Be Your Best

Todd Gifford - Success Coach

In the past 45 days, I decided that I was going to take a step towards achieving a life/dream goal (on my ‘bucket list’) of finishing the Iron Man Triathlon, held each year on the Big Island of Hawaii.  Not sure if I will ever complete that dream goal — it is an insane event where you Swim 2.4 miles in open water, followed by a 110 mile bicycle race, followed yet by a 26.2 mile running marathon, all in one continuous event.  Honestly, this is something that I have wanted to complete just once in my lifetime since I was very young and would see the Ironman covered on TV each year.  Kind of like the ultimate athletic/fitness achievement that I could probably ever attain.  However, I have never seriously even attempted to move toward that goal until about a month ago.  Around my birthday last month, I was reviewing my bucket list and started to feel that time was slipping away on a number of things on my list, so I guess that got me motivated.  Each year that rolls by its going to be harder and harder to do this triathlon thing.

The Ironman event is a pretty intimidating goal.  It seems nearly unachievable to me despite seeing some ‘normal’ people complete the event on TV (although they do look like a heavy toll has been taken on them as they cross the finish line — the ‘price’ is high).  The significant physical conditioning required on a Triathlon is menacing, not to mention where do I find the time?  It’s a bit overwhelming, not unlike a lot of goals all of us face at work.  Stick with me.

I came across some good information from a guy named Ron Scolastico, who teaches the concept: “If you would go every day to a very large tree and take five swings at it with a very sharp ax, eventually, no matter how large the tree, it would have to come down.”  It’s another way of answering the question “How do you eat an elephant?” “One bite at a time.”  Same as the ‘Flywheel’ concept for companies in the best selling book “Good to Great” by Jim Collins.  Which small swing of the ax made the big tree fall?

I have been pretty conditioned over time, like many of us, to expect results to happen fast with whatever I am doing.  Whether it is work or personal life, I like to see near immediate results from my efforts (mowing the lawn—instant gratification in how the lawn looks; make a decision at work, put something into motion, and see some results of that action fairly quickly,  make a change in my golf swing — see the immediate change in ball flight, etc…).  I believe this built-in expectation can actually prevent a lot of people, including myself, from aggressively taking on big long-range goals.  They can be perceived to be so big and so far off that shorter term goals look more attractive.  Results happen faster.  I am confident that is why I have not taken steps toward achieving the Iron Man Triathlon goal previously, even though it was on my bucket list of goals for many years.

I decided to take this ‘Rule of 5’ concept and put it into practice with respect to the Ironman Triathlon dream goal.  I determined that the first ‘swing of the ax’ would be to sign up for a Triathlon even though I am not ready.  Signed up for a normal length Triathlon, paid the money, and am now committed.  Swing of the ax #2—tell people what I am doing to hold myself accountable.  Can’t back out because it would be too embarrassing.  How close am I to my ultimate goal?  Not very close.  But, closer than a month ago.  Swing of the ax #3—got a book on how to train for my 1st Triathlon.  Swing of the ax #4—signed up at a health club with a swimming pool (the swim portion of the Triathlon I perceive to be the toughest for me).  Ax swing #5: started daily training (7 new ax ‘swings’/week).  12 weeks away from my first Triathlon, I have started to train according to a pretty rigid daily plan laid out in that book I bought.  I run quite a bit already, but layering in the swimming, bicycling, and strength training is challenging.  The first big hurdle was that the training plan has me running further in a day than I have ever run before.  I was concerned about how to ‘step up’ to that level — the book said to back off my speed.  Routinely running at about 7.2 mph, I backed off the speed to 6.4 mph.

Nothing short of unbelievable as to how much of a difference that made in terms of the ability to go further.  This has been a good learning lesson to apply elsewhere—adjusting something just by a fraction in how you approach it can make a huge difference in accomplishing tasks.  Previously I was not open to change because I had my ‘routine’.  With the new training plan, I have no choice but to change.

Now I am wondering about all the other areas where I can make small changes to get better results!

Take Care,
Todd Gifford

Todd Gifford - Success Coach

The other night I watched a little bit of the Academy Awards  recognizing all the best movies and movie performances of the past year.  It dawned on me while watching all the people come up to the stage to receive their Awards (‘Oscar’ statues) and speak to the audience, that what was really happening is that these people were realizing/completing the achievement of a goal or resolution of some type.  Somewhere along the way everybody in the movie business has set a goal or dream to win an Oscar.  I seriously doubt very many actors, directors, producers, etc… who win an Oscar did not have that moment in their mind as a goal or life dream.  Not rocket science I know, but I will tie back to that in a minute…

Last month I had another birthday come and go.  I have typically used my birthdays as a time of reflection on my personal goals (both work and non-work) and what I am trying to do with my time on the planet.  I have spoken of my ‘bucket’ list in the past, and I look at that important list as well.  Call them ‘goals’, ‘dreams’, ‘stuff I want to do before kicking the bucket’ or call them whatever you want — they are the foundation of about everything if you think about it.  I know most people make ‘New Year’s resolutions’, but I have never done that for whatever reason.  I make ‘life resolutions’ (isn’t ‘resolution’ just another name for a ‘goal’?) whenever I think they need to be made.  Why wait for January 1st?  Heck, I could accomplish the goal by then!  On or around my birthday, I do a review of all of these to make sure I know where I am at.  It’s kind of my Annual Performance Review, and I am sure I am tougher on myself than anyone else could ever be.  Anyway, I guess my main point here is that nothing of any magnitude gets done without a goal or resolution of some kind.  The real secret is that setting a Goal makes things infinitely easier to accomplish.  Why?  The magic in identifying the ‘goal’ and transforming it into something other than a passing thought is that your brain starts to work on it whether you want to or not.  Small steps start getting taken towards the end goal.  “Setting goals” has a bad wrap because it is always positioned as such a ‘corporate’/’business’ thing to do.  But the reality is that if you decide you want to accomplish something (and you reallllly want to do it): if you write it down (on a napkin is fine), tell as many people as you can you are going to do it, and keep that goal in view somewhere consistently — it will happen, sure as shoot’in a very high % of the time.  Even if it does not get fully accomplished, good stuff happens regardless.  A quick tip on setting goals for yourself — use the ‘SMART’ technique: goals should be Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and the big one —- Time bound.

Ok, so here goes.  I just recently decided that I am going to do a Triathlon (you know, where you Swim a long way, then you Bike a long way, and then you finish with a long Run, all in one event).  Came up with that goal last month around my birthday.  I have never run more than 4 miles in one shot, never swam more than a couple hundred yards at one time, and I don’t bicycle hardly ever.  Why do I want to do this?  Not 100% sure, but I think it has to do with ‘because I think it will make me feel really good if I can do it’.  A related Bucket List dream goal I have is to do the ‘Ironman’ Triathlon before I kick the bucket, which is a ridiculous race where you Swim 2.4 miles, followed by a 112 mile bike race, followed by a 26.2 mile marathon run, all in one continuous event.  Not sure I will ever get that done, but I figured the only way to get there is to start somewhere, and that somewhere is a regular Triathlon event.  Finishing the ‘Ironman’ Triathlon is like winning an Oscar for me.  My first Triathlon is in June, 2010, so I will keep you posted.  I have started my training (which is based on the goal of being ‘ready’ for the event and just finishing the race—I don’t care about my time) which has all kinds of little goals within that plan.  This goal-stuff can be exhausting, but also a lot of fun!

Take Care,
Todd Gifford