2105, 2013

The journey has begun … (Beach Flags – Part 3)

By |May 21st, 2013|Dare to Dream, The Daily Process|0 Comments

Here’s the next instalment of my Beach Flags journey.
You will recall that after reading and getting a lot out of my book ‘A Life That Counts’, my friend Jesper told me that he liked how my book was so practical, but he wanted even more. More details on HOW. HOW did I actually go after my own goals and dreams. What did I do – step-by-step.

So here’s part 3 to give you what you asked for. And using my latest goal and challenge – to become the World Champion (40-45 years) in Surf Life-Saving Beach Flags in 2014.

Step 6 – Learn from and model the best
I’m a massive believer in doing things right the first time and learning from the best. Why would I want to learn the wrong technique at the outset, only to have to try and change it down the track? Why wouldn’t I just learn it the correct way from the beginning – even if that takes a bit longer? Why wouldn’t I ask advice from people who know more? Why wouldn’t I suck all the knowledge that I could out of the best ?

Well that’s exactly what I went about doing ! And the best in the world in this event is Simon Harris. He is a multiple World Champion and (now) 10 time Australian Champion. 10 times ! Damn, that’s impressive.

 

And fortunately for me, Simon is one of those guys who is so good at what he does, that he doesn’t have anything to prove or any barriers to put up. He’s happy to share his knowledge with others. Thankyou Simon ! (As an aside I’ve found this to be the case with very successful people. They may be hard to track down or get their time and attention but when you do, they are only more than happy to share their wisdom, knowledge and insight. In contrast I have found that the less successful – those people who don’t want to help you, who defend their silos, who keep all their knowledge to themselves, who put you down to make themselves better etc – they’re those ‘small-minded’ people who don’t carry any of the big-mindedness of the truly successful who don’t have anything to prove or defend).

So I copied Simon. I modelled everything he did. I watched him on videos and copied it. Like a little kid.

And when I was up on the Gold Coast, where Simon is from, I got in contact with him (through a proper introduction) and went and did a training session with him. It was fantastic and so helpful.
And along the way I would occasionally text him with some questions. Or get him to watch me do a couple of starts if we were ever in the same competition and warming -up.

Yep – model the best !

Step 7 – Just do it. Talk is cheap
The thing is … I could have the best vision board in the world. Great goal-setting. I could have amazing contacts with World Champions like Simon and my coach Marty Lynch who help me and give me input. But at the end of the day, no matter which way you look at it – you’ve got to do the work. Plain and simple. Talk is cheap.

So this step was all about me just getting in and doing the work. I knew that I didn’t have a great training base under me for this years championships. I knew that I was only learning. I knew that I was underdone. But at this point I just needed to focus and do the training. So it was off to the gym to get stronger. Off to the track to get faster. Off to the physio and chiro to get over strains and injuries. Off to the bank to pay for it all ! 🙂 Into the kitchen to prepare stuff so I’d eat better. Down to the beach to practice the get-up and turn – the one I had watched so many times on the video but needed to figure out for myself. And off to competitions to get experience and practice.
And it is the same with any goal you’re going after. Talk is cheap. you’ve got to do the work. As Muhammad Ali said “The fight is won or lost far away from the witnesses – behind the lines, in the gym and out there on the road, long before I dance in those lights”.

Step 8 – Enjoying the journey
I’ve done a lot of sport over the years with rugby and bobsleigh. Too many to count but just over 20 years of serious sport. And the whole point of doing Beach Flags was to enjoy being fit and to enjoy the next challenge. To enjoy not having to cart a massive bobsleigh around everywhere. To enjoy doing a summer sport because both rugby and bobsleigh are winter sports. To enjoy being in good shape. To enjoy new experiences. To enjoy meeting new people and so on. And I am … and that is a big part of the journey. After all, if you don’t enjoy it, why would you do it ?

Step 9 – Test myself and see where I’m at
I had no specific goals this year. I am only 3 months into the sport and have a lot to learn. And I don’t really know what to expect. So doing competitions was more about the experience and learning rather than aiming for a particular result. But as is the case whenever you set goals, you need to see where you’re at so that you know if you’re on track to achieve your goal or not. Do you need to adjust? Are you ahead or behind of where you should be ? What have you learnt and need to learn ?

And for me this was competing in the State Championships and then the Austrlaian Championships.

I surprised myself in the State Titles by winning it and so it was off to the Nationals last month. (As much as I had no expectations this year having just begun this journey as I said, when you’re in competition that all flies out the window of course. You want to win ! Whether you’ve done the work to back up the will is another question entirely. (I love the quote that says “Plenty of people have the desire to be champions but only champions have the desire to prepare !”.
Anyway I entered the Australian Championships with no massive expectations, but still a secret goal to win a medal).

