Tips on how to get started!

Getting started is tough and it’s not unique to you or I, in fact Dawson Trotman once said “The greatest time wasted, is the time getting started!”

If you are having difficulty getting started, I suggest you ask yourself WHAT?
W = Why
H = How
A = Action
T = Time

There is no magic formula, but if you get the WHAT sorted, it will assist you a great deal. Everyone has their unique Why, so spend some time discovering your Why. Is it for Health, Fitness, a Challenge, changing your Lifestyle, becoming more Productive, or simply wanting to do things with the kids?

Most people consider the HAT (How, Action, Time) the most difficult, but truth be told if you have a strong enough Why, you will make the HAT happen.

Steve Waugh once said and I live by this motto..
“If you want something to happen with all of your heart, you will always find ways to make it happen: If you do not really want it with all your heart, you will find an excuse to explain why it did not happen!”

The Why has become part of my DNA. Since 2004 I have been racing in memory of my Stepson Reece Walton, who tragically passed away at 19. Reece was the catalyst to me Getting Started, the spark that ignited an inferno that drove me to train harder. I still think of Reece every time I race and now my Why is because I enjoy it so much, I enjoy training with my kids and encouraging them, I love helping and encouraging others to Dream, to go after their Goals and to Transform.

Here is a little exercise to enable you to understand that time isn’t indefinite, or waiting around for you to get started. Ask yourself the following Questions, take a Pen and Paper and jot down a few answers:
1. If a Dr told you that you had 10 years left, but would be able to live a healthy life, what would you do differently? Anything, or is there still no urgency? Remember, if you do the same things this year that you did last year, not much will change, although you may get unfitter, poorer, more unhappy and even relationships may become more strained.
2. If a Dr told you that you had 2 years left, but are still able to live a healthy life, would you do anything differently? I am sure you that you would immediately start planning on doing a few of the things that are important to you. Time for Action yet?
3. Now imagine a Dr told you that you only had 24 hours to live! Time to ask yourself what you didn’t do, that you said you would do Tomorrow, as now there will be no Tomorrow. What did you not get to do, who did you not get to be, how will you be remembered?

So hopefully you now have the Why and the next part of the equation is the How! One thing you do not want to do is to try and re invent the wheel, or pay unnecessary school fees, which may seem like the cheaper option but it will waste the most prescious commodity of all = TIME, or it could derail your whole plan. So my suggestion is to seek professional guidance, it may seem unnecessary or expensive, but paying for professional advice is cheap at the price.

There are great Coaches around, whose life revolves around using their experience to assist others, so tap into this knowledge. I have some ambitious Ironman goals and even though I have all the knowledge in the world and decades of experience, I have decided to seek professional help once more. I have recently signed up with Raynard and Natlie Tissink, #TeamTissink, who have so much experience between the two of them and are extremely passionate about what they do. My motivation is to ensure that I maximise my time and effort, to have structure in my weeks and very importantly to have somebody to be accountable to (important for me).

Coach Raynard Tissink with 2 new members of #TeamTissink, Martin Von Alleman and I

In 2010 and 2011 I trained alongside Raynard and learnt so much from him, was so inspired and motivated to train and had the best two years of my sporting career, including an Age Group Gold at the World 70.3 Championships in Las Vegas 2011. Is there any coincidence that my performances suffered once Ray and Natalie moved to Cape Town and I opted to go it alone? No, it is a proven fact that athletes who have Coaches do better than they would without a Coach.

So you have the Why and if you source the ideal Guide, or Coach, they will tell you the How and thereafter if you take Action consistently over Time, you will be well on your way to achieving your Goals. Better still if you know your Why, if your Coach is telling you How and you make the Time, then Action happens automatically, so let’s fast forward to Time!

What isn’t scheduled (or measured) rarely gets done, so scheduling is very important. Your Coach can provide you with a Programme with sessions scheduled, but if your day is too cluttered it still may not happen. Many of us are so busy we focus upon the Urgent and not the Important and the Urgent clutters our desk, our mind and our time. So make sure you schedule what is Important (Training, Family, Work and so forth). Example, if you go to work with your swim/gym stuff in the car and intend to shoot out of the office for an hour when you get time, it may not happen, but if you schedule an hour in your diary to do just that, it in all likelihood will happen. So plan your Diary, schedule your training sessions and increase your chances of success.

