Welcome to Goalie Training Pro TV, episode number 42!
This week’s episode is all about setting your week up for success, and it’s a skill that you can use for your whole life, and you can use it in any area of your life. You can use it for hockey, you can use it for school, work, relationships, whatever it is, and sort of the philosophy that, for me, why it resonates, is that we pretty much only get one life, and so I really wanna live mine on purpose, and keep a clear vision of what am I trying to achieve?
Okay. How do I wanna get there? What’s important to me? Rather than just wake up every day and be like … like a zombie, and just go do whatever I do ’cause that’s what I do. So, that may resonate with you. You might be like, “Oh yeah, that’s awesome.” Or you might be like, “Oh, that’s stupid.” And it’s cool. It’s whatever sorta floats your boat.
Check out the video for this episode on YouTube here >> https://youtu.be/0o8Vyxn9ecU
So then I asked you guys, too, on Instagram, if you wanted me to talk about just the week, which was what I’d planned to do today, or if you wanted me to kinda dive into a little bit how I set up my year.
I do kinda use January 1st to set up my goals for the year, and I don’t count them as resolutions. It’s just that these are the goals that I want to achieve, and these are the action steps I’m gonna take so I can achieve those. For me, it makes sense to do it January 1st, because it’s the start of a new fiscal year for the businesses, so we kinda draw a line, “This is what went really well, this is where we wanna go.” And then I start from there, and I sorta have plans as we go through.
So, it doesn’t have to be January 1st for you, it can be whatever, and this is something that can start anytime. So, just, you can tuck it in the back of your head. So, I think what I’ll do is first I’ll go over the week, because that’d probably be more applicable to everyone, and then I’ll talk quickly about how I set up my year.
And this isn’t like how I train every week. It’s like how I set up my week for success. So, we’re not gonna talk about training right now.
So, basically, I’ve been using this little book. I use lots of things. I use Evernote, too, to map this out. Just lately I’m using a little book. So, I make a list of, “For this week, what are my five most important tasks for the week?”
So, what I ask myself is, “What do you need to, Maria … ?” (Cause that’s what I call myself). I say, “Maria, what do you need to accomplish for you to consider this week to be a success?” So, for me to consider it to be a success, and I map those things out.
Then, there are tasks that are kinda secondary importance. So, these big five tasks need to be something, and I’m gonna talk more in terms of the businesses, ’cause that’s a huge part of my life. That’s, you know, running successful businesses and helping you guys and the athletes that we train here at Revolution. That’s a huge priority to me, so that’s sorta where a lot of this is coming from.
But for you, it might be hockey, or it might be school, or something else.
But I start with what are gonna be the big things that are gonna move the businesses forward, or help me achieve the business goals, or some personal goals. So, for this week, it’s like … we have Devin, who’s the new guy that’s helping me with the websites, give Devin everything that he needs, because the Turning Pro Super Camp in Brackenridge is gonna be launching soon.
So, make sure Devin has every single thing he needs so we have that all laid out nicely that everything’s working, and he’s not rushing at the last minute because I didn’t give him everything he needs. The next tasks are to map out my annual goals, send out a message to the current Turning Pro Coaching clients about next year, and about the camps that are coming up, and if they wanna renew to lock in, because in another month or so, less than a month, I’m gonna open up Turning Pro Coaching Program, again. So, doing that.
And then, secondary importance, work out at least five times a week. You know, write some emails that I have to write. So, that’s what that is.
So, making a list of everything that I need to do is first and then I go to the day. That will look like… for example my Monday. So, it’s like, “What’s my most important task of the day?” My most important task of the day on Monday was actually my most important task of the whole week, which was to get all the info to Devin. So, that’s what I did, very first thing in the morning.
Maybe your most important task of the week is, “Hey, I’m gonna do my mobility training five times a week.” So, then, on your Monday, it’s gonna be like, “What’s my most important task of the day? It’s doing my mobility training.” Now, that’s not to say you have to do it first thing in the morning. Some people really are better doing it in the evening, but if you find yourself, “I’m really gonna feel better if I do it in the evening.” And then, it’s like by the time evening comes, “Oh, I got some work to do, and the day kinda got away from me, and I’m really actually really tired, and I think I’ll just chill a bit and then go to bed.”
If that happens day after day, then you’re gonna have to switch, and maybe do it first thing in the morning, and then you just get it done. So, first thing in the morning isn’t always, “What do I want to do this morning?” First thing in the morning, I’d like to just have a cup of coffee and play my harmonica, or something. You know, but it’s like I’m gonna do what’s most important so that, then, going into the day, I have the feeling like, “Man, I got this big, important task done. I feel really good about myself.”