And guess what – good news – I did – I won silver !


So it was a very happy Jeremy who came back to Sydney having enjoyed the whole experience and being happy with his performance. And the good news is that it has fired me up for next year – faster; in better shape; technically better; have stronger power to weight – just better !

So now it is back into the hard work with 1 year to go until the next Australian Championships in Perth and then six months after that to the World Championships.

So stay tuned for the next instalments of the journey. I hope you’re enjoying them and learning at the same time.

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705, 2013

The journey has begun … (Beach Flags – Part 2)

By |May 7th, 2013|Dare to Dream, Goal Setting|0 Comments

Remember my friend Jesper who has just read my book and asked me to show him more specific and actual steps about how I went after a goal – in my case, my goal to become World Masters Beach Flags champion in 2014. You can read the first post here in which I talk about figuring out this next challenge / goal and then figuring out why I wanted it.

Here’s the second instalment.

Step 3 – Structured Goal Setting
Here’s my actual goal setting for my 2014 Beach Flags goal. See below. You will see that I have:
1. The Big Goal – The big,shiny outcome goal written down for 2014

2. Yearly planning – I have the key dates written down over the next 18 months

3. Monthly planning – I have broken this down into each month for the 18 months leading up to the World Championships so I know generally what I’m doing in my training, what my aims are and where I’m heading

4.  Weekly planning – I have a weekly training schedule. What do I train on which day ? I spend a fair bit of time on this weekly plan to get it right as I want to make sure it fits into the other parts of my life eg I don’t want to train on a Friday night as I want to relax and chill out. I want a life too ! And when I don’t feel like it is all-consuming I never get that feeling of resenting my training. It adds to my life rather than takes away from my life. I plan to train at lunch on weekdays so it gives me a break from work and I then work better in the afternoons. And also because I am not good at training in the morning – I prefer just to get into work. I also make sure that the daily program makes sense by ensuring that I have enough recovery for various sessions, that I am training when I have energy (eg not at the end of the day if I can help it), and that I am doing enough training in each of the important training elements (speed, strength, flexibility, technical flags training) so that I ensure I am working on improving weaknesses, maintaining my strengths, are well-rounded in my training etc.

5. Daily planning – then each day for that particular session I will know what I am doing. What weights I am doing or what running session? This is a plan only though so it may change depending on how I am feeling / injuries etc. But the important thing is that it is still a plan. I don’t just turn up to training and then try and figure out what I am doing.

* Write my goals down
Tick.
(As the saying says “A goal is a dream written down or a dream with a deadline !” And surprisingly most people don’t do this as numerous studies have shown. For example see this blog post which describes a well known study by Harvard on goal-setting which Mark McCormack talks about in his book ‘What They don’t teach you at Harvard Business School’. The point – there’s a power in writing your goals down).

* SMARTR goal setting
Specific – at this stage I don’t have enough of these very specific milestone goals. I need to add these. They will be in terms of technique improvements, speed tests, weights I want to lift, diet etc.
Measurable – I will see how I am tracking at State and Australian titles this year. That will be a good measurement. But the more specific milestone goals will all be able to be measured of course.
Achievable – my big outcome goal of World Champion is absolutely achievable if I can stay in great shape and learn the technique from the best. But getting to this point of absolute belief is the topic of another blog post. Or read my book of course.
Regularly assessed – as I add more milestone goals they will be regularly assessed in accordance with the timing I put on them. Again – more need to get added here. But goal-setting is an ongoing process not a set and forget.
Timed – as above
Reward – the fitness and health I gather along the way is enough for me now as I have no big result expectations this year. But as I enter the next 2013/2014 season, as I have encouraged others, I will come up with a specific reward for winning the Australian title and then another one for winning the World Championships.


Step 4 – Support for my goals
Tick. I still train with my brakeman from the last Olympic season (Duncan Harvey) on Sundays to keep me training at that higher level as he is still in training for the upcoming Winter Olympics in Sochi.
I have a great family and partner who are supportive.
I have a coach on the beach flags side who knows his stuff. He is a multiple Masters World Champion himself and his son just won the open World Championships this year.

Step 5 – Get input on my plan
Tick. I always let other people critique my plan and I welcome their input. Sure, it is not cast in stone and will change over time anyway, but my goal-setting is nonetheless the big roadmap that I will follow. So for this reason I want knowledgeable people to look at it and make suggestions and comments to help me make it better. That is why there are scribbles on this page. The point – you can always learn and improve so input from the right people can be invaluable.

 

…  I hope this is helpful. Stay tuned for the next instalment shortly as the last few months have been busy leading into the Australian Championships which have just finished. So there’s more to share on this journey.

 

 

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