Accomplish your goals

Life’s tough, so is bike racing.  In both cases most people have a picture of what they want to accomplish; whether it is a climbing the corporate ladder, or  climbing the top step on the podium, people usually an idea of what they want to do.

The question is though, how do you get there?  I get asked the question many of times; how is it that I’m always able to say “on”.

Truth is, it’s hard.  I’m no different then anyone else and I have my days where I just want to stop and curl up in a ball.  We all need those days and we all need to recharge the batteries every now and then.  Check out some of the previous posts on the importance of resting.

I’ve written about different skills that are helpful to stay focused and committed, but don’t think I’ve ever compliled them into one post giving you the bigger picture.  So here it is!

• Step 1.  Plan (and WRITE DOWN) your goals.  Doing so will keep you accountable and the likelyhood of you actually accomplishing them will go up.  Plus, you won’t know where your heading unless you have a plan!
• Step 2.  Act.  Simple enough right, you can’t just plan something and expect to get there without actually doing anything!
• Step 3.  Check.  All my clients go through periodic testing ever 5 weeks or so.  This helps me as a coach know if the previous weeks were working or not working, while providing mini-milestones for the athletes.
• Step 4.  Adjust.  Look at step 3.  If after testing yourself, reevaluation your progress and adjust accordingly.  If things are working out – great!  Continue doing what your doing and you’ll succeed.  If things aren’t going so well, adjust, and get back on track.

People working their way up the corporate ladder should use this step to determine if their job is taking them up the proper career path.  If not, ask for more responsibilities, different responsibilities or determine if it’s time to switch jobs.

Athletes should use this model to determine their training schedule to accomplish their racing goals.  Trust me, it works everytime.

To me, the arrows in the chart represent persistance.  If at anytime you break the loop, your going to fail.  If you continue to go around in that circle, constantly planning and evaluating and remain persistant towards your goals you can’t go wrong!