The Wedge is a free and open-source program for goal setting and aggressive work.
I’ve been running this program since 2009. For about a year and a half now, I’ve been offering this program to interested people (usually over Instagram). I connect with those people to help correctly stage SMART goals according to what they’re working toward and bring the group together for discussion and motivation during the month of work. Unfortunately, it’s hard to arrange an ENDEX between remote participants. I’m still trying to figure out how to do that.
The program is named after one of our oldest tools – an inverted triangle. On the first plane, I put our Mind and Body of equal value. When our physical and mental are aligned, we can work toward our craft. I’ve challenged this month’s participants (@halligan.matt.kto and @bradfrombolton) to derive well-written goals for their body, mind and field craft. Each has worked diligently to make sure their goals are specific, measurable, attainable, relevant and timely.
TEPC
The Wedge was born from a handful of hard-chargers in my peer group. We wanted a way to formalize the process of creating goals with good technique and making moves in short order to check those boxes. The program is fundamentally hinged on the concept that 4 attributes determine whether we hit the mark; time, effort, pace and cadence.
Our age will be defined by the tools we use, as all eras of our past. Simple shapes make complex machines. Where our tools were once based more in utility, we seem to be surrounded now by useless trinkets that divert our attention from our most precious resource. Our skills are soft and perishable. Our most finite reserve decays us – time.
Our greatest struggle has turned internal. As we became further detached from the once looming barbarians at our gates, the responsibility to become formidable against the tests we would face tumble into memory. The products of our survival have been sedated with fast acting dopamine hits from tiny screens and corn syrup. To solve the problems that anchor us to suboptimal versions of ourselves, stalwart action must take as much of us as we are and were once able to give – effort.
Our future is dependent on the pressure we create on ourselves in the present. This pressure is manifested by continuously re-establishing our aim and acting aggressively to seek a well-stated goal. The pressure that urges us forward is most clear when we’re competing for competence. Almost all facets of life are rooted in competition. The victor is almost always capable of more rapid action and adaptation – pace.
Our ability to adapt has kept us clear of species-destroying calamity. It’s this process of rapid change that enables us to push forward, even when odds of success are far outweighed by obstacles of both mental and material load. This burden of knowing and experiencing failure is only superseded by the will and drive to continue. At scale, after losing momentum and regaining steps mislaid by the failures of our past, the discipline to continue wins the day – cadence.
The Wedge 1.7 – Click here to get it free.
The Wedge – My goals for April 2022
This time, I’m working on a few goals of my own. I’m trying to sharpen a few things I’ve been working on. Namely, I’ve been reading and re-reading some things on the premise of body recomposition. As all things fitness-focused on the internet, there’s 10 guys with 20 different answers. I’ve got a new book about the Fort McMurray wildfires to read. Finally, I’ve got an inkling to produce some cornerstone content about mindset development and resiliency to add to the conversation in the fire service.
For the month of April, I will track calories and macros using myfitnesspal to attain 2600 calories daily with 220g of protein. On Friday evenings, I will not track my intake for 1 meal.
– Subtasks include ensuring dietary supplement intake and being in bed by 10pm on weekdays.
For the month of April, I will finish Inside the Inferno, a book about the Fort McMurray wildfires.
For the month of April, I will research and write a detailed article on mindset development and resiliency. When complete, I will record a podcast episode using the article as a script.
To follow our progress, check out SIXFEET on Instagram; here.
