Bernie Borges [00:00:00]:
Well, hey, Alan. Welcome to this special episode of the Midlife Fulfill podcast. I’m really looking forward to doing this, workshop with you on health and fitness motivation. We’ve got the health and fitness motivation workbook here on screen. When I did the introduction, Alan, I promised my listener that, they’d hear a little bit from you. So why don’t we begin with your backstory, Alan?
Allan Misner [00:00:25]:
Okay. So to to get through a big chunk of it, I I was a high school athlete. In in fact, I I tell I would tell people, I I go to high school so I can play sports. That really was my mindset. You know, reasonably intelligent, but, I really cared more about athletics than I did the schooling. That’s that changed a little bit. I, I wanted to I wanted to major in physics because I wanted to be an astronaut. And many of you may recall in 1986 when the space shuttle went kaboom, I’m sitting in a classroom, and because I had had experience with military people, I was a military brat.
Allan Misner [00:01:07]:
I traveled all over, and I kinda understood how they think, because all my stepfathers were, military. When it went boom, and I had wanted to be an astronaut, and that’s why I was majoring in physics, Everybody else was watching swirly clouds and thinking about how interesting that was. I realized they killed a civilian and that they were gonna go find every single piece of that, craft until I figured out exactly what happened and how it could never ever happen again. That’s military, that’s government, because you just don’t kill civilians. If it’s just been a military group that they have 5 years, they’d had another flight up for sure. So I kinda felt like my whole window had disappeared for me to be able to do this this dream. So I knew I need to recollect. I went into the army.
Allan Misner [00:01:57]:
What did I major in? Well, I majored in infantry. So again, from athletic to head to athletic. When I got out of the military, I realized, okay, I wanna major in accounting. Accounting is the language of the business. I had, in fact, never taken an accounting class. Didn’t even actually know what accounting was.
Bernie Borges [00:02:16]:
Wow. Wow.
Allan Misner [00:02:18]:
But I just knew it was my doorway into business. And, turned out I was pretty good at it. I enjoyed the classes. I was really good at it. I studied harder than I ever did, especially in high school, even harder than I did when I was majoring in physics. But I put it together pretty quickly, and then I got went out, joined I I passed the CPA exam before I graduated, which was very rare. And then I went on to a CPA firm and then into internal audit, and I did the thing. You know, when you get into corporate, the thing is to work your way up to top, get to the c suite, and preferably do that before you turn 40.
Allan Misner [00:03:00]:
So I was at a Fortune 500 company, the vice president of internal audit, c suite officer at 39 years old, but I was miserable. I had lost my health. I had lost my fitness. I was in very toxic relationships, and about the only thing going for me was that job. And in fact, I worked so into it. I realized at one point, I had not taken a vacation in 3 years. Not even to, like, go visit family or anything. Like, 3 years, I did not take even a week off.
Allan Misner [00:03:38]:
All that vacation just fell off the table every year, just fell off the table. And if you worked in corporate, you kinda know what that’s all about when companies let your vacation fall off the table if you don’t take it. Yeah. So I I I convinced myself, okay. Look. My birthday is in February. I’m like, I’m I’m I’m 39 year. I’m gonna turn 39 years old.
Allan Misner [00:03:58]:
I’m gonna go to Mexico for a week. And I walked into the place and it was beautiful, and there was a beach. It was wonderful. And I said, okay. Where’s the salespeople? And they’re like, what? Because it was timeshare. I knew it was timeshare. And I’m like, where’s the salespeople? And they’re like, they’re over here. I said, okay.
Allan Misner [00:04:12]:
Let’s go upstairs. I had a meeting the next morning with them. I bought right there. I went in knowing I was gonna buy that timeshare because I needed that that thing behind me to make me do something and that that spent money, you know. If I knew if I was had spent this money and now I was paying the maintenance fees, I would go. Okay. That was again, just I have to do something to make myself start taking care of myself. So the next morning, I was so excited.
Allan Misner [00:04:43]:
That morning after I finished, like, they had sand volleyball on the daily roster of things to do. And I was so excited. Got on the sand. We’re gonna play volleyball. I haven’t played volleyball since I was, like, 29. So, again, college, just coming out of college, that’s when I was still very athletic, coming out of the army, all that. I got out on the court, and I almost didn’t make it through the first game. In fact, I was very close to telling them that I needed to go to the hospital.
Allan Misner [00:05:12]:
Really? Because I couldn’t catch my breath and really was scared. It was, like, I think the first time I ever realized I I could just actually just die from, like, nothing. Because this was not, like, 2 on 2. Having
Bernie Borges [00:05:24]:
a heart attack or something like that?
Allan Misner [00:05:26]:
Yeah. Yeah. Because, you know, this is not 2 on 2, which was what I had played in 4 on 4, which is what I played competitively before. This was 6 on 6. This is take a step, bump a ball kind of stuff. You know? So it was it was kinda ridiculous, and I felt that way. I felt really embarrassed about it. And so I didn’t I didn’t call have them call.
Allan Misner [00:05:47]:
Again, there’s a little ego gas, but it’s just silly stupid ego, but I didn’t go. I recovered. I’m like, okay. So the next morning, I’m sitting there, and I’m like, okay. I’ve gotta do something. I’ve gotta do something. So I made the decision I was gonna change. Okay? But I was in an all inclusive resort, so I’ll change when I get back home.
Allan Misner [00:06:07]:
And and and so I did. I did earnestly try. I would do something and fail, and I would do something and fail. And sometimes I would be a little bit more successful than others, but I always sell myself back where I started or worse. That went on for 8 years. So when people say I hit rock bottom, I was dragged across rock bottom for 8 years of my life. Wow. Wow.
Allan Misner [00:06:32]:
Okay. Now I I did do a a couple of positive things in that 8 years. I did get out of that toxic relationship. I changed jobs and had a less stressful, little bit less stressful job. So I did a few things that were that were right, that were good. I learned a lot about myself in the process. That’s for sure. You know, you learn from failure.
Allan Misner [00:06:58]:
Well, but you keep failing, but you learn a lot. You don’t necessarily get a lot done. But then one morning, one day, I was I well, it was a morning because I was in Malaysia. My daughter and I were talking. Now she had gotten into CrossFit. She was a level 1 CrossFit coach. She was doing these obstacle course races and stuff like that. And it was just it was just reminded of me me of when I was her age.
Allan Misner [00:07:23]:
So she’s 20, and and I’m thinking, when I was 20, I was doing that stuff. I was in the army. I was doing obstacle courses, you know. And I yes. If I was 20, I would be doing, you know, the the CrossFit stuff and competing at that level. So what she says to me, she says, daddy, would you come watch me do a CrossFit competition? And it, like, hit me in the chest, you know. It’s like she could’ve slapped me across the face and it would had less effect. I was like, what? What did she just say? Watch? And and I was like, well, I I never pictured myself being a spectator in my daughter’s life.
