8
6 Comments

I want to share this new way of goal-setting (focusing on mind) with all of you

A little backstory

In the last 9 months during COVID-19, I was insanely unhealthy.

I was running an investor-backed startup called Toasty as the CEO, and there was tremendous pressure on me to make it work. "Giving the best I can" was my mantra at that time, which meant sacrificing other things in order to give everything I have to Toasty.

One day, I put on an old t-shirt and headed out. In the elevator, I looked into the mirror and couldn't help to shout in my mind "What happened to me?" My belly was unbearable! I knew I was becoming a father (coming in less than 4 weeks by now!), but that didn't mean I had to pick up a dadbod :(

So I embarked on a 14 days challenge in which I focused on 4 things
1) Running a lot
2) Pumping HIIT a lot
3) Eating clean
4) Adding protein

Kevon's diet

The Result

My belly went from 87cm to 82cm in 4 weeks, and then to 80cm in 2 more weeks. A 9% reduction.

But the reason I'm sharing here is not about my belly, and I am not going to share a photo of it (lol).

It was amazing how 14 days turned into 6 weeks. The success of the past 6 weeks made me realize the power of goal-setting, progression, and motivation.

And I started thinking about why it went so well. What triggered the motivation?

Kevon training progress

You can even see I was drunk one day that I couldn't exercise.

Why did it work? The 5 magical ingredients.

I broke down everything and found 5 key parts to the challenge:

  1. Having an achievable timeframe - 14 days is a great length to push for change. It is long enough to develop habits and routines, yet it is short enough for me to see the finish line.

  2. Not thinking about my end goal - I knew if I kept thinking about my end goal (my belly) I wouldn't make it. Instead, every day I woke up, I was thinking about going for a run, doing a 20-min HIIT, and what I was going to eat.

  3. This being top of mind in my life - I was so embarrassed about my belly that this whole challenge became top of my mind during this period. I was immersed and I had fun.

  4. Measuring daily progress - I wrote down my bodyweight and waist on a piece of physical paper first thing every morning. This is not a pure tracking system. This is a mental system.

  5. Bragging about myself - The best of all five. Bragging was a big motivation. With progress, I had people around me wondering how I did that, then I showed off to families and friends. The power of bragging made me more motivated.

So yeah, I came up with this system (not the SMART framework) and it worked so well that I've decided myself to keep setting this type of 14 days challenge to hit goals instead of those quarterly goals or new year resolutions ... that never really worked for me.

This system is amazing. It is all about my "mind"

If you look into it, everything I've done here was directing my mind to the right mindset by setting up the appropriate cues.

For example, I set 14 days to tell my mind that it is short and I can do it. Or I told my mind to not think about things I couldn't control. Or I forced my mind to look at progress on a piece of paper every day. Or I bragged to make my mind feel good.

This was my story in the last 6 weeks. I wonder if anyone has any similar experiences with goal-setting and mind training.

I have the full version of this story here (with images, no belly I swear!) and I also made a Google Sheet (scroll down) for this framework so you can embark on your own 14 days challenge if you want!

Encourage you to try to direct your mind today!

Kevon's 14 Days Challenge Framework

  1. 2

    This is awesome! I’m interested in these types of habit systems. I’ve been filling out a daily checklist with 7 things (things like walking 10k steps, writing 100 words, reading for 1 hr) I’d like to do everyday. Similar to your “DRUNK” days, I’ve told myself that it’s perfectly okay to miss days, but it’s not okay to miss reviewing the results at the end of the week.

    It’s been going well so far, but I like the focused sprint-like approach of what you have going. Probably could stand to alternate between those two approaches.

    1. 1

      I'm also a big fan of this type of system! As long as you have a way to make it easier for your mind to handle day to day, then it should be enough force to get things going!

      I didn't want to be drunk, but well, it happened lol

      For your checklist, I'm curious cause my friend also shared his checklist with me this morning, how do you make sure you complete all of them? Does it get pushed to late in the day since there is no fixed time for it?

      1. 1

        Right now, my checklist is in a Google Form which I have automatically sending to my inbox every night at 8pm via Boomerang. The results populate a spreadsheet where then I have a percentage score for how often I'm hitting each item.

        This isn't perfect because like you said, I might not be capable of finishing 10k steps if I'm not reminded till 8pm. But I'd say it's "good enough" where, since I see it every night, I have a good sense of all the things on my checklist throughout the day, and I know when I'm missing things.

        It's probably not best for specific tasks, but for general habits that have a clear binary outcome.

        I really like having the results in a spreadsheet so I can review at the end of the week and have a no-bullshit insight into how I'm doing.

  2. 2

    Very good explanation and outcome thanks for sharing Kevon I'm also in a diet and workout schedule let's see how it turns out :)

    1. 1

      Glad you enjoyed it! Would love to hear if you'd take in the "mind perspective" to your schedule :)

      I'm now implementing this system to other things I do, e.g. growing my subscriber and Twitter base. Top of mind, nail it.

  3. 1

    I'm sure all the IndieHackers are self-motivated people, what are your tips/tricks to achieve your goals? Do you have any framework like this? Love to hear them!

Trending on Indie Hackers
How I grew a side project to 100k Unique Visitors in 7 days with 0 audience 49 comments Competing with Product Hunt: a month later 33 comments Why do you hate marketing? 29 comments My Top 20 Free Tools That I Use Everyday as an Indie Hacker 16 comments $15k revenues in <4 months as a solopreneur 14 comments Use Your Product 13 comments