Running 42 kilometres is a major challenge. Few undertake the experience, because it is a long way to run. It is an intimidating distance. Yet I found running my first Marathon was one of the most exhilarating experiences of my life, and I enjoyed every aspect of the race.
When I look back on the entire journey leading up to and undertaking the race itself, I recall that my very first run was 5kms, during which I stopped twice, out of breath puffing and panting. Yet even then I knew that I was going to make the Marathon.
Throughout the process leading up to and including the run, my professional brain was watching and assessing what I was and was not doing, which has given me insights into performance that has really changed my thinking about accomplishment.
The first task was to break the goal down into sizeable chunks, planned and executed in sequence well ahead of the final task. The 42 will take care of itself once the timeframe and running development program has been put into place. In my case, that was a spreadsheet downloaded from a running magazine that built me up from running 5km through to a 36km run 3 weeks out from the Marathon itself.
Even when my first run left me out of breath and feeling sick, I knew I would eventually do the Marathon. The goal was so important to me that I wanted to achieve it.
I see this in life and work. If the goal is important enough – is part of your intrinsic motivation to perform – you will find a way to achieve it.
Running is not a difficult skill. We all learn at the youngest age how to put one foot in front of the other. The process is not difficult in itself either. Follow the schedule and build strength in your muscles. It’s the mindset that counts; your attitude to the goal determines how you will perform.
We all face the inevitable choice of sticking to our goal or letting it go. What I learnt is that if the goal is meaningful enough, and touches your inner emotions, you will become sufficiently focused to make sure you get it done.
Simply put, a little obsessiveness goes a long way.
The logic is unassailable: choose a goal, plan to reach that goal, stay on track with the plan. With heartfelt intention, many goals and plans are made, but so few are fully followed through. Staying the course is the single most important factor in ensuing success.
There were plenty of times during my 6 month preparation that my schedule went out the window: in bed with the flu, hectic overseas and domestic travel, and even a broken rib, which kept me off the road for nearly 3 weeks.
But I kept coming back to the schedule because I wanted to accomplish my goal. A truly meaningful goal keeps you coming back to the process of achievement even if you suffer setbacks or deviations.
I have often found that people who are obsessed with their goal, are much more likely to stay with the plan. It is in the nature of obsessive personalities to do so; they have a plan and are laser focused on achieving it.
So how do you get more of that obsessiveness when you may not be that way inclined?
Part of the answer lies in understanding how our brain works. There is a bundle of neurons near the top of the brain stem called the Reticular Activating System. It acts as a portal for all the information coming from our senses into our bodies. The RAS filters the incoming information and affects what we pay attention to, how aroused we should be, and what is not going to get further access to our brain.
I visualise the RAS as a louvered window-blind; filtering only some of the vast amounts of information that exists in the world around me at any given moment. This filter limits access to some of that information in a way that stimulates my attention. When I am sufficiently aroused by something, the RAS ‘opens the blinds’ to that something and directionalises my awareness, attention and thinking of that issue or goal at both a conscious and subconscious level. I am, in a sense, driven toward my goal. Therein lies it’s power: if the goal is important to me, my RAS will steer me, consciously or not, toward that I wish to achieve.
We have all seen this at work. Recall when you purchased a car. Once you narrowed down your choices and decided what you wanted, did you see more of that type of car on the road? Did these cars just appear? Of course not. It was your RAS opening the filters to your awareness of particular cars because your attention was focused on the desire for it.
Scientists have seen this at work with f-MRI brain images: the brain literally ‘lights up’ at certain points when we have a goal we want to achieve. I have heard people call this ‘the universe is responding’ to their need. It isn’t that mystical a process. It is a simple idea: if the goal is important enough for you to accomplish, and in so doing light up your brain with the attention and desire to achieve that goal come what may, then you are more likely to achieve that which you wish for.
So if you want people you lead to accomplish big things, find a way to light up their brains. If you do not know what truly motivates your people, what they seek more of in life and work, then all you are really doing is managing a task-focused group of assets and hoping for the best. But if you understand people’s real motivations, you can lead them to inspiring heights, and more comfortably through endless change. A motivated team is the most powerful organisational unit ever devised.
The starting point is you: ‘Physician Heal Thyself’. Light up your brain with goals that are intrinsically motivating to you. You are then more likely to succeed. As a leader, this will include building and maintaining a high performing team. If having such a team truly lights your brain, you will build one. I have seen this happen many times. And I have seen leaders pay lip-service to this goal with a resultant much lower level of team performance. Or more accurately, these leaders do not have a team – they have a group of individuals performing on their own. As I learnt a long time ago: a leader (and an organisation) is perfectly aligned to the results they are getting.
The idea of “likely to succeed” is also very powerful. I learnt that there were any number of obstacles that could have physically stopped me from completing the Marathon. I did all I could to put myself in the best shape for the run, but a pulled muscle, a disease from amidst family or friends, or any number of random events could have stopped me.
I don’t call that good or bad luck. It is about maximising the odds in my favour, and reducing the chance of risk. There is much in my control that I can leverage for accomplishing the goal that is worth the time and effort, including thinking and preparing for obstacles before they happen.
The one crucial way of doing this is to be coached and mentored. Before I started my running journey I had no idea what to expect. I didn’t know what I didn’t know, and there is a lot to know when you run the big one.
I spoke to a friend of mine who has run many Marathons and Ultra-Marathons. The man is a running machine. He is also a delightful and warm friend who had no hesitation in giving me advice and mentoring me in things to do, plan for, and avoid. He taught me how to break the race down into discreet segments, stages my body would go through, maintaining nutrition while running, building up to the race, and many other things. I honestly do not know if I could have made it in such good shape without the knowledge and wisdom he was so willing to share to help me be successful.
A mentor/s will help you succeed faster and better in your own journey to your own goals. Get thyself a teacher.
I have learnt many lessons in life and work from undertaking this adventure. As a businessman and learning professional, I have developed 2 new training programs that translate these lessons into organisational life, and in a practical and meaningful way. One is a highly interactive workshop on Setting and Achieving Goals. There are some definite things to do, some things to avoid, a couple of recovery strategies, and a practical toolbox to take a motivating goal and make it achievable.
The second program is a practical guide to Human Centred Leadership. And the emphasis is on the practical, through a very powerful (Corporate) Socially Responsible mechanism.
Happy to share them with you when you are ready to transform and hit those big performance goals.
Good luck running your own Marathon.