Allan Misner [00:08:04]:
I always wanted to be a participant. And so that kick in the teeth, of course of course, I yes. I did go watch your competition. I didn’t say no. I’m not gonna watch your I didn’t want to, but I did. I didn’t like being there as a spectator, but I I was. But I sat down after that call, and I said, okay. I have to figure this out because I have done some really, really hard things in my life.
Allan Misner [00:08:32]:
I was I was in an I was in a ranger unit in the US military. I passed the CPA exam on the first try. And back then, you did it with pencils and no calculator. Yeah. Four parts all at one time. Yeah. That’s how you took it. And I was like, I that’s I’m gonna do it.
Allan Misner [00:08:49]:
And then I was like, okay. Wait. What is different? How can this be any harder than that? It shouldn’t be. What’s different? And the difference was this one word that hit me, commitment. When I wanted to pass the CPA exam, I got fanatical about passing the CPA exam. Mhmm. Mhmm. When I got into the ranger unit, I got fanatical about fitness and being the most fit soldier in that unit.
Allan Misner [00:09:18]:
Mhmm. And I did, like, insane things. Not insane, but just the the there was no off. There was no I’m not gonna do this. There was no fail. There was just a, okay. This is the mission. Go do it.
Allan Misner [00:09:34]:
There there’s no no. There’s no other way that, you know, was it that the the general that wanted his his folks to fight like there was nothing else before you know, nothing else, just fight till the end. He burned the boats. So they get there, he says, burn the boats. We’re either gonna win or we’re not. We’re not using those boats to leave here. That was the way I I started approaching it. I’m like, I have to commit.
Allan Misner [00:10:00]:
I have to commit at that level. And so I got started, and I kinda got into it a little bit. And then I decided, okay, and this is through a lot of mindset stuff we’re gonna talk about in a minute. But I realized I needed something to fire me up because I was I was getting worked on. I was getting there, but it was it was it was just aggravating. It wasn’t happening the way I needed it to. So I called my daughter up with an idea, a crazy idea, because it was no way I should be doing this at this point. It was way too early in my journey.
Allan Misner [00:10:35]:
But I asked my daughter, I said, would you like to do a Tough Mudder? Now if you don’t know a Tough Mudder is like a 12 to 13 mile mud run. This one happened to be in in Florida, so the humidity level was gonna be a little bit higher. Mhmm. And just for fun, you know, this is this is not terrain like you’re just doing to a 12 mile run, 13 mile run. This is terrain where they drive ATVs through. So this is this is rough terrain, just to even move through. Yeah. They throw in, like, 12 they throw in, like, 25 obstacles just to make it fun.
Allan Misner [00:11:08]:
In fact, when we signed up, this was the first civilian obstacle course I’d ever read about where someone died doing it. Wow. Okay. And it happened to be a military guy that did. He drowned. But that said, this was gonna be a challenge. This was a big scary challenge. Okay? Right in front of me, I had 8 months to prepare.
Allan Misner [00:11:32]:
And I didn’t just wanna go and be there. I definitely didn’t wanna be a spectator. So to me, defining participation with my daughter was keeping up with her. Letting her run her race, while I run with her, and we finished together. She didn’t feel like she should run off and leave me, or she didn’t feel compelled to stay back with me. We were gonna run this race together at her level. That was that was my internal goal. And so I trained very hard.
Allan Misner [00:12:07]:
I ate right. I did all the other things right. And so over the course of that 11 months from when I had that phone call, daddy, will you come watch me? To when we finished that Tough Mudder together, I lost 66 pounds of fat Mhmm. And I gained £11 of muscle.
Bernie Borges [00:12:25]:
Wow.
Allan Misner [00:12:26]:
And so we have links later. You’re gonna be able to go to my you’re gonna be able to go to my website, and you can go look in the about, and you’ll see the before. That picture is actually on that beach. The morning I decided I was gonna change. And then you’re gonna see a picture of me 9 years later, and you will see the change.
Bernie Borges [00:12:48]:
Yeah.
Allan Misner [00:12:49]:
I did finish that race with my daughter, and we were able to cross the finish line together, holding hands. Now there’s a story about why we were holding hands. We came to the end. There were there was this electric cables hanging down that would shock you. And I had seen it before, so I knew if you went into it and it hits you, it would it could put you on your face. And and so they were watching people run-in. There were ruts, and there was water and mud and then electricity. All the things you do not want together.
Bernie Borges [00:13:27]:
Yeah. Really.
Allan Misner [00:13:28]:
Okay. And so they there were like 30 guys standing there looking at this obstacle terrified. You could just tell. It was, like, 30 men that did not want to do this. And I’m running up with my daughter behind him and she says like, what do you want to do? I said, run around them. She’s like, what? I said, just run around. We’re not going to wait? No, we’re not going to wait. Just run.
Allan Misner [00:13:51]:
She ran around them. I ran around the other way. We met back on the other side of them. I grabbed her hand and we ran through. Did we get shocked? Absolutely. Did it hurt? Yeah. But we didn’t fall on our face. We ran all the way through.
Allan Misner [00:14:07]:
Okay. So here’s a little trick, guys. I majored in physics. When you hold hands with someone else, you’re displacing electricity. So I did cheat a little bit. Uh-huh. There
Bernie Borges [00:14:22]:
was a
Allan Misner [00:14:22]:
method to
Bernie Borges [00:14:22]:
the madness there.
Allan Misner [00:14:23]:
There was a method to the madness. Alright. Yes. So I I might have been a physical beast. She might have been a physical beast, but we we weren’t that until we held hands. Yeah. And then we got through it. But finishing that raise, holding my daughter’s hand is one of the most special moments in my life.
Bernie Borges [00:14:39]:
I can only imagine. And, Alan, that is quite a story and really a great backdrop to everything we’re doing here on these two episodes. This is part 1 of the Health and Fitness Motivation Workbook. So let’s segue to that. I’ve got a little story too, but I’m gonna save it for a little bit later. Let’s dive into the the workbook. I wanna remind my listener, perhaps watching on video, that we are displaying the, the workbook on screen. And if you haven’t downloaded the workbook already, I wanna encourage you to do that.
Bernie Borges [00:15:15]:
It is available at midlife fulfilled.comforward/healthdashfitnessdashworkbook. But if you just go to midlifefulfill.com, you’ll you’ll you’ll see it. So make sure you you download the workbook because, again, we’re walking through it together. During this workshop, we’re in part 1. So, Alan, if you want to drive and direct me to where we go, we can dive in.
Allan Misner [00:15:40]:
We’re we’re gonna start on part 1, and we’re gonna talk about that word, commitment. Now, yes, it will benefit you a lot if you download this workbook and work through this. This is a working session. It’s kind of a weird podcast, but this is not really a podcast. This is really a workshop. I want you to think of it like that. We’re working together to help you put together the commitment, the motivation, the mindset to be successful in your health and fitness journey. And I’m gonna tell you one thing.
