How to Achieve your Dreams!

                                                                               

Should it matter which season is almost upon us?

Instead of us putting off to next season what we could be getting started with this season, why not heed the words of Dawson Trotman and get started Today? Trotman said “The greatest time wasted is the time getting started!”

“The Greatest time wasted is the time getting started!”-Dawson Trotman

If I think back to when I was unfit and overweight, I felt more fatigued and more likely to waste my days in front of the TV, or spending time under the duvet. All very nice, if you want your life just to fly on by! I fell asleep at the wheel of life for 10 years and they were gone in the blink of an eye. I was a Heart Attack looking for a place to happen and I knew I had to change. Are you happy with your Life, in particular your Health and Fitness or are you seeking change?

Remember your Health is a Gift and there is no second chance should you abuse it. If your heart is disgruntled and attacks you, you may survive but the quality of your life will be compromised. Funny thing is many people work themselves to a standstill in pursuit of money and worldly treasures, compromising their family and their relationships but no amount of money in the world can repair your body if you abuse it by being idle and living an unhealthy lifestyle.

The height of insanity is doing the same things this year that we did last year, expecting a different result. Truth is if we do the same things this winter as we did last winter, we will actually have slipped a little more and entrenched our bad habits even more. Remember this, if you are not consciously focussed on developing good habits, then you will sub consciously be defaulting to bad habits.

So let us focus on what we can do… to change, to cultivate good habits, to reinvent ourselves? Firstly I will focus on the Why and then I will focus on the How!

The Why? Besides the fact that you will feel better, look better (and your friends will tell you so you before you properly notice the change) and have more energy, a key reason will be for your health.

Exercising, even just a little, will improve your health, but it can also go a long way in preventing the onset of several life-threatening conditions. Looking at a few of the benefits….

Your Heart
Exercising regularly will raise your heart rate AND very importantly reduces hardening of the arteries, which is a major cause of high blood pressure. High Blood Pressure can lead to heart disease and stroke. Exercising regularly lowers your resting heart rate which implies that more blood is being pumped per beat and now your heart won’t be working as hard as it once was. Exercising regularly also lowers and helps control your blood pressure.

Mental Health
Exercising regularly also reduces stress and anxiety. Some Medical studies show that exercising regularly decreases the likelihood that you will suffer from depression or insomnia and improves your overall quality of life. Looking better and feeling fitter boosts your self-esteem and confidence. It teaches you about good habits, motivation, setting goals and commitment, which can be transferred to other areas of your life, such as your career, your studies, your family and your relationships. I find exercising gives me time to plan and to think, enabling me to be more effective in the workplace, which also leads to a reduction in stress.

It gets a little worse before it gets a whole lot better!

More options
The fitter you are, the more options you have in life. How often have you turned down the option of doing something adventurous with your children or friends because you thought you may not be able to keep up? By exercising regularly it opens up new options and you are able to accept invitations or to take up challenges that you previously thought impossible. As you progress you will start new activities, which will lead to you meeting new people and exercising or playing sports with friends, or newly found friends, which helps transform your life.

It is highly recommended that healthy people build up to 30 minutes (or more) of moderate exercise three or four times per week. But remember to speak to your doctor before starting an exercise programme. Hopefully the above is sufficient reason to want to know how, so let’s consider a few tips.

The How? Before we move on to the How, I would like to encourage you to find a quiet place for half an hour, be it the Beach, under a Tree, away from traffic, people, amongst nature. Then allow your mind to wander, to dream, to think about the future, to think about your present and your past. Then on a pad jot down what you don’t like about your current lifestyle and what you would like to do, to become…. This is the start of something very important in life!

Imagine you were told that you had 24 hours to live? What didn’t you do? Who did you not get to be? Did you live out your Dreams? How many things did you tick off your Bucket List?

