Fitness and strength coach legend Dan John is someone you should listen to if you are serious about any endeavor in this field. Few people have more knowledge and (more importantly) wisdom about the topic of strength training. A video I have repeatedly stumbled upon is an extract from his DVD, “A Philosohpy of Strength Training” – his take on the tremendously important topic of goal setting.

If you have a goal in life, to live ’til you die, that is a very solid goal.

Dan starts out with a beautiful statement. I want to extend his statement to: “If you have a goal in life, to live ’til you die, only that is a very solid goal.” You want to verbalize this main goal of yours in the first place. This is the most important planning action of your whole life and you will want to invest some serious effort to accomplish it. Remember that if you try to save your time here, you may end up pursuing a then meaningless goal for decades of your life. Do not be foolish – wise men know that their life has a purpose and their journey can only begin after they have discovered it.

Other goals are sub-goals of this one goal (you may call it your ‘life purpose’) and have to be viewed in its perspective. If any sub-goal is not actively contributing to your main goal, you have to dismiss it, or you will stray from your true purpose. Always stay in alignment with it, as hard as it may seem at the moment. Only if you are 100% devoted, the true beauty of your purpose can effortlessly unfold. It does not necessarily take hard work to accomplish staying true to your purpose – what it takes is devotion and faith.

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Dan John also quotes Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra’s Don Quixote

It’s the road, not the inn.

This is well-known in eastern philosophy. The first association I have with this sentence is a scene in the movie “Peaceful Warrior”, where Dan Millman comes to understand “The journey. The journey is what brings us happiness. Not the destination.”

A goal is a useless one if you are not able to enjoy the journey there. If you have to starve yourself in order to achieve a body composition goal, you will ditch your success in an instant because of the lack of enjoyment you felt on the way there. This is, why most dieters are yo-yoing – bodybuilders just like normal people. If you enjoy the change of diet and grow to like the foods that do your body (composition) good, you will achieve your goal as well. Probably it will take longer, probably not. Fact is that the maintenance of the goal is easy because the steps you took to get there were not forced and did not diminish your well-being.

It’s the road, not the inn. If you are about to pick a goal, make sure that the journey is interesting, inspiring and fills you so up with joy and excitement that you are on the verge of exploding. This truly is living life to its fullest.

I love you Dan John explains that it was ‘not that big of a deal’ standing up there on the podium after winning the contest Nevertheless, all his efforts did not went to waste. The preparation for the contest was the real benefit he gained. And I feel the same. Every time I train it is the great feeling I have by bringing my body to its limits that makes training so genuinely enjoyable and motivating. In whatever way you train, it should arouse a similar feeling in you. If not, your motivation and progression will cease with time. I have experienced this a dozen times – always be ready to reflect the validity of your goals when motivation starts to cease. Find out if this really is for you. The time investment in this clarity is worthwhile.

The question “WHY?” is very powerful. Always ask yourself, why you are doing this. Always ask deeper, why you are doing this. Go deep enough to find out your core motivation for a certain goal. At the time you have found out, you will already know if this goal is of true value or just an outlet for a misled belief (like the urge to impress others).

Other powerful questions to assess the validity of a goal are

• Would you want to achieve this, if it was the last thing you could achieve before dying?
• Would you want to achieve this, if there was no one out there appreciating it but you?
• Would you want to achieve this, even if costed you all your money?

The first question calls upon the urgency of the goal, the second reflects on who you are doing it for and the third asks how great your motivation is (derived from the question: “What do you love so much that you would even pay to be able to do it?”).

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One thing I have never before heard of in the context of goal setting are the words elegance and mastery that Dan John uses.

Two things I think we miss. The first one is elegance, and the other one is mastery.

Indeed, we miss them most often. I believe this is of major importance. There are two misconceptions that are instantly cured by truly devoting oneself to the principles of elegance and mastery:

• The urge to understand and excel at everything
• The ravenous hunger for new heights in achievement

What elegance and mastery teach us is that it is not of true importance how much you achieve, but rather the way (or style) it is achieved or performed with. Furthermore, these principles teach us that there is no need to know everything when in fact it is impossible to do so anyhow.

Dan John explained it in a wonderful way: Pick out one or two feats of either technique or strength and work on truly mastering them. Limit the range of skills but deepen the expertise. Most people are surprised how many techniques and feats of strength they are able to achieve without training them after they have truly mastered a basic skill.

Mastery is elegance. You cannot call yourself a master unless you are able to perform a skill in such a wonderful style that it unequivocally is considered elegant (and thereby beautiful).

Remember that mastery is never finished. I have high respect for my Aikido teacher’s teacher – the Aikikai chairman Georg Meindl. He repeatedly explains to us how the path of mastery and understanding never is finished. The deeper you delve into a topic, the more complex the facets become. True mastery is a lifetime achievement. Nothing more and nothing less.

Become a master and do not be satisfied with anything less.

In love for life
Simon