Allan Misner [00:16:08]:
The tools that I’ve put into this workbook will help you in any aspect of your life, not just health and fitness. We are gonna talk about it from that context. And so as you go through this, I want you to be thinking about, well, I could use that anything I do. And that’s the truth. Why was I able to pass the CPA exam, be, you know, in a ranger unit and do all those hard things. Commitment is commitment. When you commit to something, it’s real. So that’s what we’re gonna do here first, is we’re gonna get you committed and we’re gonna then we’re gonna turn that commitment into action.
Allan Misner [00:16:40]:
So in part 1, we’re gonna start with commitment. And so commitment is 2 things. It is a why, and it is a vision. So we’re gonna start with the why, because this is really what will keep you in the game. Okay? Why is the reason you want to do this thing in the first place? And if you say, well, I wanna get in shape and why? Well, I wanna lose £20. That’s not very compelling. The instant someone offers you an off ramp to that journey, you’re gonna take it. But if you have a compelling why, you’re gonna do more.
Allan Misner [00:17:19]:
So to start with building your why, what I want you to do is I want you to think about things as they are in your current health and fitness. And particularly, I want you to think about things that you know need to be fixed. Okay? In areas that you considers, maybe maybe your energy level isn’t where you need it to be. Maybe you’re starting to get the initial signs of illness. You know, your a one c came in a little high, so your doctor’s like, well, you’re prediabetic. We might start you on Metformin. Maybe your blood pressure’s a little high. Maybe your cholesterol is out of line.
Allan Misner [00:17:56]:
Maybe you’re feeling some pain. You know, your joints are starting to bother you. Maybe there’s some inflammation, some arthritis, some other things happening. Maybe you get up in the morning, you look in the mirror, and you’re like, who is that old man or old woman? You know? And it’s like you just realize that that you’re aging faster than you probably should. Okay? And you don’t like it. Okay? And then how does that relate to confidence and self respect? I can tell you when I walked into a meeting and I I knew I couldn’t tie I couldn’t quite button the top button, and I had one of those little bungee things, and I’d have to pull my tie up so no one would know I didn’t button the top button on my shirt. That really will mess with your confidence and self respect, I tell you. Mhmm.
Allan Misner [00:18:41]:
Okay? Physical things like, you know, I’m not able to do what I was doing before. I walk up a flight of stairs and I’m breathing heavy. You know, used to, you could walk up, you’re having a conversation with your boss or a colleague, and everything’s cool. And now, you have to stop talking because you can’t talk and walk at the same time. And then there’s relationships, you know. If if if the person you’re with, you you have self confidence problems, you’re gonna wonder about that relationship. And so sometimes your health and fitness can impact the relationships around you. So I want you to go ahead and jot down some notes as we go through this page, and be thinking about what’s going on right now.
Allan Misner [00:19:22]:
Now this should be emotional, and this should be hard. And this is your workbook. It’s not mine. So as you go through this, I really want you to be open and honest with yourself.
Bernie Borges [00:19:32]:
And, Alan, I wanna point out for for the person who might be listening and not watching or perhaps they haven’t downloaded the workbook yet, we supply in the workbook boxes for you to put your notes in. So when Alan is saying, what is your why? There is a space in the workbook, a big big space in the workbook for you to actually document your why. And Alan’s gonna talk about he’s has been talking about your why across different aspects of your life. And again, we encourage you to document them here in the workbook.
Allan Misner [00:20:09]:
Yeah. This is this is a great way for you to, to basically journal where you’ve come from and where you are and what you want, and that’s what we’re gonna build here. So now that you’ve put down some of those details oh, and that’s another thing I wanna say. If you need to pause this and take some time to do this, by all means do it. It’s not meant to be done as a straight through either. So you may come through this one time and then wanna go through it again just to get deeper, get more clarity. K. So when we go to the next page, what we’re gonna do here is we’re gonna future pace our life.
Allan Misner [00:20:44]:
Now we all are on this aging curve. Okay? We’re we’re going to get weaker. We’re going to get frailer, and eventually, we are no longer gonna be alive on this earth. So what I want you to do is I want you to be thinking about what your aging path might look like. Now there are clues out there. A lot of times they’re within our own family. So if your uncle was prediabetic at your age and lost his foot 7 years later, you’ve just future forecast your health. If you notice that your your father is in a lot more pain as he got into his late sixties, that’s a part of your path.
Allan Misner [00:21:28]:
If you know that your brother and who their wife split up after he gained £40, That might be another thing. So be looking ahead at things that could happen if you let yourself age, and you don’t do anything about it. Because sarcopenia will eliminate your muscle 1% per year from age of 35 to 65, and then it accelerates. Also, Pete I don’t like that
Bernie Borges [00:21:55]:
reminder, Alan. I don’t like that reminder because I’ve been experiencing that myself. I’m still working out hard, and, the muscle is just not what it used to be. It’s just not what it used to be. Sorry. But you started
Allan Misner [00:22:08]:
but you started from a better base and set yourself on a better path. That’s what’s and you’re still working. That’s what’s important.
Bernie Borges [00:22:15]:
Right.
Allan Misner [00:22:15]:
Ostopenia, which typically most people think that’s for women, but it can affect men as well, is the same thing happening basically for your bones. And it follows a similar path from 35 to 65. It’s about 1% a year, and then it accelerates. Now you can also build bone by doing some work. So, again, if you just followed the straight path, you’re going to lose muscle, you’re going to lose bone, and if you don’t change your lifestyle, all those things that you’re feeling right now that you’re about that your health and fitness are affecting will get worse. So I want you thinking in terms of what’s your aging look like. Okay? So now that you kinda have this concept of what’s what’s there, I want you to start thinking about because I yeah. I don’t I don’t wanna lose my foot.
Allan Misner [00:23:07]:
I don’t want diabetes. I don’t wanna lose my foot. I don’t wanna yeah. Whatever your yours is. Okay? Now we’re gonna dig a little bit deeper, because sometimes what we think is emotional and real is not the real answer. And I’ll I’ll give you an example as we go through this after I define it. So I use a method. It’s called the root it’s a root cause analysis.
Allan Misner [00:23:28]:
It’s called the 5 whys. Used in business all the time. I used to use it when I was an internal auditor. And so what you’re doing with the 5 whys is you’re acting like the 8 year old, you know, that just keeps asking why, and then you get more depth, and you get more depth, and you get more depth until you don’t. So I’ll use my case that I told you earlier. So why why was it so important for me to do what I did when I when I wanted to change for my daughter? So I said, she, I did not want to be a spectator. I wanted to be a participant. That that that very easily could have been my why statement.
