Hello. Hello everybody. Welcome and welcome back to Pilates Students' Manual, helping you get the most out of your Pilates classes. I'm Olivia. Remember, you'll get the latest updates about everything I'm working on by joining the community at BuyMeACoffee.com/OliviaPodcasts.

The Book is now available for purchase as both an EPUB and PDF from me at shop.OliviaBioni.com, and on Kindle on Amazon. You can convert that EPUB or PDF into a Kindle friendly file by visiting amazon.com/sendtoKindle. Today's episode is all about the power of setting goals and also valuing the progress over the perfection in that goal. As you continue in your Pilates practice, the new year, new me energy is starting to wear off as the year continues. So the goal of this episode is to inspire you to continue your Pilates journey and appreciate the journey as you work towards those goals. And I know that appreciating the journey is like such a cliche thing to say, but it is so important in all things, but especially in our Pilates practice. Goals themselves can be a really useful tool to help motivate us to keep going, and there's so many cool and difficult Pilates exercises that would make great goals. There's the teaser, the rollup, elephant, upstretch, pikes, snake. It is completely natural to see those super cool exercises and want to do that thing, and but on your way to nailing that thing, there are so many little milestones and so much growth that you can really appreciate as you work toward that peak exercise. You may also come to your Pilates practice with a totally different set of goals, like moving with more ease, or being able to bend over to tie your shoes, or to get out of a chair without using your hands. Those are also amazing goals, and Pilates can support you on your way to reaching those goals too. Anytime you wanna do something and you can't do it, there's a gap in capacity. What I mean by that is that if there's an exercise that you wanna do and you're not able to execute that exercise, you need to increase your capacity in some way in order to do it. You have to fill in the gap from where you are to where you want to be. You may need to get stronger. For example, if your goal is to do a pushup, you need to be able to hold up your body weight in a plank before you can do a pushup. And to do that pushup, you'll need additional strength in your arms and chest to lower and lift your body weight even more than just holding that plank shape. So the gap in capacity could be your strength. It could be flexibility. If you're attempting to do the front splits on the reformer and you really wanna get that split with straight legs, you may need to increase the flexibility in your hip flexors and hamstrings to achieve that position. The gap in your capacity could also be your coordination. If you're doing something like teaser on the reformer, it's as much about timing the lift of your arms and legs as the strength of lifting your arms and legs through that spring resistance and lifting your legs up against gravity. Reaching your goal is about learning to fill those gaps. In that teaser example, it could be two gaps, right? It could be your coordination, it could also be your strength. It could be both of those things at the same time. Our goals give us a sense of direction. They help us identify where the gaps are and help us know where to grow. I wanna recommend that, while I love a goal and I love working towards something, I also don't want that to be the end all, be all because the goal is just a tool to direct your energy. There's more to Pilates than just a goal. But in the pursuit of that goal, there's something called the said principle and exercise said, stands for specific adaptation to imposed demands. And it means that our bodies consistently adapt to what we ask them to do. So whatever your goal may be, practicing that thing is how we get better at doing that thing. Something I absolutely love about Pilates are the echoes of shapes and so many exercises and on so many different pieces of equipment. There are many opportunities to practice the shape when you do Pilates, that challenge your coordination, your flexibility, and your strength. One of my favorite examples that demonstrates that is the exercise swan, because you can do a version of swan on the mat where your arms are supporting you and your legs and torso are resting entirely on the mat. You are mostly supported by the ground. Then you can take swan and move it to the long box on the reformer. Now your trunk is supported, but your lower legs and your head are not supported. You're now responsible for holding them up. Then we can move to the chair and Swan on the chair is supporting your hips, but your back and your legs are your responsibility to hold up against gravity. Lastly, we can move swan to the ladder barrel, which gives you an even smaller point of support than the chair. It's the same exercise. We're finding that extension in our spine, but we're changing the equipment and changing the demand on our body. As you get stronger and more coordinated, that same exercise can evolve and continue to challenge you. In comparison, the strength you're aiming to build for that pushup is there when you do bird dog and the hundred and the tricep press in coordination in hands and straps. The flexibility you're aiming to build so that you can bend over and tie your shoe is there in the rollup, in spine stretch, in scissors, in Eve's lunge. Meeting our goals happens when we work towards them over time, and Pilates, especially Pilates studios provide us with accountability and consistency. Maybe you have a certain number of classes that you're doing each month, or you have a pack of classes that expires on a given date. That financial incentive can be really motivating as well. There's a saying that I live by, that we overestimate what we can do in a day, but underestimate what we can do in a year. Working towards a goal a little bit every week and every month can add up to real progress over time. As you work towards your goals, your Pilates teacher can also support you and celebrate your success along the way. We can often overlook the little improvements that we're making on our pursuit of that one big thing, and your teacher can cheer for you as the movement gets smoother as the spring tension increases or decreases, as you complete your first clunky rep of a new progression on the way towards that goal exercise or goal movement. Your teacher can also help you with the process of setting your goals. Sometimes we don't have a goal and we just go to class because we like it or it feels good, but your teacher can help you find an achievable goal that you can meet with some effort, but that you will meet, that will bolster your enthusiasm. Once you meet that goal, you can move the goalpost a little further away and continue to challenge yourself. It's such a dopamine hit when you do the thing that you wanted to do, whether it's running a certain distance or whether it's nailing that specific exercise. Speaking for myself, I am my hardest critic, and I always wanna do the thing perfectly, but my teacher lets me know that, hey, that's better than the last time you did it. You had more control, you were more coordinated. And even if it isn't meeting my standard yet, I know I'm moving in the right direction and it feels good to be acknowledged and to be seen, and that the effort doesn't go unnoticed. When you're consistent, the thing that was once impossible becomes second nature. It might take a long time and even a longer time than you want it to take, but you can get there. the real benefit of setting a goal is making the effort and working towards it. Even if you never achieve the exact thing that you wanted, you're getting stronger all the same. You're developing your coordination. You're gaining flexibility, and you're setting time aside for yourself to do something good for your body and your mind. Doing Pilates is already good. If you had no goal other than to do it, you're already doing something amazing for yourself and achieving those goals that you set is just sprinkles on your Sunday. I am curious about what goals you are working towards in your Pilates practice. Is there a particular exercise or something else that you're trying to accomplish? My current goal is to run the Shamrock Shuffle in Chicago in March. That is an eight K race, and Pilates is supporting me by giving me that cross training, not running piece, keeping me strong, mobile and flexible. Huge thank you to all my supporters on Buy Me a Coffee. Thank you so much for your support. I'm looking forward to our coffee chats this month. Have a great couple weeks and we'll talk again soon.