Always look ahead, never look behind

That is always a hell of a lot easier than it sounds and I am just as guilty as the next person in looking at my past. I have always been a believer in the past helps shape who you are but I am slowly realizing that the past only slows you down. You can't go back and change what happened to you yesterday, last week or even last year, so why let it dictate how you live in the future?

This rule applies to your body and lifting goals. If you don't have goals, you need to make some. Goals do more than give you something to strive for, they also hold you accountable for your actions. What are you going to do today to make sure you are striving for your goals?

Lets use me for an example. At the end of last year I did Eric Cressey's Maximum Strength Program. I made huge gains in all my lifts and knew that a new PR in front squats was attainable by the end of '09. Well, I have been training my ass of and hit a new PR today on front squats at 335 pounds for one rep. So I am ahead of that goal.

The good thing about goals is that they are interchangeable at anytime. Since I already hit one goal, I have now amended my goal to hit 405 for a single on front squats by the end of the year.

Writing goals is like writing down anything else as long as you follow a couple guidelines:

1. they must be specific - be exact with what you what to accomplish: I want to increase my squat 30 pounds.

2. set a timeline to reach that goal - this will tie into rule #3: I want to increase my squat by 30 pounds in 12 weeks.

3. make sure the goal is realistic - can you increase your squat by 30 pounds? absolutely. Can you do it in 2 weeks? highly doubtful unless you are on some kind of performance enhancing drugs or are a freak of genetic nature.

4. make sure the goal is challenging - you don't want to set a goal that doesn't challenge you or push you, but you also don't want to set a goal that isn't attainable.

Having something to continually strive for will definitely help take your training to another level. If you surround yourself with like minded people who have the same goals, your training will take off into the stratosphere and the only thing to hold you back will be yourself.