Vision

You need to have a Vision and the best definition I’ve heard is from Bill Hybels in his book ‘Courageous Leadership’ who says “Vision is a picture of the Future that produces Passion!” What is it that could possibly do that for you? What will give you sufficient Passion to want to get out of your Comfort Zone and Transform your Life? Whatever it may be, don’t go to your grave with the dance still inside of you. We were all gifted Talents from God, our gift to Him is what we do with those Talents and I’m not talking performance here, I’m simply talking about being fit and healthy, leading us to be better Fathers, Husbands, Brothers.

Dreams

Dreams are like clouds floating aimlessly in the sky (a wish), unless you commit them to a Plan (a need). Hence the reason I suggested jotting down your thoughts on paper, just very broadly at first as we need to understand Goal Setting before we set Goals on how to get there. In time a Journal will prove to be one of your biggest and best aids, as you plot and plan and record your progress. A Journal helps you to remain super focussed and what you focus upon you get in time!

Goals

Once we have a Vision, you need to set some Goals, S.M.A.R.T. Goals. Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Time Bound. The key here is to set an Achievable Goal, but one that is fairly challenging that it excites you enough to want to try and achieve it. A Goal is simply a Promise you make to yourself, so make sure you can keep the Promise!

Once you achieve the first Goal, you are making Progress and it is Progress that fuels our Motivation. It’s the first step to becoming Successful in Life and Success is doing what you said you would do. Period!!

So be wary of setting Goals that are too ambitious, just less than a Decade ago I set myself a Goal of running 30 minutes 3 times/week. Initially I could not run 20 minutes without stopping, but in time I achieved what now seems like a simplistic goal (I weighed a Ton then and it seemed like a Mountain) but that freed me to start dreaming of bigger things such as completing an Ironman.

Perseverance

Sometimes we are very close to achieving our Goals, but we don’t Persevere and we quit and this becomes a habit, it becomes part of our make-up. So if you do decide to chase a Dream, a Vision, a Goal it’s important to understand that it can take 14-21 days to break the shackles of bad habits, which in a short space of time can become good habits and enjoyable ones too. The key is being bold enough to take that first step.

As much as you won’t feel like it at times, just put your kit on, get outside or into the Gym and take that first step, as that is the hardest part of the whole equation….. The First Step to getting started and the First Step to every scheduled exercise session, if you can do that you will be successful. When faced with agonising decisions, things like TV (over exercise) or Muffins (over weight loss) simply stop and ask yourself will this take me closer to, or further away from my Goal? If you are focussed, the right answer wins the day so ask yourself often W.I.N. (What’s Important Now?)!

When the going gets tough, it’s time for you to toughen up and persevere and if you can look yourself in the mirror at the end of each day and say ‘I did what I set out to do today’, then Failure becomes an Impossibility and everything else in Life becomes a distinct Possibility.

Summary

-Cast a Vision, your Dreams for your Life.

-Commit it to paper (plan) and keep a record of your progress (Journal).

-Set Achievable Goals and work your way up the ladder.

-Just get started as it all starts with that very first step.

-Persevere, every storm will pass.

-Ask yourself W.I.N.

-Look yourself in the Mirror and Smile…. You are a Winner!

2013 CAN be your best year yet!

Every New Year we are granted an opportunity to start afresh or to continue in the same direction we have been travelling. Tomorrow, the 1st of January sees the calendar turn to a new chapter in our lives, to a blank page and 12 exciting new months are presented to us. They can be embraced or feared and for me each New Year has become an opportunity for adventure, for growth, for inspiration, for enthusiasm and to face my fears head on. So how do we maximise the windows of opportunity that will be presented to us in 2013?

If your Goals or New Year’s resolutions have not been realised in previous years, surely it’s time to try something different, as Albert Einstein said that the height of insanity is doing the same things you did last year, whilst expecting a different result.

I know that most people will say we need to dream, we need to have Vision and to an extent that is important, but everybody can dream, everyone has some sort of vision, so why is that 90% of people cannot achieve their goals or New Years resolutions? I think the reason that most people do not get from where they are now (current reality) to where they would like to be (future reality), is because they encounter obstacles whilst trying to cross the abyss and more often than not they had not given any thought to the obstacles, or the effort it may take to achieve their goals.