The Big 5? Most multi sport athletes think of Knysna and Tourists think of wildlife when the Big 5 is mentioned, but for me the Big 5 takes on a whole new meaning. Big 5 has to do with ‘To Do’ Lists or in my case the ‘Not To Do’ Lists. Firstly, if your ‘To Do’ List has more than 5 things on it, chances are that very little gets done as it will be too intimidating, which leads to Procrastination and ask yourself honestly, “Do I procrastinate?” I would suggest turning your ‘To Do’ List on its head and focus upon a ‘Not To Do’ List, which is exactly what I do.

Think about it there are probably less than a handful of things that cause you to Procrastinate, that waste your valuable Time and derail you from Achieving what is truly Important to You!

So have a ‘Not To Do’ List and watch your everyday Life transform into one of efficiency and effectiveness.
Example: Ten years ago I found myself playing Solitaire (computer card game) and being ultra competitive, I played the expert option and one day it took me 4 hours of non stop play to secure a win. That night I realised that I was wasting hours daily playing something that only brought me short term satisfaction, but was meaningless in the bigger scheme of things. It certainly wasn’t on my bucket list and it wouldn’t help me achieve my goals, in fact it would ensure I wouldn’t achieve much in life. So I called the IT guy and asked him to delete all the Games on my Computer and I haven’t played a game since.

SO arm yourself with a ‘Not To Do’ List and be honest when asking yourself what are the Anchors holding you back from achieving your full potential? Is it Social Media, the need to check in on Facebook or Twitter every half hour? Is it playing Games or doing Crossword Puzzles? Whatever it is, put it on the List and focus upon eradicating it, reducing time spent on it, or simply schedule some time for it after asking yourself how much time you would like to allocate to it. I bet you wouldn’t purposely say I am going to give away 2 hours everyday to my Facebook friends, many of whom may be strangers and play no meaningful role in your life. Simply reducing and then scheduling time will make you more productive and you will feel better for it.

In Summary, ask yourself W.H.A.T. it is you want to Achieve and Why, then you can “Leave your Hat On” and the rest will take care of itself. Wishing you all the best in your pursuit of doing things differently and achieving your Goals and remember this. A Goal is a Promise you make to yourself and if you can’t trust yourself to keep a Promise, who can you trust?

“A Dream is like a cloud floating aimlessly in the sky, unless you commit your Dream to stone (Paper)!”- Alec Riddle

YES, you Can, you Will, you Want to!!

Tips on how to get started!

Getting started is tough and it’s not unique to you or I, in fact Dawson Trotman once said “The greatest time wasted, is the time getting started!”

If you are having difficulty getting started, I suggest you ask yourself WHAT?
W = Why
H = How
A = Action
T = Time

There is no magic formula, but if you get the WHAT sorted, it will assist you a great deal. Everyone has their unique Why, so spend some time discovering your Why. Is it for Health, Fitness, a Challenge, changing your Lifestyle, becoming more Productive, or simply wanting to do things with the kids?

Most people consider the HAT (How, Action, Time) the most difficult, but truth be told if you have a strong enough Why, you will make the HAT happen.

Steve Waugh once said and I live by this motto..
“If you want something to happen with all of your heart, you will always find ways to make it happen: If you do not really want it with all your heart, you will find an excuse to explain why it did not happen!”

The Why has become part of my DNA. Since 2004 I have been racing in memory of my Stepson Reece Walton, who tragically passed away at 19. Reece was the catalyst to me Getting Started, the spark that ignited an inferno that drove me to train harder. I still think of Reece every time I race and now my Why is because I enjoy it so much, I enjoy training with my kids and encouraging them, I love helping and encouraging others to Dream, to go after their Goals and to Transform.

Here is a little exercise to enable you to understand that time isn’t indefinite, or waiting around for you to get started. Ask yourself the following Questions, take a Pen and Paper and jot down a few answers:
1. If a Dr told you that you had 10 years left, but would be able to live a healthy life, what would you do differently? Anything, or is there still no urgency? Remember, if you do the same things this year that you did last year, not much will change, although you may get unfitter, poorer, more unhappy and even relationships may become more strained.
2. If a Dr told you that you had 2 years left, but are still able to live a healthy life, would you do anything differently? I am sure you that you would immediately start planning on doing a few of the things that are important to you. Time for Action yet?
3. Now imagine a Dr told you that you only had 24 hours to live! Time to ask yourself what you didn’t do, that you said you would do Tomorrow, as now there will be no Tomorrow. What did you not get to do, who did you not get to be, how will you be remembered?

