Have you ever seen one of these Russian doll sets before?
It’s simple… You have a doll and inside of that doll is another doll and then another and another, etc. Lots of smaller dolls inside of the bigger doll.
You got that visual? GOOD.
It’s a lot like an elite goal-setting system, a focus based on process over outcome, and how we want to create routines and habits of excellence.
We’ve talked a lot about reverse engineering and the importance of having long-term telescope goals and short-term microscope goals.
Now, let’s tie that into our Russian dolls example.
With these Russian dolls, you get five or six smaller goals (or dolls) that fit inside the biggest one. It’s the same thing with your goals. You’ve got to know the big goal of what you want, and then you have to break that goal down into tangible and smaller goals you can execute on today.
Reverse Engineering or “Russian Dollling” Your Goals
Right now, I want you to reverse engineer one goal you want to achieve in the next 90 days.
Let’s get some REPS at doing this; it’s that critical to your success.
For the next 90 days, what’s a telescope goal you have?
You want to put on 15 pounds of rock-solid muscle?
You want to lose 15 pounds?
You want to throw 1-2 mph harder?
You want to improve a lift by 10 pounds or more.?
You want to make it through every day of this training program, turn in all your homework assignments, go to every class… Whatever your goal is, write it in your journal.
SIDE NOTE: Imagine if they made a Russian doll of Ivan Drago from Rocky IV… That would be LEGIT!
Okay, LOL. Refocus.
Now, let’s reverse engineer and work that goal backwards to today.
Let’s start with your 90-day plan and then work back three months.
What’s one of your telescope goals for three months from now? – Put that in your journal
What’s one of your telescope goals that aligns with that goal that you will crush two months from now? – Put that in your journal.
What’s your telescope goal for this month that will help give you momentum into month two and then help you to achieve your goal in month three? Put that into your journal.
GOOD. Now, break those goals above into 12 weekly goals.
These weekly goals are what you’re trying to get after and do each week for the next 12 weeks so that you have very clear targets to hit.
WEEK #1___________________________________________________________
WEEK #2___________________________________________________________
WEEK #3___________________________________________________________
WEEK #4___________________________________________________________
WEEK #5___________________________________________________________
WEEK #6___________________________________________________________
WEEK #7___________________________________________________________
WEEK #8___________________________________________________________
WEEK #9___________________________________________________________
WEEK #10__________________________________________________________
WEEK #11__________________________________________________________
WEEK #12__________________________________________________________
Now break that week #1 goal (the next seven days of your life) down into a daily goal for each day of this week.
DAY #1____________________________________________________________
DAY #2____________________________________________________________
DAY #3____________________________________________________________
DAY #4____________________________________________________________
DAY #5____________________________________________________________
DAY #6____________________________________________________________
DAY #7____________________________________________________________
REMEMBER: The key to having a great quarter is having a great month.
The key to having a great month is to have a great week.
The key to having a great week is having a great day.
And the key to having a great day is to schedule it out in blocks.
Daily work and recovery blocks so you are assured to get after what you want.
Look, the bigger your goal, the tighter your process needs to be.
If you want to go run one mile or hike “Joe Hill”, the small hill in your hometown, you don’t need to do any of this; you just go do it. But if you are wanting to run a 100-mile ultramarathon or hike Mount Everest, you need to have a plan. Reverse engineer your plan and work diligently and with discipline to achieve that plan.
Every day when you wake up you have your 24-hour focus that aligns with your 168-hour plan for your week, which aligns with your goals for the month, which align with your goals for the quarter, which align with your goals for the year.
You are a heat-seeking, goal-setting, daily-dominating machine who for each and every day has an “MIT.”
Know Your Most Important Task – The MIT
I’m not talking about the great school in Massachusetts, not the MIT that produced the guys who took down Vegas and starred in the book Bringing Down the House (one of my favorites of all time). The MIT we are talking about stands for Most Important Task of that day.
What is the one thing you have to get done to make that day a win?
Then, in order to get that one task done, you need to have moment-by-moment awareness, moment-by-moment focus, recognizing when you get distracted, when you are getting pulled out of the moment — and then use your awareness and refocus skills to get back on course and get back in the fight to dominate the day. You must know your MIT.
Some personalities lend themselves more receptive to organization than others.
People who struggle with this skill tend to prefer a more go with the flow approach, viewing structure and organization as something too restrictive. Often, this is a notion derived from the idea that organization has to be incredibly detailed and restrictive, which simply isn’t the case.
There are ways to provide an overall base of structure and organization without requiring an undesirable amount of time or attention spent on the process (or taking away the natural flow of life).
The concept of the MIT organizational tool is simple: Identify just a few of the most important things you have to accomplish each day and give your best effort and attention to those tasks first.
The beauty of this strategy lies in its ability to help people identify what’s most important for success, to direct focus and energy to these tasks first, and then allow room for flexibility to go with the flow if desired.
As noted above, MIT’s provide a good balance between structure and freedom to go with the flow, making it a great option for people who shudder at the highly structured lifestyle of someone with a Type A personality.
To put this into practice, encourage your clients/athletes to identify one to three things they MUST accomplish each day, write them down, and direct their time and energy to accomplishing these tasks before doing anything else.
Of course, due to scheduling, it’s not always possible to do MIT’s first thing. A person who is only able to work out in the evening after work, for example, simply can’t do that before everything else on their to-do list that day.
But there’s still a tremendous amount of power in identifying a task/habit as being something crucial for success, writing it down, and directing focus and energy to checking that off.
So don’t let limitations in one’s schedule derail the incredible success this strategy can provide.
This strategy can be applied to multiple areas of life (health/fitness/performance, work, etc.). But when doing so, care has to be taken that we don’t try to create so many MIT’s that the power of focusing on just a few things is compromised.
Many of our clients and athletes have success selecting about three MIT’s for tasks related to goals and work, respectively.
Below is an example of what this could look like for a health and fitness client who’s using this strategy for both work and health-related tasks:
| Monday:
Work MIT’s: 1. Make three sales calls to new, potential clients. 2. Review notes for presentation. 3. Connect with three current clients to make sure they’re being taken care of.
Health/Fitness MIT’s: 1. Eat three meals and one snack consisting of only lean protein + fruits/veggies. 2. Complete my scheduled workout. 3. Go to bed (lights out) by 10:30 p.m. |
These tasks should be the things identified as the most important for that day to move closer to goals and be successful.
A good way to evaluate whether or not you’re focusing on the right things is to ask yourself: If I get nothing but these MIT’s done today, will I still get at least 1% closer to my goals and have a productive day? If you can answer Yes! to that, you’re on the right track.
The key to making this work: YOU HAVE to write this down daily.
Don’t stand for any I do better just thinking things through nonsense.
The only way this works effectively is if it’s written down and referred to throughout the day.
Similarly, accountability is key. Set a predetermined time each week where you will review your daily MIT list and follow up to see if you are sticking to it.
Your job is to be someone who is successful — being organized is a big part of that.
Pro tip: To maximize the decision fatigue-zapping potential of this strategy, we encourage you to create your MIT list at the end of the work day or before going to bed so that when you wake up the next day, you are ready to go — no decisions necessary.
Here is a Mental Performance Daily Podcast where I discuss Reverse Engineering.
