Question:- How does an Olympian eat an elephant?
Answer:- The same way a mere mortal would, a mouth full at a time and certainly not all in one sitting!
Success leaves clues
Working with my colleague Mark Foster who excelled as a swimmer at 50 meters and reached great heights as a 5 time Olympian, setting 8 world records and having a career which spanned 23 years as a professional, it became obvious that success leaves clues.
One of the surprises for me, was that Mark was extremely good at doing the mundane tasks that he had to do to be able to swim fast, whether it was getting to the gym and doing the repetitions or stretching before he warmed up, it was his attention to the processes that supported his overall performance.
Just applying the principal of “Leaning into it” with your own processes within your role consistently won’t necessarily give you the results you are looking for. You need to notice the results you are getting and if it’s working well, fantastic, if not, then you need to tweak the process slightly and go through the routine again until you have mastered that aspect.
Managing the interferences
Another clue of successful people is their ability to remain focused on the task at hand, we all get bombarded with e-mails, phone calls, unexpected last minute meetings, rude people, bad weather, IT problems, traffic etc etc, the list is long!
You might say that this is a time management thing but it’s so much more than that, top performers in any field are able to handle all of these variables because they know from experience that these things will show up in their normal day. You could even say, that they bank on some of these events happening, they have a bullet proof vest that protects them so that they can get stuff done.
Creating solid routines is a way of busting procrastination which is the enemy of action, putting stuff off is easy to do, especially if it’s a task that you don’t enjoy doing, you’ve got to get comfortable in the thought that taking these steps will propel you forward towards your goals.
Like everyone else on the planet, we all have habits. When you wake up in the morning, do you brush your teeth 1st before you shower or do you go and put the kettle on and get breakfast? The same applies to a project that you are working on, there will be a set way that you approach getting the task completed.
Creating new habits
Being aware of what’s getting in your way and preventing you from “Leaning into it” is the first step in helping you manage yourself more effectively, make a list of the things that show up in your day that derail you from performing the tasks you know need attention.
Have a bit of fun with this and when something on your list shows up, allow the internal dialog in your head to say “argh hello you sneaky curve ball, thanks for showing up to test me” I need to stay focused on getting this done and I will make a note and come back to resolve this later when I can give it my full attention!
A tip I picked up years ago is to create space in your diary for phone calls and answering e-mails and also ensure that you carve some time up for yourself to sit down and plan next week, next month, next quarter etc.
When looking at goal setting, it all becomes easy when you have your big, way out there goal and then break it down into quarterly, monthly, weekly and daily stepping stones. Increase your awareness around how many days you actually have when you take out holidays and various meetings etc that might take you away from your goals.
Absolutely keep track of how you are progressing and whether you are ahead or behind, look for colleagues that might be able to support you and your team with new ideas and ways of working more smartly or strategically.
What books or courses might help you grow your capability and increase the positive feedback from your clients?
And finally, what new habits are you going to create to improve your own performance?
