Sifu Anne Vandrus
Youth Student’s Corner
While it’s important to look back at how far you’ve come, Kung Fu is also about looking forward to what’s ahead of you. Goal setting is an important skill to master, so here are some tips to get you started:
1. Be Specific
When you’re trying to think of goals, you might think of something like “get better at my Kung Fu” or “get stronger” but those are both very broad and vague – it would be hard to tell if you actually achieved them or not. The key to goal setting is have clear enough goals, so that way you can know exactly what you are trying to do, and it’s easier to make a plan on how to do it. Some more specific goals might be: “be able to hold a horse stance for 3 minutes” or “do my full push up requirement without stopping”.
2. Have Milestone Goals
Like a checkpoint in a video game, milestones are mini-goals you reach on your way to your big main goal. For example, if your main goal is to earn your black sash, a milestone might be earning your next belt. Or if one day you want to be able to do 100 pushups in a row, your milestone might be to do 10, then 20, then 30, and so on until you eventually work your way up. Milestones are handy because they break up large goals that could seem hard to achieve into smaller, more manageable steps – and you
can celebrate your success along the way!
4. Be Realistic
A good goal is one that you know can actually be achieved. While you might want to get your black sash within a year of starting Kung Fu, that’s not really a realistic goal. Breaking it down into your milestone goals helps you figure out if a goal can be achieved when you want it to or not.
5. Make a Timeline
Part of having a specific goal is being able to track how long it takes. If you want to grade for your next rank, look up how many classes you need to have and how many you already have at your current rank – then count the classes on a calendar, and mark the date when you’ll have enough. If the next grading is on January 30th 2016, will you have enough classes before then? (Remember it’s always better to have more than enough classes – your requirement should be the minimum, not the maximum). You can make a timeline or calendar to keep track of any goal; then you can actually see your progress.
The next step after setting your goal and making your plan is to start working towards it! Remember that Kung Fu is an individual journey, and your goals and milestones and plans can be completely different from someone else’s. Everyone works at their own pace, and you should be proud of every step you take!