Allan Misner [00:24:07]:
Full wet wife statement right there. That’s that’s my wife. Well, if you ask me why, why do I feel that way? It would be like, well, because I wanna have a better relationship with my daughter, and I wanna, you know, be a good example for her. Why? And it comes down to this, 2 things, self respect and her respect. I want my daughter to respect me, and I wanna be able to respect myself. And at that moment, when I had to tell her, when she told me, will you watch me do a CrossFit competition? I didn’t feel respect for myself, and I’m not sure that she did either.
Bernie Borges [00:24:52]:
So it’s very emotional. It’s a very emotional, very strong conviction.
Allan Misner [00:24:56]:
You’re tearing up here if you’re watching the video.
Bernie Borges [00:25:00]:
It, well, it’s a it’s a very real story, Alan. So, again, that’s why I’m making the point that it’s very emotional. And I and I think just to kinda bring it home to this workshop is the 5 whys method is all about about doing that. I love your analogy of the 8 year old, you know, the the small child who just keeps asking the question, why? Which kind of forces one to think deeper and deeper and deeper. So thank you for sharing.
Allan Misner [00:25:28]:
And you and you may notice, I I only got to 3 before the the tears started, and I I was pretty darn deep. You may go more than 5, but 5 is kinda the the main number. If you get to 5 and you’re feeling it, you know, for now, this is probably big enough to get you where you wanna go. Okay. So on the next page, we’re literally gonna sit down right now and draft your why statement. Okay? So with the why statement, like I said, mine would sit there and say, because I at the time, it’s changed a bit, and I’ll explain that in a minute. But at the time, it would have said it should have said, I didn’t have the skills I have today, but it should have said because I want my daughter’s respect and my own. That was my why statement.
Allan Misner [00:26:20]:
Mhmm. Why do I have to change? I have to change because I want her respect and my own. So take a few minutes here and write down your wife statement.
Bernie Borges [00:26:33]:
Again, as Alan said, feel free to pause the recording right now, and, go ahead and draft your why statement. When you return, I’ll share my quick story. At a at a much younger age than you, Alan, I was 24. I woke up one day after just being out of college for about a year and really kinda living it up, at least I thought I was living it up, by going out drinking every night with my friends from work. And just 1 year into it, maybe even less than 1 year, I didn’t like what I saw in the mirror. And kinda similar to you in one respect, I didn’t respect myself when when when I saw when I saw in the mirror. And one day, literally like a switch that went off in my head, I just said, okay, that’s it. Done.
Bernie Borges [00:27:20]:
I don’t like this. I don’t respect myself, and I committed to a healthier lifestyle and fitness. And I’ve been doing that ever since, and that was over 40 years ago. So, you know, not the same story as yours, but nonetheless, it did come down to self respect on that one morning when I woke up and I did not respect myself. Yeah.
Allan Misner [00:27:41]:
And so yeah. This will get emotional. Everybody will have their own why, and we’re gonna talk in a few minutes about what this whole path looks like. But why statements tend to be evergreen. Okay. You’ve carried yours for over 40 years. For me, my life has changed considerably since since then. Okay.
Allan Misner [00:28:03]:
I was a corporate executive, and then as I went through my career, I realized what I had learned was valuable on the outside. And so I wanted to start coaching. So I started coaching people. And then when I got laid off, I told my wife, I don’t wanna do that anymore. Now there were a lot of things that drove that decision, that I don’t wanna get into, because it’s not pleasant stuff that happens at corporate all the time. But I wanted to be able to help people. I wanted to be able to make a difference. And I I while I was I could do that inside a corporation for a corporation, which helps lots of people, this was this was more engaging.
Allan Misner [00:28:44]:
This is more fun. I also found the love of my life and got married. And so my life and I and I moved to Panama. So my life has changed significantly since then. So my why has changed a little. You know, there’s more people involved. There’s more who’s, in in my why, than just my daughter, but it’s generally it’s growing. And and as I get a deeper appreciation of it, it actually drives me better, because I actually can sit down and articulate it fairly quickly.
Allan Misner [00:29:21]:
And that’s why this exercise can be so valuable for you is now you can articulate. So the morning the alarm goes off and you’re, like, wanting to hit the snooze, ask yourself why. Are you gonna are you going to meet your why if you hit that snooze? Is that serving you? And so that’s what this why will be that kinda thing that’ll say, no, get out of bed, okay, because this is this drives emotional drives action, and that’s what this is all about.
Bernie Borges [00:29:54]:
That’s me every well, every weekday morning, Monday through Friday, alarm goes off at 5 AM. And on some days, it’s easy, and other days, it’s not easy. But that why always gets me out of bed every single weekday.
Allan Misner [00:30:09]:
Excellent. Okay. So now now we’re gonna get to the other side of commitment. And if you’ll recall, the answer was vision. Okay. So vision is where you want to go. It’s the big picture of where you want to be. Now I’ve coached a lot of people and I’ve realized, okay, it’s it’s kinda hard to take a 47 a 40 year old man, a 50 year old man, a 70 year old woman, and turn them into a CrossFit athlete.
Allan Misner [00:30:41]:
In fact, that’s probably not what I should spend my time doing anyway, and I don’t. What I have found is that I have a new, a new phrase I use to define fitness, and I call it fit for task. So fit for task as a concept is what you need to be to be you. To be the you you want to be. To be the you you need to be. Okay. So let me tell you a story. There was this guy named Glenn.
Allan Misner [00:31:14]:
Now Glenn loved loved loved loved golf. He loved golf more than people. Of course, he played golf with people, but, like, he loved golf completely. He lived on a golf course. He played golf practically every day of his life, until he was around 80. So Glenn didn’t do anything else but play golf, and drink, enjoy his life. When we got to about 80, Glenn realized his balance was going, his strength was gone. It couldn’t really hit the golf ball.
Allan Misner [00:31:49]:
Now I’ve seen older golfers that play. They’ve still hit the ball straight down the the the fairway. It’s just shorter and shorter and shorter and shorter. And so he got to a point. He couldn’t even hit the golf ball. And he he couldn’t play anymore. Now, a lot of people say, well, he’s Glenn’s 80 years old. So, okay.
Allan Misner [00:32:09]:
And and it was a good run. Well, he lived till he was 95. So Glenn spent the last 15 years of his life not doing the thing he loved most on this earth. And don’t you think if someone had told him when he was our age, hey. You can make a better decision. You can play golf longer if you do these things. Do you think Glenn would have done it?
Bernie Borges [00:32:41]:
Mhmm. Yeah.
Allan Misner [00:32:42]:
Okay. Now I wanna take the story a little further because like I said, Glenn lived till he was 95. Now at the age of 90, Glenn had moved into an assisted care apartment. So he lived he lived in alone in his own apartment, not on a golf course. And he was there. So if something happened, it was single story, easy. You know, if he fell, he wouldn’t hurt himself. It was all set up for someone on elder care, but for him to live on his own and not necessarily be in a hospital room kind of thing.
