Training Journals and goal setting
The Benefits of training journals and goal setting
Setting goals is not about setting goals to feel pressured to complete, it’s about setting some intentions and having a way to track data.
At the start of each year I encourage members to start a training journal and to set some goals for the year. Goal setting can be a trigger for many folks, we often see this as yet another pressure in life to live up to and a way to set ourselves up for disappointment when we don’t meet all our goals. I don’t want that for you or your dogs!
So how do I see goal setting and journaling as a benefit?
Nearly every single year when I talk to members at the end of the year, I consistenly hear “Oh, I really felt like I didn’t get much done, I feel like I was really feeling guilty that I could have a lot more. Then I pulled out my journal, that I admittedly didn’t keep up with too well, and I read where we were at the start of the year and was shocked to see how many of those goals were now things that I had forgotten even used to be an issue.”
Our perception has a way of only focusing on what we have NOT done, have not kept up with, it’s really poor at focusing on what we have accomplished. As soon as we meet that pressing issue or goal we had at the start of the year, we often forget all about it and just replace it with more things we wish were better. So in our mind we have failed because we have not done enough, because there is more we wished we had done.
Journaling and setting some intentions helps us define where we are now and where we want to go. That is what it is best at, not about setting a to do list you must accomplish, but a benchmark that says “now we are here, that is where I hope we can go” and gives us a sense of direction on what to work towards.
I admit I don’t journal as much as I could, I do however tend to use IG posts to track our progress. But I do regularly pull out the journal and have a look at what things we have moved through that are no longer an issue, and jot down where we are now, so I can track what’s progressing and what’s not. Like Leo for example, the one thing consistently on my unchecked section is better loose leash walking in town. It’s not because we’ve failed at it, it’s just not a high priority as I do 98% of all our walking off leash. But we are going to doing some things this year: he’s going to Clicker Expo with me, and on a big road trip with is for our anniversary trip and I am sure I will appreciate then if I have put some more work on his leash walking in preparation for that.
So for more me, to properly set goals and intentions I also have to look at my motivations for those things. Because consistently the things that I leave unchecked are things I don’t really actually care about but think I should. So looking back, if I consistently see something like that I have to either look more deeply into finding the motivation or taking it off the list accepting I don’t actually care about that.
So I encourage you to sit down and just quickly think about what you training goals are for this program
It doesn’t have to be huge or detailed, just define why you joined and what you want our of it
Write it somewhere, either in a notebook, on your computer or notes in your phone
Set yourself a reminder in your calendar every month or so to pull the list out and look at it
Don’t judge yourself harshly for things undone, just evaluate why, is it because you are struggling with how to do it (in which case, post on FB for some help) or is it because in retrospect you don’t actually care about that thing and only thought you were supposed to
Think of your journal and goal setting like a scientist: what do you want to do, what worked, what didn’t… it’s data, not judgement