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!
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