New Year's is a great time to think deeply about your goals, re-evaluate your course and strategy, and perhaps even reinvent yourself! Taking your performance to the next level—in climbing or anything—demands CHANGE, courage and commitment, and consistent goal-focused action. In this episode, Eric takes you through a series of thought-provoking exercises and, along the way, he will arm you with powerful techniques and tips to make massive progress toward your climbing and non-climbing goals!

Rundown

0:15 – Introduction and New Year’s best wishes!

1:30 – “Climbing performance” and “human performance” are the same thing…so this episode will be wide-ranging.

2:25 – Setting goals isn’t enough—you need a SYSTEM to get you to your goals.

3:15 – This podcast has 5 parts, each with a drill down into a topic that will improve your performance in climbing and beyond.

5:23 – PART 1: Decide that CHANGE is a must! Improving at climbing—or anything—comes no other way.

8:10 – Exercise (pause the podcast): Write down your top 5 to 10 high-value goals/endeavors. Climbing can be one item, but write down your other important life goals (in the next 3 to 10 years).

9:45 – Exercise: Rank your goals in order of importance. Now divide your list into three tiers—the top tier (2 or 3 items) defines your MISSION!

12:50 – Exercise: Now write down 1 or 2 things that MUST give up or change in order to liberate yourself to achieve greatly. What person, activity, or thing is weighing you down…making you miserable and/or consuming your time?

14:45 – Learn how to create massive leverage for change...and supercharge your motivation and progress toward your goals!

17:15 – PART 2: Build Stronger Mental Muscle. Essential for progress, since all performance begins with your thoughts.

18:45 – What we can learn from pro climbers…most of whom exhibit incredible mental muscle, day in and day out.

20:30 – Learn about Eric’s “CHHOM gang” of climbers. What is CHHOM? Who are CHHOM? Strive to be like CHHOM!

22:00 – 4 mental training tips and techniques…

23:20 – a.) Supercharge your visualization.

27:25 – b.) Take control of your self-talk. Keep it 90%+ positive!

31:00 – c.) Act the part. Your posture, facial expression, and attitude create an aura that brings magical energy and synchronicity to you!

33:09 – d.) Surround yourself with positive, goal-oriented, successful people. Also, bathe your mind with positive media, books, images, etc.

35:49 – Side note: Eric’s most powerful book—bet you haven’t read it yet, but you should—is called Maximum Climbing: Mental Training for Peak Performance. A must-read for every serious climber!

36:35 – PART 3: Learn how to Optimize Your Training Program

37:20 – The best training program for you…is one you’re not doing!

38:30 – Advice for Beginner, Intermediate, and Advanced climbers.

40:05 – Access to new technology, the latest sports-science, and novel training techniques is essential for Elite climbers to improve.

41:45 – The difference between “copycat” training and “modeling”—the former is bad, the latter is good!

42: 28 – Access to a good veteran coach is extremely helpful…but you can study and learn to be an effective self-coach.

43:45 – PART 4: Simplify your training—simplify your life! Learn how to apply the 80-20 Rule to improve your effectiveness and advance more quickly toward your goals.

45:05 – Eric reveals one of his weaknesses…and his decade-long battle of passions!

49:05 – Eliminate trivial pursuits, trolls, critics, and naysayers...and you’ll be happier and more effective—just like CHHOM!

50:36 – Learn how to use Pareto's Principle ("the 80-20 Rule") to act more effectively in climbing, training, and other important life aspects.

53:10 – Eric comments on the advantages of occasional two-a-day training for advanced/elite climbers.

54:55 – PART 5: Strong shoulders beget stronger fingers! Make this a mantra in developing your finger training program.

57:50 – Your fingers are only as strong as your brain allows! A strong, stable foundation (rotator cuff and scapular stabilizer muscles) is essential for high-end finger training.

1:00:50 – Horst principle: “Develop stability before strength, and strength before power.” This conceptual model will support long-term strength gains and reduce risk. Eric's book Training For Climbing (3rd edition) has a fully chapter (Ch. 6) on exercises for developing comprehensive shoulder stabilizer strength.

1:02:50 – Summary comments about seeing the big picture for motivation and guidance, but narrowing your daily focus on important steps you can take toward your goal. Making meaningful progress towards a goal is the simplest, yet richest source of happiness.

1:05:55 – Check out Eric’s T4C Youtube channel for a short video on how to increase your effectiveness—and accelerate movement towards your goals—in any important life area.

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For a comprehensive study of Training for Climbing, check out the 3rd edition of Hörst's best-selling book!

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Music by: Misty Murphy

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