Allan Misner [00:33:12]:
But here was the problem. Glenn couldn’t make it from the chair to the bathroom before he had to go. So by the time he knew he had to go, he knew he wasn’t gonna make it. And then he would have to call down. They would send someone over and clean him up. And so because this embarrassed Glenn, he did not want his family to see him. So the only family he had contact with one person, his son. That was the only person he wanted to come see him.
Allan Misner [00:33:46]:
So for the last 5 years of his life, I did not get to see my grandfather, Glenn.
Bernie Borges [00:33:53]:
So you just revealed that Glenn was your grandfather.
Allan Misner [00:33:56]:
Yes. Yes. That’s that that’s that twist in a story you gotta have. Right?
Bernie Borges [00:34:02]:
Yeah. Yeah.
Allan Misner [00:34:03]:
You know, and and so, you know, it’s it’s a sad story, but I I tell that story because I want people to really understand what fit for task means. Because you can train for any fitness level you want to try to train for. And so if you think fit for task is less, I wanna be able to wipe my own butt when I’m a 105. Mhmm. Now you understand why that has so much meaning to me. Right. What do I have to do today to be that guy? And and that drives me in what I do. So I no longer think of it as a workout.
Allan Misner [00:34:43]:
I no longer think of it as exercise. I don’t exercise. I train. I train my strength. I train my stamina. I train my balance. I train my mobility. I train to be who I need to be.
Allan Misner [00:35:03]:
Now,
Bernie Borges [00:35:05]:
you know, I just wanna jump in. That’s a really interesting perspective, Alan. Training versus exercising. I think I’ve shared the story with you. In fact, when I had you on my podcast several episodes ago, I’m I might have told this story, where I I flew up to Pennsylvania to help my son move, because he couldn’t get buddies to help him move on a Friday. And we spent the entire day moving. Very, very physical. In and out of the house with boxes up in a in and out of the truck.
Bernie Borges [00:35:32]:
And just a very physical day. And it occurred to me that my, quote unquote, working out was training, so that I was able to do that without blinking an eye, without any hesitation, without any huffing and puffing, without just no problems at all. And I love that perspective of training to do the things you need to do. That is that is really really a different, and I think very effective way to look at your your entire approach to fitness and exercise even though I know you say you don’t call it exercise. I love that.
Allan Misner [00:36:13]:
Yeah. So, you know, so the way I want you to think about this, and on on the workbook, you’re gonna see a chart. Okay? This chart might not be big enough for you, but I just wanted to give you a picture of how to lay this out. And on the next page, we’ll we’ll get into an example of it. But basically, what you wanna do here is you wanna think about your current state. What are things that you need to do now? Okay. It might be that if someone need you, if you might have a garden at your house, you might need to be able to move 50 pound bags of mulch. You might need to be able to rake leaves in the fall and cut firewood.
Allan Misner [00:36:53]:
You may need to be able to, like me now, pick up my wife. If something were to happen and she were to fall, I would need to be able to physically pick up my wife, put her in the car, and take her to the hospital. I live in a place where we don’t have ambulance service so fastest way to get her there is get her in a car and drive. I need to be able to do that now. We run a bed and breakfast. I am the if if our staff isn’t on staff because they get off at 1 or 2 o’clock, they come in to check-in later. I’m the porter. I get to carry their bags up a flight of stairs.
Allan Misner [00:37:32]:
Sometimes guys half my age. But I need to be able to do that because that’s a requirement of the job. I need to be able to carry the the 5 gallon bottles of water. They weigh £44. Sometimes we get them 10 at a time, and I gotta carry them to the back of the house or upstairs. So those are things I need to be able to do to function day to day. And your needs might be slightly different. And then you may think about now what you want to do.
Allan Misner [00:38:01]:
Okay. I I know my grandfather always wanted to play golf. So as he started realizing his golf game was going down, he should have seen that he wants to keep playing. He needs to do something else to build his fitness. So if you’ve noticed things are disappearing from your life, like, I used to play tennis, now I play pickleball, and then I don’t know. I’m I’m about to lose that. You don’t have to lose it if you don’t want to, but you’re gonna have to train to keep it. So there are things you need and want now.
Allan Misner [00:38:34]:
And then remember, we went down that aging curve, and a lot of things are going to happen. You’re going to retire, maybe, you’re going to go off and do some physical things, like maybe you wanted to go do Micho Pichu or some other kind of crazy thing, climb the Himalayas, I don’t know. But you wanna do something fun and all this adventure stuff, and you know that you’re gonna want to do those things. Well, that sets up part of your training plan. And then, of course, what you need. I need to wipe my own butt when I’m a 105 because I wanna be independent. I don’t want someone else to have to do it. Remember that self respect thing.
Allan Misner [00:39:15]:
I don’t want my daughter to have to think about taking care of me. Remember that her respecting me. I wanna be able to take care of my wife if she falls, and I wanna be able to pick her up. I need to be able to pick her up. Self respect, her respect. All these people in my life, I want to be a better man for, So I’ve defined fit for task, and over the course of my life, I will consistently re reinvent it, see what it is, what I need, what I wanna do. Right now, we live in a in a beach community on an island, but my wife kinda wants to move to another community where the temperature’s a little lower. It’s more in the mountains.
Allan Misner [00:39:59]:
They have other things. Like, they do have tennis courts. I haven’t played tennis in a long time. I’d like to get back into it. Maybe it’s pickleball, but I’d prefer it be tennis. I might pick up golf. I haven’t played golf in a long time. I haven’t lived near a golf course in over 5 years.
Allan Misner [00:40:14]:
So there might be other things that come up that I want in my future, and I want to be close enough to those things now and working toward them so that if that comes up, tennis isn’t a question. If and when I go back to the resort and I wanna play volleyball, I play volleyball. In fact There
Bernie Borges [00:40:40]:
you go.
Allan Misner [00:40:41]:
Just just remove, like I said, we did that Tough Mudder, and like 3 years later, my daughter and I went to the same resort as a part of a trip. She was at that point, a little load a little load we we went to that resort. We played 2 man volleyball, like like I did when I was a kid. Nice. Because I wanted to. Yeah. I knew that was coming up. It’s February.
Allan Misner [00:41:05]:
It’s coming up. I’m gonna train for it. And by god, I’m gonna be able to play volleyball. And it turned out we ended up playing some I didn’t intend to play too, man, but I was ready for it Yeah. And replay. So as you as you go through this chart and think about what you need now and what you want now, that’s your short term. That’s the that’s the go get it now. Have it.
