My understanding of OYS content can be broken into two parts:

  1. Discuss your attempts to better yourself. What challenges/wins/losses.

  2. Set goals and follow a plan to get where you want.

This post aims to clarify #2.

In order to be the best version of ourselves we can be, we need to know where we are going. What is it that you want? Once you know what you want, you can write it as a statement.

An obvious example: "I want to be more fit and healthy."

At the surface, this could be a covert contract "I want to be more fit and healthy... in order to get more sex". More information is needed about the real intention and it's hard to distinguish what progress OP has made.

At this point, the statement "I want to be more fit and healthy" is a desired outcome, not really a measurable goal, and those who post these as goals will get the feedback, "too vague". So you break it down into smaller, achievable goals.

"Make it to the gym three times this week."

But once you complete these, you still haven't reached the intended outcome. Not that there is anything wrong with that because progress takes time.

You might start to realize what it is you really want, or you recognize and disassemble a covert contract. More likely as you start to better yourself, you also start making progress and internalizing the new behavior.

"I am the type of person who doesn't skip a workout"

At this point it becomes part of your frame, and it's something other people could point out, or you could True/False test yourself about the validity of the statement. Some here can just look at your height, weight, BF, and lift stats and test for congruency.

Here's where I've been spinning my wheels.

  1. Does stating your desired outcome add value?

  2. Writing a desired outcome as a statement that internalizes to your frame is basically "fake it til you make it". It's a fancy way of disclosing your desired outcome.

  3. Smaller, achievable goals don't always have context, but does that matter?