In addition people like to dream, but don’t take Action. Push yourself for two weeks, as that’s how long it takes to break a habit, or develop a new one. Get out of your comfort zone, stretch yourself a little for 14 days and those difficult steps, those early days soon become weeks and if you persevere in a few months time you WILL see an extraordinary change in so many facets of your life.

So here are a few ideas on Goal Setting:

1. Vision:

Yes, I know it may sound contradictory, but it all starts with a dream, or a vision, but this is not the most important step in my opinion. Bill Hybels says in his book Courageous Leadership that Vision is “a picture of the future that produces passion”.

The key here is how much Passion? How will you fuel the fire when the going gets tough? If you can see yourself as you can become and not as you are and the person you can become is something you really, really desire then you will be able to fuel the fire, you will have unlimited energy resources and you will be able to keep on, keeping on through the bad times, as well as the good times.

Are you in a Valley, are you unhappy with life, with yourself? I was rock bottom 8 years ago when I was weighing 100kg and extremely unfit. I was a spectator of life, but I decided to do something about it. Yes, I had dreams and aspirations but very often the people I was friends with, working with would talk about how difficult it would be, that it was impossible. But, have they ever been there or is it just their perception? Is it a ceiling they placed upon themselves and in turn, they painted us with the same brush?

A key problem for adults is that many of us have stopped dreaming, somewhere along our journey of life, we lost the ability to dream. Observe most young children, they are brilliant and creative thinkers, hungry for knowledge, new experiences, new friends, new dreams. Everyday they face the unknown, they encounter obstacles head on as they learn, smell, taste, see and hear things, breathing and taking in all life has to offer and the next day they are ready to fire on all cylinders once again.

Have you stopped breathing and taking in all life has to offer, embracing every second of every day? Are you being held back by self imposed limitations or by the ceiling placed upon us by our friends and family? (So choose the company you keep very carefully) 

Anything is possible, so don’t deny yourself the opportunity to become your personal hero, just because you think it may not be possible. Anything is possible if tackled one step at a time, so if you are going to dream, then dream big dreams, dreams that will excite you and inspire you and that will provide the fuel, the passion to keep on keeping on when the going gets tough.

2. S.M.A.R.T. Goals

It is important to set appropriate goals, such as

Specific/Measurable/Achievable/Realistic/Time Bound

A Goal is simply a promise that you make to yourself, but it is also the PLAN, the projection of your intention to move from A to B, from your current reality to your future reality. The first step to self improvement is achieving our Goals, so set achievable Goals and if you have a big goal, or a long term goals, break it up into smaller, more manageable goals.

Think of a 5000 piece Jig Saw Puzzle and I’m sure you will agree with me it is quite intimidating. How do we get started? Well the most important piece is not one of the 5,000 pieces, it is the picture on the box (vision). Once we have a vision, we need to set some SMART goals and go after them one step at a time.

A good example would be working on the boundary (and not the picture or the final destination), as we have the corners and the straight edges to guide us. As we position more and more of the boundary pieces, we start to get encouraged and from that we get the fuel to continue, so go after your goals one step at a time, one piece at a time.

Over time those small steps become days, become weeks, months and if necessary years and before you know it you will have achieved extraordinary things, you will have become your personal hero.

People often ask me how I have transformed my life and although it’s taken 8 years or more, I achieved it one step at a time, one day at a time. I cannot single out one little thing, or one big thing, but one thing I can say is that achieving the initial smaller, achievable goals I set for myself makes each subsequent task or goal that little bit easier. (My initial goal was to run 20 minutes three times/week without stopping!)

So for me the key is achievable, manageable goals tackled one step at a time and then to persevere, to endure, to commit and to believe that anything is possible.

3. The Road Map

It is absolutely key that you have a Road Map, a blue print, of what you are wanting to achieve and how you are going to achieve it. Knowing where you are (current reality) and being brutally honest with yourself is important and then determining where you want to be (future reality) and how badly you want it is key.