Allan Misner [00:41:29]:
Enjoy it. And then you got some future things to think about. So, you know, we talked about sarcopenia and osteopenia and all the other things. Okay. Those are what you’re thinking about. I need muscle mass, so I’m at a better base when I top that 65, and I start struggling against that curve, I wanna be in a better place to fight it. And then once I’m fighting it, I’m gonna fight it with all my heart. Okay? Fit for task.
Allan Misner [00:41:57]:
And so go ahead and go through this chart. On the next page, we’ll go through a quick example of of mine. Again, this was built off of where I am now, and so you can kinda see. When I say need physically physically capable and healthy, that means, yes, I’m there for my wife if she needs me. I’m carrying water bottles. I’m carrying for, you know, furniture in some cases. I’m carrying, you know, luggage. I’m doing all those things.
Allan Misner [00:42:24]:
I live on an island, do not own a car. So if I want to go somewhere, I walk. I need to be able to walk. What do I want? Well, I because again, I want that muscle mass. I want that stuff. I wanna be in a position. My daughter my daughter was doing Tough Mudders and obstacle course races and CrossFit. That didn’t exist when I was a kid.
Allan Misner [00:42:46]:
When my grandkids come along, I want to be able to be a participant in their life and not a spectator. I want to be on the floor playing with them. I want to be whatever games they’re playing. I want to be able to play with them. And yes, when they’re in their twenties, I might just be that crazy 80 year old that’s out there doing that crazy thing that makes a tough mudder look silly. I don’t know, but I’m gonna try because I want to. I want to be able to. So my future is laid out here, if my present and future is laid out here, so you can kind of get an idea that I’m in this for the long haul.
Allan Misner [00:43:31]:
I have this one body, and I’m going to make it fit for task.
Bernie Borges [00:43:37]:
And all of this fits under vision, and I and that really kinda brings it home for me, Alan, because it’s about what is your vision for your life now, what is your vision for your life in the future. And then you break it down between things I need, things I want now, things I need now, and things I want, things I need in the future and things I want in the future. So, makes a ton of sense and really just a great way to frame it all up.
Allan Misner [00:44:03]:
Yeah. And unlike why, this this will change. This this will change every all the time. Like I said, right now, I we don’t even have any grandchildren, blood grandchildren. So, you know, they even started. They’re my daughter’s in her thirties, and they even started having kids. When I say she’s in her twenties, I’m not kidding. I’m gonna probably be in my eighties before these kids graduate from college.
Allan Misner [00:44:29]:
So, I I don’t know what they’re gonna be doing then, but I want to be a part of it. I don’t wanna be rocking share grandpa.
Bernie Borges [00:44:38]:
Well, I can relate. I mean, I’ve I’ve got, 3 grandchildren and a 4th on the way at the time of this recording. The only downside for me is they don’t live nearby. But when we do see them, I’m all over playing with them. So, I’m with you a 100%.
Allan Misner [00:44:54]:
Alright. So let’s go ahead. Okay. So now this now this is the cool part. Okay. So what I want you to do is I want you to take those two concepts, why this is so important and the vision of what it looks like, and I want you to blend those two things together to make a commitment statement. Now because your why is so compelling and your vision is is real, this should be very emotional. I equate it to getting married.
Allan Misner [00:45:30]:
When you got married, there was an emotional appeal. There was emotion behind it, a lot of emotion behind it. There was a vision of what your lives would be like together today and then going into the future. A lot of people have already determined, we’re gonna have 2 kids and we’re gonna name them Rebecca and Nicholas. I only had Rebecca. Okay. But you kinda get the idea. You go into these things these things with with a lot of emotion and and a vision of what your life is gonna be like, and I want you to put that on paper right now.
Allan Misner [00:46:08]:
And this this is your rock. This is your foundation. Okay? Now when we get married, we do things like put on a wedding ring, and sometimes we’ll renew the vows. I want you to do things in in your life that make this real and make it a part of every day. I want you to have reminders of it. I want you to repeat it. I want you to feel it every day. Anytime you feel like quitting, anytime you find yourself off the path, this is your rock.
Allan Misner [00:46:43]:
This will get you back, because you know what you need, your vision, and you know why you need it, your why.
Bernie Borges [00:46:51]:
Alan, go ahead and read your commitment statement. It’s on screen here for those who are watching. For somebody who might be listening, they’re not seeing it. So go ahead and read your your commitment statement.
Allan Misner [00:46:59]:
Okay. And this is a current one. It can change again because right now, it’s this. But I say, I, Alan, am committed to improve my health and fitness because I want to look and feel younger, longer. I want to remain active and independent as long as possible to be there for my family.
Bernie Borges [00:47:18]:
And I love the fact that reading it out loud or saying it out loud actually makes a difference. So it’s not just writing it down, but revisiting it often and then actually saying it out loud. And there’s some neuroscience in that, which I don’t think we’ll get into. It’s a little bit of a tangent from this workshop. But suffice to say, there’s a little neuroscience in there. When you say something out loud, it actually has an impact on you more than just reading it from
Allan Misner [00:47:52]:
Well, if if you’ve read if you’ve read read Robert Cialdini, he’s he does a lot of marketing, research. And there’s a theory thing. One of principles in in that is called, the consistency theory. And what it means is when we say something, we wanna be consistent to our words. It’s how we become a part of society, being trustworthy. So when you say something like this, you’re programming your brain to do this Because it’s hearing that and it wants you to be consistent with what you’ve said. So you’re making this commitment to the world, to yourself, your brain is gonna wire to help you be more consistent. Alright.
Allan Misner [00:48:35]:
So let’s jump to the next one. Okay. So, they say, you know, if you don’t have a plan, you’re planning to fail. Mike Tyson also says, everyone has a plan until they get punched in the mouth. Okay. So you pick your favorite one, but the basic thing is you do have to have a plan. Okay? And so that’s what we’re gonna do here. We’re gonna we’re gonna take a few steps, and we’re gonna start thinking about what do we need to do first out of that vision.
Allan Misner [00:49:10]:
You know, my vision seemed pretty broad, but I gotta know the first step. And so I want you to start thinking about first steps that you need to make. So, you’ve heard Bernie and I talk about, bone and muscle loss. So you might think, yeah. I definitely need to do some strength training. Or you may realize, yeah, these medications I’m on, my doctors told me if I lose some weight, I’ll probably get off some. I can probably get off of some of that or at least I won’t get more. So weight loss might be part of this.
Allan Misner [00:49:44]:
It might be that you’ve got some injuries and, yeah, you might have to have a hip or a knee replaced first. So there are going to be some some things you need to do, the first steps to getting you fit for tasks, for getting you where you need to be. And so just start jotting down a few of those, and we’re gonna take those ideas and we’re gonna make them tangible, so you can get them done. Okay. Yep. So now on the next step, I want you to think about prerequisites. Too often, we think we want to do something. We don’t realize there’s probably a couple prerequisites first.
