Vipassana
meditation teacher S.N. Goenka is persistent in encouraging us to work
patiently and persistently, in order to be successful.
This
week I found inspiration from young English cricketer Joe Root’s performance in
the 2nd Ashes Test.
After
galloping on sand dunes at sunset, having fun scaring ourselves at Waterworld
and marvelling at the Sheikh Zayed Mosque, we had settled down for some
armchair spectator sport to escape the Abu Dhabi heat. I was in the UAE to co-deliver a coaching
workshop, where we drew on the sports metaphor in business. We offered the participants a new perspective
on goal setting and my colleague illustrated it beautifully with examples from his
own ballet career. In essence it
requires us to be more rigorous, clear and expansive in how we set our goals. It is about going beyond what you want
to achieve, to ‘chunk up’ and consider why it is important, that is, what achieving it
will mean to you, and conversely to ‘chunk down’ to explore how you will
achieve the goal, by breaking it into smaller processes, actions and behaviours. In this way, you get the higher meaning and
motivation (why), measurable-I-know-when-I-will-get-there targets (what) and controllable moments (how); you engage your heart, head and feet.
One
of Joe Root’s goals would have been a measurable target to get 100 in his first
Ashes. His why might have been to have
his name forever recorded at the historic Lords, which would tap into his deeper
values. This might have got him out of
bed on those early mornings to practise, it might have got him there on the green,
but in the performance moment what he focused on was those ‘hows’, in
his control: his technique; his nerves... With calm and controlled focus he patiently
and persistently went about his work, relentlessly facing ball after ball, ball
after ball. 338 balls in total for 180
runs.
Focusing
on the right goal at the right time.
A great
example is from swimming legend Michael Phelps’ pre and post-meet press
conferences at the Beijing Olympics 2008. Thanks to Lane4 for reminding us of
the story:
Pre-meet
post conference:
Q:
“Are you going to beat Mark Spitz’s record of 7 gold medals?”
A:
“I’m going to swim my first race and see what happens”
Q:
“Yes, but are you going to get the 8?”
A:
“I’m going to prepare for my first race and do a good dive”.
Post-meet
press conference
Q: “So did you plan to win 8 golds?”
A: “I had a piece of paper by my bedside with
goals on it”
Q: “What did it say?”
A: “At the top of the page – win 8 gold medals”
If
you have a compelling why, a clear what and controllable hows, it seems anything
is possible.
With
patience and persistence.
Sources:
Image: Dawn goat-herding in Ethiopia, from 'Just a
Moment' blog post by Steve McCurry. As
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