So, I write those things on my sheet the day before. So, I’m gonna get the info to Devin, then I’m gonna do my goal setting, then we run a competition in here called Dominate December, I’m gonna update that. And so I map out, I know kinda roughly how long each of those will take. Then, I go to my calendar and I actually slot those in for a schedule.
So, it’s like, “Okay, from 5:00 in the morning to 6:00 in the morning, I’m gonna work on compiling everything that Devin needs” then have a shower and breakfast – stuff like that. And then, you know, “From 8:00 until 9:30, I’m gonna work on my goal setting for the year.” And I put all those into my calendar. And then I always review it the night before. So, when I go to bed I know, “Okay, when I get up, this is what I’m gonna do.” I don’t sorta get pulled off track doing other dumb things.
And I know that it kinda seems like a pain, but it’s a pro habit.
One of our goalies that we train in here, he’s a triple A goalie. Great, great kid, really good team. They’re doing fantastic. He’s starting to get it, you know, and it’s like he’s talking about, “Well, yeah, I really wanna focus on that Telus Cup, and really do great there.” And it’s like, “Yeah, but doing great at the Telus Cup starts by doing great at practice tonight, and working hard in the gym, and developing these pro habits that set you up that all feed into achieving that goal.”
So, that’s a way I want you to think about it, is think about it as just developing your pro habits, and if you’re going to be your best at anything, you need to have those pro habits.
And you might know somebody who’s totally random, and is still super successful. I’m sure there are billionaires, who they’re just like, “How does this guy even get to work in the morning? He’s so random.” But he’s very, very successful.
Let’s just, for half a second, or maybe one full second, actually, assume that you are not one of those people, and that I am not one of those people, so we have to rely on sort of a system to help us get there.
Then, at the end of the day today, and usually I do it around 4:00 o’clock, I’m gonna look at my book for tomorrow, and I’m gonna say, “So, today, I got all my tasks done.” And, again, I knew that I coach in the gym starting at 10:30, and then I have a half hour break, and another coaching client, and then Sarah’s here, and then we do live Q&A. Then we shoot video, then I have a coaching call right at 3:00, so I know I don’t have a lot of time today, so I didn’t put like five things on my list. There are three things on my list.
One of them is to workout, because I know I get working, and I feel like if I’m at work and not working, like if I’m working out, that I’m not being serious with my job, and that I should just be working all the time when I’m at work. So, if I put it in here, then it’s like, “Oh, that’s a task.” And I wanna get it done.
I don’t know. That’s weird. Do I have a sick mind, or does that make sense? Sarah’s like, “No. It’s payday. No, no, no. You’re good, you’re good. Whatever you say is good.”
But, yeah, so don’t over schedule yourself on the days where you’re already overscheduled, but still get some tasks in there.
Then, at the end of the week – boom. Again, I like the book, but it could be Evernote. It could be whatever. Like, I can look back. Okay, these were my big tasks to get done this week. At the end of the week, what were my weekly wins?
So, one of my weekly wins that I’m trying for every week is, “I got all my tasks done. Awesome.”
What is another weekly win? Well, right after the holidays, man, we ate a lot of food. A LOT of food, and food we don’t normally eat, so we have smaller portion sizes. You know when you go back to work or school, right after the holidays, and it’s like 10:00 o’clock in the morning, and you’ve already eaten your snack and your lunch, and you’re starving ’cause you’re so used to opening the fridge, and eating.
So, you know, that is one of my weekly wins would be I had smaller portions this week. I got in my five workouts. You know, I played my guitar for ten minutes, or whatever it is for you.
Then I’ll map out what tasks I didn’t get completed, and next week. Okay, what actions am I gonna take next week?
A recurring one for me, ’cause this is something I have trouble with, is I’m gonna map out my tasks the night before. Because, even though it’s a pain, and it feels like a pain to me, but I’m so much more productive when I do that. If I just wake up in the morning like, “What am I gonna do today?” Half the time, it’s not something that really moves me forward in my goals.
I’ll look at what I didn’t get done this past week. I might carry that over to next week. Now, if there’s a task that I find I carried it over three weeks ago, two weeks ago, one week ago, this week. You know, I keep carrying over the same task? Either I need a better system to do it, I don’t have the system or the tools, or I need to ask for someone for help, but I don’t know how to do it. Or, it actually isn’t a priority, or I’m just plain old procrastinating because it’s uncomfortable, and a lot of times it’s doing those uncomfortable things that really move your business forward, or move you forward.
