This is a short interview between Chad Silverstein and Ty Montgomery about goal setting and discipline. Montgomery describes a three-tier goal framework (outcome goal, two performance goals, and five process goals per performance goal), emphasizes focusing on process and controllable behaviors, and gives a weight-loss example illustrating outcome vs. performance vs. process goals. He discusses reasons people stop setting goals (insecurity, fear of failure) and lists daily disciplines: start fast, stay focused, finish, correction and accountability, attention to detail, and consistency (consistency allows for grace).
Chapters
Have you always been a goal setter? Do you set goals? Do you write them down?
Yeah, I used to write them down. Honestly, I need to get back to that. I used to keep them in my phone. You know, to be honest, I would set goals, I would write down my prayers so I could remember and check them off and, you know, give some appreciation to God. And I learned my goal setting when I was in college. I mean, this, honestly, this strength coach, it made me a better man, to be honest. But when I was in college, he taught us goal setting and he taught us ways to set goals. There's the outcome goal. There are two performance goals and there are five process goals for each performance goal. And the process is 100 in your control. Are you submitted to the process? Can you be disciplined and stay consistent with that? And because you do your process, it will, it should impact your performance, which is also in your control. The outcome completely out of your control. So my goal, my outcome goal is something that I'm trying to attain, but every day I'm not thinking about the outcome goal. Every day I'm thinking about the process. And then when it's time to perform, I'm thinking about performance. And then by the time it's time to look up, then I see where I'm at.
So do me a favor, give me an example of that. It can be about anything. Just make it up on the fly, like about working out or about your success. You know, like, just so I can understand that concept, because it's an interesting concept and I've never heard that before.
Okay, so let's say my outcome goal would be to be 200 and I don't know, I'm about 225 to 27 right now. So let's say I wanted to lose weight and my outcome goal would be I want to be £215 in a month. Like that sounds crazy. Okay, outcome goal would be £215. My two performance goals would probably be to be able to run, you know, three miles in 20 minutes and to be able to be able to jump rope for five minutes straight, no misses. Those would be my two performance goals. And then in order to be able to run three miles in 20 minutes, I gotta have five different process goals that are like my daily goals. Wake up at 6am every morning, run one mile, eat a certain amount of carbs. That would be my second one. My third one would be, I would say read two chapters of a book and then I'll explain what I like. That just comes from developing A discipline, like, can I do something for 20 minutes straight? Right.
Yeah, it makes sense. I mean, you're throwing out that rock. And it's funny because most people, they say 3% of the people set goals in the country. And you see these gyms get packed on January 1st, and the reason that they're all out in three weeks is because they take that outcome goal and they make that their only goal. And then it's impossible to hit that right off the bat and they quit and they stop. So I understood the concept. I do something very similar. I just don't call it the outcome and the performance, but I like that it makes sense and it breaks it down into your baby steps so you can go attack your goals. I mean, if it makes sense, it.
Takes the control, which you can control, and it simply, like, it makes it visible for you.
Right? So my brand's called Authentic Authority. So I gotta ask you a tough question.
Yeah.
Why stop? Is it out of laziness? Why stop setting goals? Why? What? What is it? Because you and I both know how important it is to set goals. I've done, you've done them, but there are times where we just don't do it. And we know we should be doing it. And that's like the worst thing in the world to be doing. Right? I need to do it. I should do it at such times. Bs, right? I mean, like, you're not doing it, period. And like, for me, I have a coach in my world of work, and he comes and he kicks my ass. Because sometimes you need to get your ass kicked.
Absolutely. I want to be. And this is me. I'm always fully transparent and fully vulnerable. I think that the times that I've stopped have come from insecurity and have come from fear of failure or tired of feeling like a failure if I don't set this goal or not. If I don't set it, if I don't write it down, then I don't have to worry about whether or not I accomplished it.
Right.
And that's just. I mean, I think that's just insecurity and that's just a fear of failing. Right. I hear.
I hear that. I appreciate you sharing that. Talk to me about discipline to be at the level that you play at and just in general, your whole career, I mean, everything from your. From high school, college, and throughout, you don't reach that type of level of athletics and success without having disciplines in your life. So talk to me just about maybe some of your daily disciplines. What do you do that you almost just like. It's just such habit that you don't even think about it. But the average person probably doesn't do it. Where are some of the disciplines that show up in your life and do you focus on them? Is it a big deal, or is it just something you just do because you've been doing it for so long?
I think I focus on them, and I don't even think I think about it anymore. It's just a part of, like, my daily, like, conversation with myself. Everything I do, I have to start fast. I gotta wake up fast. I gotta eat fast. I gotta get to where I'm going. I gotta do what I gotta do. So everything I do, I gotta start fast. And finishing is super important for me as well. You know, when you're in Little League, you see a lot of kids when they got to do conditioning, what do they do? They wait until the last rep to go as fast as they can. But what I try to do is I try to start fast and then I finish. Something we used to say all the time in college, start fast, stay focused, and find a way to finish. So it's not about my last rep being my fastest rep. It's about being my best rep. It's about having the best technique and, you know, so on. So I start fast and I finish. Those are the first two. And then I focus on correction and accountability. I'm always looking to correct myself. I celebrate all victories, including the small ones. But when it's time to correct myself and hold myself accountable, I cannot shy away from that. And I have to be disciplined in doing that. The fourth one is attention to detail. How you do anything is how you do everything. And I, like, firmly believe that. So even the little stuff. And this, you know, this is actually. This actually goes with finishing, I believe. So. You know, for example, I'm in the weight room, attention to detail and finishing. I do my set, I do my last set, but I'm not done until I rack my weights. No, wait a minute. I'm still not done until I rack my weights, and I put the clips for the weights back in the right position where I got them from. And I'm sweet. Nope, I'm still not done until I wipe. You know, if you're in a public gym, I'm still not done until I wipe my bench off and get it ready for the next person. As a matter of fact, I'm still not done until I'm prepared to start my next set, and then that's how I start fast. Like, attention to detail with the little things, can't skip reps, you know, none of that stuff. And then the last one is being consistent and just being consistent in all of these things. And consistency does not mean perfection. Consistency just means what you do routinely, you know, doesn't mean you got to do it 10 out of 10 times, although that's what we strive to do. But we got to leave room for grace. So as long as you're not doing it two out of 10 times and then trying to say, well, well, I do it, I do it all the time, why isn't this working? Well, that's not consistency. But if you do it 8 out of 10 times, that'll get the job done. But we're going to work our way to try to get to 10.
