One of the most important things in life to have is a plan, and the best way to go about having a plan is to have a checklist. No matter how advanced or basic, your checklist is useful in detailing what you need to do as we as your plans for doing it. One of the biggest mistakes we make in our training is flying by the seat of our plans and hoping we stumble upon our goal at some point in the future. It’s much easier to not only see where you are now in relation to where you want to be, but also have hatched out plan to chart your progress to where you want to be. These 8 steps, when applied in a well disciplined approach, can greatly improve your individual training.

1. Identify your goals

Before you even hit the door you should already be asking yourself “Do I have a plan and what’s the major thing I want to accomplish in my training today?” Regardless of your sport, event or activity, having a specific goal or even a number of small goals to aim for is a good way to motivate you and keep you focused in the long run.  When you have a goal, that thing that keeps you progressing and on the straight and narrow, you’ll get out and do what you have to do even on the days where there are a million and one excuses you could use. Without some plan of attack doubt is allowed to creep in and those excuses just become that much more attractive.

2. Take your goals seriously

How many times do you get out to the range or prepare for a field training exercise and you see other soldiers just goofing off. Now this is not to say that adding some humor to the daily grind can’t do wonders for being able to drive on but, without a serious intent to make the most of training time and money can get wasted. The outcome of combat readiness is of huge importance so give it the respect it deserves.

3. Log your work

Whether it was a good training session or awesome send up the mountain it’s important to takes notes on the how’s and why’s of how it went down. Your log book (or training journal), should serve as a “map” of your training showing you not only where you are now, but everything you’ve done to arrive at your current point. Your training log should detail not only your daily training, but also important items such as training duration, rates of perceived difficulty built on a scale of 1-10, what went right and even what went wrong. Notes on daily nutrition, training Injuries, and performance gains you’ve made (or lost), no matter how small, are all things you could include.

4. Structure your training day

Going to the gym and wondering around like you’re lost in the sauce is not only a sure waste of energy and effort,  but also a waste of what could’ve been some good solid training time. Having your training planned out in advance is good motivation to get up and get out as well as motivation to keep working towards your goals. One thing you may consider is setting a time to train at the same each training day. A couple of ideas behind this is working out at the same time builds consistency and also allows you roughly 24 hours of full rest between sessions.

5. Visualize Being There

Learning to use basic meditation and visualization techniques is very useful in preparing you for your training sessions whether your crag/gym climbing, skiing, or resistance training. Here is a simple exercise you can practice prior to your training activity:

1. Find a calm and quiet place away from common distractions.
2. Close your eyes and clear your mind, attempt to build a clear and vivid mental picture of your doing your activity. Include sights, sounds, and smells in your imagery.
3. Next see yourself at various points of your activity. No matter the activity, try to see yourself moving smoothly and efficiently free of wasted movement and effort.
4. We only want to visualize perfect technique so in the event you visualize a mistake, freeze and rewind and start your visualization over again from the start, again, we want to visualize perfect technique.
5. Repeat this as many times as you have time for or feel is necessary.

6. Get Comfortable With Being a Novice

There’s nothing wrong with taking a few training sessions here and there to revisit the basics. As a runner, this could be you slowing down and decreasing your speed while playing witness to simple things such as how smoothly your arms swing, stride length and your breathing patterns. If you’re a climber this could be you dropping a few levels below your current ability and climbing those easier grades as gracefully as possible because If there’s one piece of advice I can give to my athletes, it’s that most “advanced” techniques aren’t exactly advanced at all, they’re just the basics done perfectly. For you this would mean taking a basic move, technique, movement or what have you, and not just practicing it over and over again until you’re blue in the face, but committing yourself to a certain level When you grow bored or tired of this, do it some more. This is a good step in turning the “basics” into the advanced.

7. Turn on the Video

Try to use video whenever you can as a way of visual feedback that is impossible to get from association or even outside advice alone. Recording your activity can be used for in-gym training just as easily as outside sports. Video playback makes it possible for us to see the errors we make during our training but can also just as easily be used to see what we are doing right.

8. Stay Humble

Accept the fact that you’re only human, and there’s no way on earth for you to know everything there is to know about training, your sport, or even training for your sport. None of us are so good at our chosen craft that there exists no room for constant growth. And this is also the primary point of training, to get better, and a good way to throw a monkey wrench into your progress is by going into your training with the mindset that you have everything pegged down, or success is owed to you. And never stop learning. Take the time to research information on your own, and take time to ask lots of questions of other novices and experts who do what you do. Be humbled, and accept the idea that your successes will only come through working damn hard for them.