The late Formula 1 driver, Ayerton Senna, once said, “I don’t have the goal to win five titles or six titles or any particular number of victories. It’s just to drive.” Yet, one area that so many often focus on when setting a goal is numbers. Numbers are objective targets that give us something to shoot for, but they also have the dangerous potential of taking us out of the moment.
Perhaps the most common number we often focus on is weight. Many have an ideal number they want to reach and set that as the target for their goal – whether to lose 10 pounds or to gain 15. Regardless of the direction one wants to go, the idea behind setting this target is not the problem, but the number may be.
Earlier this year I was speaking with a golf pro about this concept. We were talking about my weight loss journey, and I mentioned that throughout my process of losing 150 lbs., I never once set a number as my goal. I simply wanted to win the day and whatever happened, happened. Yet even with that mindset, I found myself getting caught up on certain meaningless benchmarks as they approached. The moment I had lost about 95 lbs,, I began to think about reaching 100. Why did the number 100 matter more than any other? It absolutely did not. When I went down to a weight of about 204 lbs,, I suddenly found myself thinking about getting below 200. Another number that didn’t matter.
Then, my golf pro shared her story of trying to gain weight for fitness and having a target she wanted to reach while adding strength and muscle. She trained hard and reached her peak physical condition, yet she could not reach the number she set as the goal. Frustrated at her failure to reach the target, she discussed the struggle with her dad. His response was as follows.
“Are you stronger now?” She replied, “Yes.”
“Are you fitter now?” Again, “Yes.”
“Are you at doing everything you are supposed to do and at your peak physical condition?” Once more the answer was, “Yes.”
“So maybe the number is your problem?!”
In this moment, she realized that, despite feeling stressed and defeated over her failure to reach her target, she did achieve her goal. She was fitter, stronger, and a better golfer than ever before. In terms of the process, she was winning nearly every day. What felt like a failure was really a success. Of course, her process led to gaining weight. The problem was the number.
As we set our goals for 2025, whether it is weight or something else, when the target becomes a number, take some time to think about the foundation it takes to it because while the number is just a number, the process is truly the goal.
If you want to lose weight, consider setting behaviors as the target rather than a number. Use whatever number you may have in mind to decide what you need to do to get there. And then, doing it is the goal. That can include eating healthier, drinking less, or working out more. Once the process is achieved, the numbers will follow, and if a specific weight is not reached, perhaps the number is the problem.
I wrote last week about my aspirations for climbing in 2025, and I mentioned that I am currently climbing 5.6 grade routes outside on the rock. Towards the end of the year, I asked my guide, Patty, where she thinks I’ll be climbing at the end of next year, and she predicted 5.8’s. I immediately fell into the trap I just discussed and thought, “I want to be at 5.9’s or 5.10’s.” But I knew it would be wrong to set a such an expectation. Not because my number was higher than Patty’s but because what I really was saying to myself is that I want to do more than she thinks I will do. What that means is climbing more, learning more, and working harder than she expects. That process is my climbing goal. In fact, it continues today, as I’ll be closing out 2024 in The Gunks with Patty. And take a look at my answers on the sign-up form . . .