Then, you have to reevaluate your priorities and why you’re doing that task.
So, that is how I set up my week, and honestly, I know it sounds like, “Oh my god, who has time to do that?’ It takes me about on Sunday afternoon, it takes me about 15 minutes to map out my week, and it’s made a huge difference since I’ve been doing it this way. So, that’s how I do it. If you have any questions about that, just leave ’em in the comments below, and I’ll definitely get on and answer it, ’cause yeah, it makes such a difference.
And especially if you’re a high school kid, the sooner you learn these pro habits, the more it’s gonna pay off in all areas of your life. It really is, and you don’t have to tell your friends ’cause they’ll think you’re anal like me, but, so that’s how I do my week. So, if you’re just interested in the week part, that’s it. See you later.
If you wanna know how I kinda map out my year, and set up my annual goals, this is how I do it.
I do this in Evernote. I have them for every year, going back to 2013, in one Evernote file. And I do it by year, so I just put the year at the top. 2019.
What are my power words for the year? And a lot of times, I forget my power words, so I’m still working on it, and they evolve as we go, but my power words for this year are to go boldly, turn pro, declutter, and strategy. So, yeah, just a year to really just get out there and go hard.
We’ve got too much stuff, like in our house and that, so I wanna declutter that. And I wanna be more strategic. You know, strategic in the content that I deliver, strategic in the relationships I develop.
Theme song, Bruce Springsteen – Growing Up, which could be better. I love … yeah, there’s one part where it says, “When they said come down, I threw up.” It’s like, that’s so … that’s hilarious.
And then I’ll do a little outline of what I’m gonna accomplish in the year.
And I go to what went well in 2018. So, what did I do really, really well? One of the things I think I did well was I got out to tons of camps. I worked with tons of goalies. You know, I just kept trying to throw up value to you guys, and help in any way I can. So, that went well. You know, okay, what could I do better? So, and we look at what we could do better.
Then for the year I set out my big four. So, what are my big four goals for the business for the year, or for me for the year, as well?
So, you know, one of them is a revenue goal for the businesses. I wanna keep building my YouTube channel to over 20,000 subscribers. One of my goals for this year was to get over 10,000 Instagram followers, and we got that. Holla! So, my goal this year is to hit 15,000. And, honestly, I think we should hit 15,000 fast. Like, I think by the end of the summer.
But I need to be a little more strategic with that. Not in a creepy, weird way, but just making sure that I’m creating the content that you guys wanna see and getting it in front of you so that you can enjoy it.
Then I wanna declutter around the homestead. So, almost like, as if we were gonna move. Getting rid of stuff, and organizing stuff, as if we were gonna move house, but not move house. So, that’s one of the things we’re gonna do, and get rid of stuff, and then not accumulate more stuff.
Like, you guys probably look at me, and you’re like, “That Maria, she’s a real clothes horse. She’s a bit of a fashionista, I bet.” Right?
No. Like, I wear the same probably three pairs of pants all the time, but how many pairs of pants do you think I have in my cupboard? Probably 17. Not a word of a lie, 17 is probably an understatement. And I’m not even counting dress pants. Like, that’s just like jeans, like dark blue jeans, boot cut dark blue jeans, ripped dark boot cut blue jeans.
It’s like, “No, you wear the same three pairs of pants over and over.”
Then I have rules for the first 30 days of 2019. So, my rules are to take vitamins five days a week, because I have to take calcium, because I’m getting older now. My doctor said so. Then, I’ve been low in vitamin B12 before, so my doctor told me to take that, and then I just take vitamin C and a multivitamin. But I’m terrible at taking them, so, take them at least five days a week.
I’m gonna do AM and PM gratitude five days a week. I use, for gratitude, I use the Five Minute Journal. It’s an app, and it literally takes five minutes to do in the morning, and in the evening, and it’s just like three things you’re grateful for, “What will I do to make today great?” And a daily affirmation.
And it’s not, have to be like woo-woo. It’s just like, usually my daily affirmation will be like … you know, it’s like, “I am…. unstoppable.” And then, at the end of the day, “Three amazing things that happened today. How could I have made today even better?” Usually mine is like, “I shouldn’t have eaten so much food at dinner.” ‘Cause, yeah.
Not that I’m freaky about food, but I’ll eat up more than Paul will eat at dinner, and Paul’s a pretty big dude, and I’m not a big dude, and so he’ll be like, “Oh, I’m stuffed.” And I’ll be like, still going. It’s like, “You do not need to eat that much food, homie.”