Allan Misner [00:50:21]:
Okay. A big one. Talk to your doctor before you start any exercise program or make drastic changes to your diet. That’s Yes. A prerequisite. Okay. Yes. Okay.
Allan Misner [00:50:34]:
So there there are probably gonna
Bernie Borges [00:50:35]:
be Exclamation point. Yes.
Allan Misner [00:50:37]:
So there there there are going to be some prerequisites for you to get probably to get these things done. Okay? And so you may know, okay, I wanna I need to build stamina, but I don’t really have anything at home to to do that. And the weather here in January is impossible for me to do what I would wanna do. I’m gonna need access to a piece of equipment. Same thing with strength training. I may need some equipment. Does that mean you buy it yourself? Does that mean you join join a gym? I don’t know yet, but I want you to start thinking about what are those prerequisites. If you were gonna say, okay, I’m going to train for this.
Allan Misner [00:51:19]:
I’m gonna train for stamina. You may need to buy a treadmill or an elliptical. You may need to join a gym where those are available. Same thing with strength training. So as you think about what you know you need to do first, think about the prerequisites first. Okay. Go to the next page. Okay.
Allan Misner [00:51:39]:
Now so now we’ve identified a few first steps. So maybe it is, yes. I do need to join the gym, and I’m going to start eating a more healthy diet. Now those are a little general. You know, joining a gym maybe less, but one, I gotta go to the gym to join the gym. You know, I can’t can’t just decide I’m a member show up. So there might be some micro steps, and those micro steps are valuable to know. So joining a gym, there’s actually a lot of micro steps.
Allan Misner [00:52:11]:
There’s getting in your car, driving to the gym, going inside, asking for someone to help you, going through the the materials with them, walking around, and then yes, signing the agreement. And you walk out a brand new gym member. Okay. So there’s some micro steps there. And the reason we wanna kinda know these micro steps is gonna be evident in a minute, but I just want you to kind of know that if we find quick wins and we find an opportunity to break our goals down easier, we get more done, and we feel better about it. So a quick win for, you know, 1 joining a mem getting ready to do strength training could be that gym membership. You know, we’re recording this on a Tuesday, and if you wrote a goal that says, I’m gonna go and get that gym membership on next Monday. What? Okay.
Allan Misner [00:53:08]:
No. I’m gonna get the gym membership tomorrow. I’ve got my lunch break. I can drive on over there. It’s not far from the office. It’s actually very convenient to the office. I’m gonna go over there and join the gym tomorrow. That’s a quick win.
Allan Misner [00:53:20]:
You’re gonna feel good. Just on the first day, I did that thing. They walked me through, showed me how the equipment work. I’m a I know I’m a be a little bit sore tomorrow even though it wasn’t really, really a workout. That’s a big win. So think about these micro steps as ways to make sure that you’re getting the wins when you need them.
Bernie Borges [00:53:39]:
Alan, I think you know that I, look at this, in another way. Not not in a not in a way that disagrees with this, but I just kinda frame it in my mind around the concept of incremental progress. So to take your gym story a little bit further, so I’ve joined the gym, and it’s either my first time in my life or a long time. So I’m gonna start out going one day a week. And then I do that for about 4 weeks, and then I’m gonna go to 2 days a week. Again, I’m gonna do that for a few weeks, and then I’m gonna go 3 days a week. And you get the idea that incremental Yeah. Those micro steps is incremental progress.
Bernie Borges [00:54:13]:
Then you can look back after a few months and go, wow, I’ve made a lot of progress. They they were in these little micro steps or incremental progress steps, and it really, really does add up.
Allan Misner [00:54:25]:
It does. It does. And that’s that’s how we build. It’s one brick at a time, but eventually, we end up with a wall and then a building. Yep. Okay. I’m gonna want you as you go through these goals, you don’t want to just make a 100 goals. You know, it’s just that mixed page.
Allan Misner [00:54:43]:
You can keep going, Bernie. But but I don’t you don’t wanna make a whole bunch of goals because you’re just basically setting yourself up to fail. You want 1 or 2 good goals, maybe 3, depending on how you’re looking at this. But if you can write a good goal, then and you start hitting those goals consistently, then you do get that incremental growth that we were talking about that Bernie was talking about. So the way we’re gonna do that, and what I’m doing here is, again, I’m stealing from business. You know, there’s no reason to recreate the wheel. If it works
Bernie Borges [00:55:20]:
that’s right,
Allan Misner [00:55:21]:
swipe it and reuse it. But here’s one of the fundamental things I found that was broken with most health and fitness goals. Most health and fitness goals focused on the outcome. I want to lose £25. I want to get stronger. I want to fit in a smaller suit or dress. Okay. Those are outcomes.
Allan Misner [00:55:44]:
They’re wonderful outcomes. We feel really good when it happens, but they’re not completely within our control. I can’t wish fat to drop off my body. I can’t wish muscles on my body. I have to do something to make that happen, and if I know what that is, that’s the action I should be striving for. So I’ll I’ll use Bernie’s example. Okay. The action, I’m going to go to the gym.
Allan Misner [00:56:16]:
So Bernie joined the gym. Now Bernie wants to go to the gym one day per week. So perfect smart goal because one, what’s the action? Go to the gym. Yep. You might wanna add workout while you’re there, but it’s it’s a good act. If getting there is is the hard part, then get there. And then the next week, it’s like, actually go in the door. And then the next week, it’s actually do something.
Allan Misner [00:56:43]:
But the action is going to the gym, doing the workout. Okay? So he he goes in and he says, because I’m I I know who Bernie is. Bernie is Bernie. Bernie’s gonna do that on Monday morning just to be sure he got it done. Okay? So but your action, I’m gonna go to the gym and do a workout. Okay. One day a week. That’s very specific.
Allan Misner [00:57:05]:
So the action is a. S is specific, which is part of the SMART goal acronym. I just added the a. It’s measurable. So at the end of the week, if Bernie went to the gym at least one time, he knows he’s completed that goal. It’s achievable because Bernie didn’t say 2 times a day, 7 days a week. Okay? He knew who he was and he made it something that he could achieve, and then it’s relevant because Bernie knows from his fit for task, he needs to optimize his muscle building, his strength, his his muscle mass and bone density, and he knows that the resistance training tools at that gym are the best way for him to achieve that. So this is very relevant to his fit for task goal, you know, over over overall.
Allan Misner [00:57:54]:
And it’s time bound once per week. Okay. So he’s not that may not seem like a big deal when it’s just 1, but if Bernie tells me his goal is he wants to go 3 times per week, and Bernie waits till Saturday to get started, and the weekends on Sunday, he’s not gonna get those done. So capping it a week kinda does give him a little bit of a deadline to keep him focused. If it’s 4 times per week, you know, you he’s probably gonna wanna foot front load some of this work. So having that time bound is important. Another thing about time bound is make it tight enough that you, you know, you can measure it and feel good. Get those quick wins.
