I love Naruto man
I love the world of shinobis, the crazy and unique abilities it has, the deep story of how all the villians are just misguided heros wanting peace (until the end when the very last person was evil for the sake of being evil).
It really drew me in.
I loved Naruto and how he never gave up. I think we can all look up to that.
But I never gave Naruto’s goals much thought until I saw a post in one of my anime groups
The meme was about how all sorts of anime main characters are cool for different reasons.
With Naruto being that he is goal focused and driven.
So it got me thinking.
Are there any take aways we can get from Naruto in terms of goal setting?
Look I know Naruto is an anime, and he isn’t a real person, our world isn’t filled with chakra, tailed beasts and bloodline abilities.
But there are some major things we can draw from Naruto in regard to his goal setting.
- Naruto has a clear and specific goal of becoming the Hokage
- All of his actions are lead by his core values even when it’s difficult, like when he fought Pain
- He isn’t scared to look like a fool at first
So let’s dive in like it’s a bowl of Ichiraku Ramen.
1) Clear Specific Goals
Naruto’s clear and specific goal is to become Hokage.
When we look at goals we often apply the S.M.A.R.T criteria. SMART stands for Specific Measurable Attainable, Realistic and Timely.
Naruto’s goal check’s off specific and measurable.
Do we know definitively when he becomes the Hokage? Yes, it’s a black and white thing. He either is or isn’t.
Now take Sasuke’s goal after his fight with Itatchi, he wants to end the shinobi world.
Like…. What does that even mean? What does it even look like? How can we know once it’s accomplished? We can’t. Its vague to start off. Think of it as if I said “I want to be healthy”
In what way? What does healthy even mean? How do we even know when we get there?
Vague goals lead to confusion, inaction and frustration as often someone can be doing two different actions that negate each other.
Here are some other examples of fitness related goals
“I want to walk 7,000 steps daily” it’s specific (steps) and measurable (7,000) I will know when I did or did not do it.
Other specific goals would be….
“getting 5 minutes of workouts in daily”
“Bring my launch to work with him.”
“ordering a chicken sandwich instead of a double cheese burger”
“doing 5 push-ups every morning”
With these goals you can 100% tell when they are done, if you did them and there is absolutely no wiggle room. The simple way to figure out if you did this correctly is a yes/no test. Did you, or did you not do your goal?
If the answer is anything other than yes/no. Then we didn’t hit bulls eye with the sharukin
2) All of his actions are lead by his core values and move him AND are aligned with his goals.
Naruto has two huge core values that drive his “ninja way”
- Breaking hatred by becoming friends
- Working insanely hard
His actions are always being driven this way. Sometimes it’s very tough love, where he’ll fight you until both of you are laying motionless on the ground, barely awake and potentially missing an arm. But Naruto never strays from this Ninja Way.
He does this every time he fights someone
- Haku
- Garaa
- Susake
- Pain
- 14,000 filler episodes of villains
He never strays between his goals and his Ninja way.
An example that goes against this would be a mom that wants to workout 7 days a week at a gym. One of her values might be to spend time with her family. As she starts to go to the gym she might feel guilt or just feel off about being away from them. This can create a rift, she wants to get fit and wants to spend time. Is there a way we could do both, possibly together?
This is really something that I feel goes overlooked. Do our goals match our values in where we want to be, and how do we align them?
This might be a little tough if you have never really established what your core values are.
If you’ve never done this before, I would 100% check out this exercise from Dr.Stephen Covey that he does in 7 habits of highly successful people. This is how I came up with mine. I don’t want to spoil it, but check out this video.
3) Naruto is totally ok making mistakes and not knowing.
This dude has no problem being the butt end of dumb jokes, no problem making mistakes, no problem being out in front and having no problem not knowing what’s ahead.
This is a major STRENGTH, especially when it comes to reaching goals.
How often have you tried to do a new plan, a new goal. You tell yourself “I am gonna follow this hard core meal plan!”
You do great on day 1, day 2, day 3. On day four you realize that you have ran out of your chicken for lunch. So you think You’ll do it on the fly. At lunch you find yourself hungry, tired and have more work to do than you realized so you decide to uber eats a burger and fries. After eating it you happen to feel guilty that you didn’t stick to your diet. “I am a failure..I can’t even follow a diet plan”
I hear this ALL THE FREAKING TIME!
It’s all or nothing mentality.
Dr. John Berardi from PN stated this super well “All or nothing thinking, rarely leaves us with all, and usually leaves us with nothing.”
The reason Naruto is so successful is he doesn’t care if he isn’t perfect or messes up. He is after developing a skill, getting better, increasing his understanding. On the flip side when people focus on the outcome of just being good, it’s easy to get frustrated and give up when things don’t go smoothly.
Remember!
If your goals require SKILLS for you to accomplish them, then you’ll have to DEVELOP those skills.
This goes for nutrition, fitness and just life in general. You won’t just wake up one day and have all your skills downloaded like the matrix…. Well maybe one day.
SO for Naruto, he doesn’t care about looking dumb, he gets things will take TONS of practice. Heck! Look at him when he was learning the rasengan. He needed lots of practice, needed to use a shadow clone to help, then eventually he could do it with two hands, then infuse it with elements.
He never once went “omg I messed up, I can’t ever do this. I’m gonna quit” his response is “I need to get stronger”
So get stronger
Naruto also does something else amazingly well.
He constantly has mentors who are showing him the next steps he needs to take. From Kakashi, to Jiraiya, back to Kakashi, to Fukasaku, to Killer bee, they were all showing him a major step in his development as a person and as a shinobi.
He never stops learning and constantly wants people to teach him, train him, and help him get better.
This coupled with his tenacity, he vision of his goals, and having his behaviors fall in line with his own personal code, make him unstoppable.
Now I know he was written to be like that, but that doesn’t mean you can’t be like that too.
You can start getting a mentor today by applying for our 2 week trial. We only take 5 people a month onto this trial because we want to actually coach you one on one, set goals and teach you how to apply everything that we talked about today, so you can crush your goals, get strong, get fit and feel like a superhero or Hokage in 2021 (thank god 2020 is over man). So let us be your Kakashi and guide you on your own ninja way.
Apply here by setting up a 10min call https://evolutionfitnesscoachingsd.as.me/?appointmentType=19254718