So, then, work out at least 20 times, which is actually a bit of a bump down. But we did a big challenge in the gym in December. I worked out 40 times in December, ’cause we had to accumulate points on our heart rate monitors. I was exhausted. I worked out every single day, plus. Like, I didn’t take a day off in December, so I’m a little bit tired. So, 20 times will be fine.
Schedule my tasks the night before and read these goals every week. So, that’s another one. I’ll be like, “Oh, yeah. I forgot that I was gonna do that.” So, I have a reminder on my calendar to do that every week.
I also have started using an app just this week that’s called Tally. It’s like … so, you can put in. Now, you get three for free, and to put in as many tasks as you want, you have to pay like $6.99 or something. I don’t know what it is, $6.99, I think. But, so, I put in there like vitamins, and you can put in how many times a month, or a week, or a day, or you know, whatever you set.
So, I have vitamins 20 times this month, gratitude 20 times this month, gratitude in the evening 20 times this month, and then when I do them, I just go, “Boop.” And I just tap it, and it adds the tally. So, then, I know, “Okay, yeah, I’ve done everything.” You know, and I can quickly look at it and see what it is. So, that’s actually been kinda helpful.
And, again, not that it’s magic, but it’s just something to bring you back. Like, “So, there. I’ve taken my vitamins three days in a row as of today.” Which, before, would be a big deal.
Then…. yeah, I’m still going.
This part, the annual, took me about an hour to do, but then I have big, hairy, audacious goals for 2019, like I’d like Paul and I to take a trip somewhere in Europe that we’ve never been. You know, get invited to another workshop in Europe. Even personal fitness, like I’d like to be able to do 10 chin ups, 20 perfect push ups, and be one month away from platinum status by the end of the year. (Platinum status, we use these Myzone monitors in the gym, and so if I keep up with my output for another year, I’ll just be one month away from Platinum status.)
And then, like learn to play one song that I really like on the guitar. Know the settings on my camera really well, so I can take more good looking pictures on the manual setting, and then I just have other goals. Like, read a classic novel, do at least one continuing education course, have a balance of $1,000 dollars in my personal bank account. ‘Cause we have a joint account and a personal account. Do at least one road race or another competition. Keep going to Stick and Puck to become a better goalie.
So, there’s kind of a list, and anything can go on there, and don’t really be like, “Oh, that’s not a big enough goal.” Like, just put every single thing on there that you wanna accomplish, and then here comes the … this is, we’re getting to the final.
So, again, writing down the goals doesn’t do anything unless you have your specific action steps. I do it usually for 60 days. So January 1st, to February 28th. So, my goals… I list out my goals for that period. So, one is to weigh under 123 pounds, ’cause that’s where I feel good. Some people will be like, “Oh, you’re skinny already.” But, like, that’s where I feel good, and I’m really close to that, but with the holidays I gained a couple pounds, and it’s like, so I’m gonna do that by just eating smaller portions. ‘Cause, again, I don’t need to be eating as much as Paul eats.
And then, for the Super Camp… fill the Super Camp and, you know, my steps for that. So, like, have everything mapped out so that it runs very smoothly, everybody understands what it is, how it works. I mean, there’s only a few spots in it, so it’ll be easy to sell out.
We have this space where we have clothes hanging in our basement, because our house is really, really small, and it’s a very old house. Over 100 years old. There’s no closets, so our hanging-up clothes go, really, in the basement. But I wanna clear that space out and make a little gym at home, and so I need to take everything out of that. So, you know, and then I put action steps. Like, “Take everything out of that space. Purge what I don’t need. Find somewhere else to put it, where it’s organized.”
And it just goes from there. So, it’s like what exactly I’m gonna do in the next 60 days, but then, also, a little action step that I can come back to. And those important ones, then, again, I go and put in my calendar. So, okay, on this day I’m gonna spend an hour working on the basement closet, or whatnot.
So, that’s kinda how I do it. There’s a saying that’s something like, “If you don’t know where you’re going, how do you know when you got there?” And I think it is really easy to just kinda muddle through, and you know, just go from day to day, and year to year, and be like, “Yeah, this is good.” But, at the end of the day, when you look, I wanna see, “Hey, what did I accomplish, and what did I say I was gonna do, and did I take the action to achieve it?” And if I did, awesome, and then I can course correct and see where I wanna go next.
If I didn’t take the action steps to do what I said I wanted to do, then it’s maybe, “Hey, maybe that isn’t exactly what I wanna do, and what do I really wanna do with my time?”
So, there you go. There’s a little primer to get you rolling for 2019. If you have any questions about it, or suggestions that you like, then leave a comment. Otherwise, see ya.