argument on my use of the word "Resolution." I reminded her of her recent wedding and paralleled the planning, effort and result of her wedding to what we were encouraging her to do with her Pilates practice. She's also an event planner, which requires massive amounts of goal setting - I thought it rather odd that she didn't see that it's all the same thing. Once we re-defined it for her, she jumped right on board and came up with 2 wonderfully appropriate goals.
Once the goal is established, a couple of things need to happen in order to keep us moving in the right direction.
There are some ways I handle goalsetting.
With an intense 6 week summer Pilates program for a figure skating club with skaters ranging in age from 6 to 18, I gave them a couple of weeks prior to the program beginning to think about what they wanted to achieve over the summer session.
Our first Pilates class of the 6-week intensive, we took the entire class period to set and record our goals. Each skater got about 3 minutes to write in the Goal Book. I used a big hard cover plain paper book for our official Goal Book - we used the same book 3 summers in a row - and the kids wrote in it using gel roller pens, all different colors, and in addition to writing out their goals, around their names almost every one of them drew scrolly lines and flowers and hearts. So adorable.
I still have the book and it's one of my most treasured Pilates possessions because it so vividly captures a brief but exciting time in their young lives. Some of them still come to class when I resume the program every summer at the rink, some are old enough to drive themselves to the studio, some of the older ones are almost through with college, some are skating with Disney, some married and moved away. In the Goal Book, I've got a little piece of their childhood and my part in it, and I treasure it so dearly.
I took Polaroid pictures of each skater in their "before" pose. If their goal was a technically perfect Teaser, I took a picture of their Teaser that was not so technically perfect. If their goal was to get up smoothly on Roll Up, they rolled up as far as they could before the trouble began, they stopped and I snapped the shot. For flexibility goals, many skaters need to do splits (front and center) and they'd get in their split as far as they comfortably could, and I'd take the picture. Not scientific, but very effective. I put the date on each shot and I kept the pictures over the summer.
The second class of summer session they received a file folder containing the following:
* Goal Achievement Protocol. This one-page "how to" restated their goal for strength and flexibility and the application to skating. In this information sheet, I told them specifically what to do in order to move toward achieving their goal. I detailed form challenges to watch for, minimum frequency and duration, and ended with tons of encouragement. As part of my Pilates Excel program, students receive an electronic copy of every type of Goal Achievement Protocol I created; hamstring, hip, back flexibility, spinal articulation, the building blocks for Teaser, etc.. They're great to use, over and over again.
* Journal. This was a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet with columns for day, date, goal (flexibility, strength), total time spent, progress noted and comments. On the comments column, I defined comments as any awareness they perceived in how they felt, slept, skated or moved - if anything was different, I wanted it recorded.
And, to encourage daily work I had every single day of the summer session plugged into the spreadsheet so every day of the 6 weeks had its own line. To supplement the comments column, I also gave them 2 legal pads each and encouraged them to write expansively about how they felt they were doing. And they did.
I copied their coaches and the skating director with each skater's Goal Achievement Protocol.
At the end of the summer session, the last class was spent in review of our goals.
Without revealing the "before" shots, we took another round of pictures and those became the "after" shots.
I made certificates and gave a free private session in the studio to the skater who was Most Improved : Strength, Most Improved : Flexibility and Most Consistent. The Most Consistent was awarded to the skater whose journal was the most full of daily time spent regardless of result.
Taking pictures to document stages of progress is key.
Surprisingly, without showing them the "before" shots, these highly trained athletes - some nationally ranked - were not able to calibrate to anything tangible and virtually every skater thought they'd made little progress. In spite of daily and near-daily work and journaling, they still thought they did poorly.
I'm convinced we must document photographically along the way because even with the result in their bodies, they didn't perceive it and weren't able to appreciate it without seeing the pictures in spite of full journals showing daily effort.
Once the "before" shots were revealed, they saw the amazing progress they'd made and immediately felt great about their effort and accomplishment.
The way I'm going to handle our Pilates Resolutions for studio clients is a little bit different than the way I structured the skaters' goals, but it includes the same elements of visual, written and ongoing support.
For our studio clients' 2008 goals, Heidi and I will teach a bit in every session toward achieving that client's goals. Our clients already know what their homework is; at least 5 minutes a day, in order to continue making progress between formal studio sessions. Sometimes we teach an entire mat class with a focus on common goals like untucking a pelvis or a smooth articulation through the spine.
Between now and March, and then every 2 months thereafter, we'll be snapping "before" and "during" pictures, which clients can see but we'll keep.
I have a laminator and will make 3 laminated copies of each client's goals, using a small size type and a 3-up format; they'll end up being about the size of a business card. Clients can keep their goals in their calendars, on their bathroom mirror and maybe that third copy can go in their car so they can look at it when they're stuck in traffic. I want their goals to be ever present in their minds so they'll make it a priority to work hard every single day to achieve those goals.
Clients will also receive an email or card by post every month or so with our comments about their progress. We can always point out so many more aspects of their progress than they're able to appreciate on their own. It's important they they learn how integrated this work is, how their progress here also shows up there. We'll cross cut around and through so they realize every bit of value for their effort.
We also have cameo appearances in mat class, where we'll all watch someone who is making gains. Accountability comes in many forms and our clients are used to us stopping class for everyone to see how the work lives in bodies other than Heidi's and mine, they enjoy being featured and work extra hard to impress their fellow mat mates.
These types of goals and their achievement are only a couple of ways to go about helping your clients advance. If you read the Pilates Nun entry titled Vera Wang Mat, that's another way to do it. We have another client, Lea, who's marching down the aisle in July and she's ressurected Vera Wang Mat, much to everyone's delight.
This next example comes from a wonderful Pilates teacher in Tennessee who came to Seattle and spent some time with me last fall. In response to me helping her set some personal goals, she went back home and found her own way to move her clients forward.
"Also, I was so inspired by my time with you, that when I returned to Memphis and my studio, I held a One Arm Push Up challenge. First to the full postion with perfect form won a bottle of Veuve Clicquot. It was a great time and everyone became stronger and more stable as a result. We did it over 2 month period and then had the finale at my client holiday party. Thanks so much for showing me those! The one arm versions have also helped me personally - I feel much stronger on my left side, and more balanced." -Joanna Fehse
Cheers Joanna! Great job!
And do not for a single moment think that just because it's Valentine's Day that it's too late to make Pilates Resolutions. Wait a minute, it's 8 pm on Valentine's Day and here I sit, posting to my Nun site instead of being wined and dined and smooched - what's going on here? Oh yeah, I am the Pilates Nun! I digress.
Let us pray:
Lord, we need help and we need it now. We must help our clients set clear and achievable goals and we need to do it quickly. Please give us the clarity, the tools, the time, the power and the glory to make it happen within the next 2 weeks. We do it all, after all, in the name of Joseph and Clara, who, like you, wanted to help every single person, without exception. It is up to us to carry on their mission and it is up to you to help us do it. We're doing our part and we pray that you'll do yours by clearing our way and giving us everything we need to get the job done. In Joseph's name we pray, amen!
It's never too late to begin.
In fact, a ton of people way smarter than me keep saying that over and over again, going all the way back to this guy, the German poet Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. He said this a long time ago - he's been dead since 1832 - but I think he said it best.
If there is anything you can do or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power and magic in it. Begin it now.
You heard him, begin it now! And let me know how it goes.