Happy New Year!

If you’ve had a single conversation today that didn’t include the word “goal” or “resolution” that you’ve got me beat. I wanted to take a second to walk through my big goal this year and how I’m breaking it down in hopes that it can help someone else along the way.

The big difference between goals and dreams are, goals are measurable and broken down into steps that can be tracked along the way and have a set deadline. For example, I have a dream to one day write a screenplay. That’s all it is too, a dream. If I ever want to really get serious about writing it, it will have a whole lot more structure to it.

This year I have a goal to get my body fat percentage to 9% by the end of 2012. (It intimidates me just to write that out.) The first step is to know where you stand currently and then begin to break it down into smaller bite-sized goals.

My current body fat percentage is 27.5%, which means I need to lose 18.5% in 12 months. So that breaks down to roughly losing 1.5% of body fat per month. That’s not nearly as intimidating as thinking about trying to lose 18.5%. So here’s what my month-by-month breakdown looks like:

  • 1/31 = 26%
  • 2/29 = 24%
  • 3/31 = 22%
  • 4/30 = 20.5%
  • 5/31 = 19%
  • 6/30 = 17.5%
  • 7/31 = 16%
  • 8/31 = 14.5%
  • 9/30 = 13%
  • 10/31 = 11.5%
  • 11/30 = 10%
  • 12/31 = 9%

So like I said, roughly 1.5% per month. I also know that the lower the numbers get the harder it is to lose it, so I’m going to try and get a jump start early.

So there’s my road map, but to achieve that I’ve got to make some pretty drastic changes to my lifestyle. Here’s my action plan:

  • CrossFit at least 5 days a week
  • Strict Paleo diet
  • Sprint training at least once a week
  • Document everything that goes into my mouth
  • Daily pics of myself to show progress
  • No more alcohol (except for red wine on very special occasions)
  • Measure constantly and update regularly for accountability

So, there you go. Big goals broken down into a series of achievable steps, with an action plan and a plan for accountability.

So, how do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time.