The next step is to try and identify the route that needs to be travelled in order to get to the finish line (future reality).

However, just as in a race a competitor can easily identify the starting line and the finishing line and with a little bit of research the route that needs to be travelled. But, a competitor never knows what obstacles they may encounter along the path and it is how one deals with these obstacles that determine how successful or unsuccessful we may be.

We need to Plan to the best of our ability, but we can only plan for so many obstacles, but we need to be prepared for, or anticipate the fact that their may well be unexpected hurdles that we have to scale in order to achieve our goals.

4. Obstacles 

It’s easy to Dream or to set Goals, as our minds can conceive some very exciting things that we would like to achieve, but very often we have no idea of what it will take to achieve our goals and then as soon as we encounter an obstacle, we back off, we say it’s a lot tougher than we anticipated and we throw in the towel.

Picture in your mind moving/pushing a Grand Piano, in our minds we can see ourselves pushing it from one room to the next and it takes little, or no effort. However, in real life it’s a tough physical ask and it may not even be possible.

When I started my ‘triathlon’ comeback, my point of reference was 10 or more years earlier when I was a successful and competitive triathlete and the training was relatively easy. Fast forward a decade of inactivity and an extra 20 odd kilos and I had no idea what I was letting myself in for. It was far tougher than I had imagined and it would take lots of perseverance and commitment to achieve what I had set out to do.

A combination of inexperience, a lack of research or proper planning could have set me back, but see section on ‘Burn the Boats’ (#5 below) which assisted me to remain focussed, in addition to the fact that I had a strong purpose for wanting to restore my body to its former fitness, as I was doing it in memory of my late stepson Reece Walton, who passed away tragically in 2004.

Fortunately I am the type of individual that when I do make a commitment, I try and find a way to see out my commitment, so even though I was unprepared for what lay ahead, I made steady progress, taking it one step at a time and the days became weeks, months and years and before I knew it I was close to where I wanted to be.

So best you ascertain exactly what you could expect, by consulting a professional, a coach, a guide as there are people with great experience who can prepare you for what lies ahead and how best you can achieve your goals.

Being lucky is when preparedness and opportunity meet, so be well prepared.

Sometimes though you can plan to the best of your ability, but how do you plan for a torn Achilles Tendon (2005), a DVT (2007), a broken collar bone (2010 twice), mechanical failure (2012)? Remember we learn life’s biggest and best lessons not from our victories, but from our failures or how we respond to adversity.

5. Burn The Boats 

We live in an instant gratification society, where we can get most things at the click of a button, or the swipe of a credit card. However the important things in life don’t come easily and we have to endure, to persevere, to commit if we want to make life changing decisions.

I’ve also found that people set goals that are meaningless and can be tossed out of the window in less than a week. A Goal is a promise to yourself and if you can’t keep a promise to yourself then where are you heading with your life?

So best to commit your goals to paper, or stone as in the olden days, then it is a lot harder to change your mind, or to give up on your goals when encountering obstacles.

I learnt of a saying ‘Burn the Boats’ which I try and live by, the short story is of a General who beached his boats when going to war and ordered the Boats be burnt. When asked why he said he wanted his soldiers to know that there was no turning back, no thought of surrendering.

I’ve been criticized in the past for being overly optimistic, for sharing my goals publicly, but I’ve used this to my advantage because when things go pear shaped as they did at IMSA 2009 or Kona 2012, there can be no turning back, no thought of surrender. I was on record as saying I think I can go sub 10 hours in an Ironman, on saying I dream of being on the podium at a World Championship. Imagine I threw in the towel, it’s all very well for being criticized for dreaming big, but I’d hate to be criticized for throwing in the towel.

So when I encounter obstacles they generally fire me up to want to work harder, to strive harder, to persevere and to try and become the best I can be.

As Eric Liddell said “ In the dust of defeat as well as in the laurels of victory, there is a glory to be found if one has done his best.”