Allan Misner [00:58:39]:
Don’t go long, long term because now you’ve kind of lost the thing. It’s like, I want to do 300 workouts this year. Okay? Yeah. There’s no drive. There’s nothing there. You know? The only thing you know is if you make it past March and haven’t gone once, this is gonna be a struggle.
Bernie Borges [00:58:57]:
It’s not gonna happen.
Allan Misner [00:58:58]:
Right. And so that’s all you know. But so once a week, once a month, maybe for some things, but make it an action, make it something that’s measurable, make it specific, achievable, relevant, and timed out. And that will help you write a good goal that you will know you’re succeeding when you’re doing it. Okay? Now there’s a link on this worksheet, if you have more than one goal to write, which throughout this work, we’re gonna add some goals to this to help you be successful. Each time you feel like you need a an another goal, you can click that link on the goal sheet that will let you download basically another version of this goal sheet. So you can have those printed out, ready to go, write down your goals. As you change your goals over time, again, come back to the goal sheet, get a new one, print it out, and and on and on.
Allan Misner [00:59:47]:
So you can always have these done. You can have them written, just hugely important. There are studies that show a written goal is so much higher likelihood of being completed than a thought up goal that’s in your head. It’s it’s not even close. It’s like a 6 to 1 ratio of of success with a goal. And you wanna bump that up more, tell someone about it. Share it with them and ask them to hold you accountable. And we’re gonna talk about that in a minute, but well, I guess, we’re gonna talk about that tomorrow, or the next week.
Allan Misner [01:00:23]:
But this is this is the way you get this done. So if you write these out, you inscribe them on your brain that they’re important, you can see them regularly, and if you’ve asked someone to show you, now that consistency principle kicks in and the accountability kicks in, and you’re gonna be much more successful at this goal if you do that thing. So print these out, write them out, and then we’re gonna take the next step. So the next step is just to make sure we didn’t overreach, so that we’re gonna demotivate ourselves. Because there’s it’s kind of demotivating if you set goals for yourself and you’re you’re missing them. Now, I’m all for stretch goals in a lot of circumstances, but if you keep setting stretch goals that you don’t hit, it can become very demotivating. So at the very beginning, I don’t want you to set stretch goals. I want you to set goals that are almost like no brainers.
Allan Misner [01:01:22]:
Okay? So I want you to rate your confidence based on the goal that you just wrote, how you how confident you feel you can do this. So one means I I don’t think I can do it at all. It was probably silly to write it down. So if I had said I was going to complete a Tough Mudder by November of that year, and that was my goal, I’d have given it a one because I was not very confident the day I signed up. As I got closer, my confidence went up, but that’s not how we wanna do goals. So a one means you don’t think you can do it. A 7 means you’re absolutely certain you can do this thing. And so if you look back at your why and your vision and that commitment, it will drive you to do hard things.
Allan Misner [01:02:09]:
It will drive you to make right goals that change you. But you wanna be confident that you’re not overreaching. So, like, Bernie’s example of 1 per week was perfect. How confident are you that you can go to the gym and do a workout once per week this next week?
Bernie Borges [01:02:28]:
So, Alan, you said, you know, you want you want us to start out with sort of easy and attainable goals. I I like that because it gets us into the habit, into the mindset of documenting the goals, very specific, measurable, achievable, relevant time bound. And then when we achieve them, then it gives us motivation, right, which is Yeah. Important to this whole workshop. It gives us motivation to keep adding goals and maybe upping them up a little bit. Right? Getting a little bit more ambitious with some of those goals. Yeah. Starting out very realistic and not being overambitious on the front end of this whole process.
Allan Misner [01:03:06]:
Right. And so that’s where in the in the the fit for task, the vision statement thing, we’re looking at what we want, what we need. That’s that’s the bare minimum. We gotta get there. Okay. So we’ll set goals to make sure we get there, but there’s things we also want on top of that. And so that’s where we’ll take these goals and we’ll say, what do I need to accomplish that? Once you get what you want I mean, once you get what you need for the now, you can set goals, so you’re training for what you want. So an example, let’s say you had no intention of doing this, but you got out, you were walking, and you’re consistently walking and you’re you’re smart your a.
Allan Misner [01:03:46]:
SMART goals were getting you more and more miles. You were really building your conditioning, and then you put a couple of jogs in there as a part of your goals, And then you step up and say, okay, I’m gonna I’m gonna basically sign up for a 5 ks, and I’m gonna train for it for 2 months away. And so now your A Smart goals are to train more to be able to do maybe it’s a maybe you download an app. It’s a couch to 5 ks app. And it has 5 workouts a week, 2 rest days. You say, okay. My goal is to do the full 5 k, 5 to 5 k to couch to be ready for this 5 k, I wanna do in 2 months time. And the easiest way to say that is I’m gonna do all of the couch to 5 k workouts for this week, this week.
Allan Misner [01:04:34]:
There’s 5 of them. Specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and the action is doing those. And they’re documented inside the app, so I get started. I feel confident I can do it. Boom. We’re on it. By the end of the 2 months, you’re doing that 5 ks. And so this is just a function of building and moving in the direction.
Allan Misner [01:04:55]:
You maybe initially had no intention of ever running a 5 k or a half marathon or anything else, but as you start to see what’s possible, your vision can change a little bit and you can say, hey, I wanna do this thing. What do I need to be able to do this thing? You break it down, you look for prerequisites, and then you sit down and start writing the goals necessary to bridge that gap.
Bernie Borges [01:05:19]:
Alright. So
Allan Misner [01:05:20]:
Alright. So that is the end of part 1. Join us. You can join us next week when we’re gonna get into part 2 and start talking about 2 of my favorite topics is mindset and motivation because we’ve laid the framework to be successful going forward. You know, we know why we need to do this. We know what it looks like. We know that we have the tools to keep us doing the things that move us in that direction, but invariably, little boogers get in the way and we’re not successful even though we’ve made them no brainer goals, we’ve done all this other stuff. There’s still opportunity in the world for us to just not quite get there.
Allan Misner [01:06:09]:
And I wanna talk about that next time.
Bernie Borges [01:06:12]:
Yep. So just to recap, we began with understanding your why, which as you said, can be very evergreen, and then establishing your vision, which doesn’t really have to be evergreen. That can change over time, and then setting your plan, setting goals behind that. We provided a link for additional go sheets. So make sure you’ve got a good supply of those goal sheets. And then join us on part 2 of this workshop, where we’re gonna begin with a concept known as the motivation map. So on that note, we’ll we’ll wrap up for this episode here. We’ll see you on the next episode.
Bernie Borges [01:06:49]:
Alan, I look forward to continuing on this journey with you.
Allan Misner [01:06:53]:
Me too, Bernie. I’ll talk to you then.
