Welcome to the 4th Annual Strength & Fitness Gauntlet, for 2018!Just for the record, I am both baffled and pleased that this is the 4th year for this gauntlet. You are all awesome!As usual, I will create a tracking post to list out all of the goals, a resource post for...well, resources, a goal description post so that you can look at all the awesome things your fellow Mustachians are aiming for, and some extra stuff I'm doing for the gauntlet this year. Those will eventually be in their own comment (one of the reserved ones below). As far as the resources, everything is going to be combined into a few posts (instead of breaking them up by year). We'll have a list based on the kind of media (YouTube videos, books, articles, etc), but I'm also going to start digging into all of the resources, and start breaking things down by what issue it addresses. I will most likely need your assistance on that, so one of my first comments will be what I think the most common hurdles are, and what resources would be best.
I've got some thoughts on an application I can build (web based, hosted at one of my sites), but I'm not sure what I should include. Feel free to PM me suggestions (or put them in my journal, or whatever, but lets not gunk up this thread with discussions on software).
This thread has been a success for the last three years, and it keeps getting better. With growth comes a little bit of pain, and the fun thing is that any 'pain' that was experienced was always just stuff taken a bit out of context, and everyone has moved on and continued kicking ass. This thread was initially designed as just a place to publicize your goals, and maybe do some check-ins, but it's become so much more than that. It's now a place to share ideas, ask questions, post progress/technique photos, find suggestions on how to deal with difficult circumstances, how to figure out what program is needed to reach your goals, how to make fitness an awesome and sustainable part of your life, identify and overcome hurdles, stay on track and get some accountability, and get a view into alternate viewpoints of strength and fitness. I do think that the mention of finding diet specific threads for nutrition questions as it relates to S&F has prevented some flame wars. I am still highly contemplating making a perpetual sister thread dedicated to nutrition, with a nice table of contents for the discussions, but I won't have time to manage it until 1/2.
The GuidelinesAdvice, whether solicited or not, is always welcome so long as it remains constructive.
Friendly ribbing/face punches are okay by default, but if you aren't okay with that, just say so, and it won't happen (and it's never personal).
If a comment rubs you the wrong way, say so, and we'll get that figured out.
I will do my best to keep this thread on track throughout the year. I personally noticed that I have a tendency to yo-yo throughout the year. In order to keep on track, I'm going to be doing monthly (maybe quarterly) sub-goals. At the beginning and the end of each month, I am going to make small short term goals, that will address any shortcomings I've noticed in myself. I am more than happy to do that for you as well. Now that we have mentions enabled on the forums, it would be a nice way to notify people.
The goals can be whatever you'd like. Based on the last few years, I've found the following are general enough to encapsulate everyone.
- Vague goals - Not really measurable, no real way to meet them. I've found that people who set goals like these just need to put something out there, and it's more of a motivational technique than something to shoot for specifically. It's kind of a public announcement that "this is something I'm going to do this year".
- Specific Destination goals - What I did last year. In this case, it's more about the destination than the journey. It provides a lot of lee-way when it comes to how one accomplishes the goal, since the how isn't specified, just the result.
- Specific Journey goals - This is a goal that focuses more on the journey than the destination. Instead of (or in addition to) a desired result, this is all about having a general idea of what one wants, and a specific idea as to what will get one there.
I will sometimes take liberties with the verbiage as I put goals on the tracking post, but I will always notify you and make sure it's okay. My favorite one was changing the goal of "Liking how I look" to "Increase Mirror-Lust".
Get ready to kick ass, increase health/stamina, and be sexier!
Thanks again for joining, as you are the ones who make this a success.