So hopefully you now have the Why and the next part of the equation is the How! One thing you do not want to do is to try and re invent the wheel, or pay unnecessary school fees, which may seem like the cheaper option but it will waste the most prescious commodity of all = TIME, or it could derail your whole plan. So my suggestion is to seek professional guidance, it may seem unnecessary or expensive, but paying for professional advice is cheap at the price.

There are great Coaches around, whose life revolves around using their experience to assist others, so tap into this knowledge. I have some ambitious Ironman goals and even though I have all the knowledge in the world and decades of experience, I have decided to seek professional help once more. I have recently signed up with Raynard and Natlie Tissink, #TeamTissink, who have so much experience between the two of them and are extremely passionate about what they do. My motivation is to ensure that I maximise my time and effort, to have structure in my weeks and very importantly to have somebody to be accountable to (important for me).

Coach Raynard Tissink with 2 new members of #TeamTissink, Martin Von Alleman and I

In 2010 and 2011 I trained alongside Raynard and learnt so much from him, was so inspired and motivated to train and had the best two years of my sporting career, including an Age Group Gold at the World 70.3 Championships in Las Vegas 2011. Is there any coincidence that my performances suffered once Ray and Natalie moved to Cape Town and I opted to go it alone? No, it is a proven fact that athletes who have Coaches do better than they would without a Coach.

So you have the Why and if you source the ideal Guide, or Coach, they will tell you the How and thereafter if you take Action consistently over Time, you will be well on your way to achieving your Goals. Better still if you know your Why, if your Coach is telling you How and you make the Time, then Action happens automatically, so let’s fast forward to Time!

What isn’t scheduled (or measured) rarely gets done, so scheduling is very important. Your Coach can provide you with a Programme with sessions scheduled, but if your day is too cluttered it still may not happen. Many of us are so busy we focus upon the Urgent and not the Important and the Urgent clutters our desk, our mind and our time. So make sure you schedule what is Important (Training, Family, Work and so forth). Example, if you go to work with your swim/gym stuff in the car and intend to shoot out of the office for an hour when you get time, it may not happen, but if you schedule an hour in your diary to do just that, it in all likelihood will happen. So plan your Diary, schedule your training sessions and increase your chances of success.

The Big 5? Most multi sport athletes think of Knysna and Tourists think of wildlife when the Big 5 is mentioned, but for me the Big 5 takes on a whole new meaning. Big 5 has to do with ‘To Do’ Lists or in my case the ‘Not To Do’ Lists. Firstly, if your ‘To Do’ List has more than 5 things on it, chances are that very little gets done as it will be too intimidating, which leads to Procrastination and ask yourself honestly, “Do I procrastinate?” I would suggest turning your ‘To Do’ List on its head and focus upon a ‘Not To Do’ List, which is exactly what I do.

Think about it there are probably less than a handful of things that cause you to Procrastinate, that waste your valuable Time and derail you from Achieving what is truly Important to You!

So have a ‘Not To Do’ List and watch your everyday Life transform into one of efficiency and effectiveness.
Example: Ten years ago I found myself playing Solitaire (computer card game) and being ultra competitive, I played the expert option and one day it took me 4 hours of non stop play to secure a win. That night I realised that I was wasting hours daily playing something that only brought me short term satisfaction, but was meaningless in the bigger scheme of things. It certainly wasn’t on my bucket list and it wouldn’t help me achieve my goals, in fact it would ensure I wouldn’t achieve much in life. So I called the IT guy and asked him to delete all the Games on my Computer and I haven’t played a game since.

SO arm yourself with a ‘Not To Do’ List and be honest when asking yourself what are the Anchors holding you back from achieving your full potential? Is it Social Media, the need to check in on Facebook or Twitter every half hour? Is it playing Games or doing Crossword Puzzles? Whatever it is, put it on the List and focus upon eradicating it, reducing time spent on it, or simply schedule some time for it after asking yourself how much time you would like to allocate to it. I bet you wouldn’t purposely say I am going to give away 2 hours everyday to my Facebook friends, many of whom may be strangers and play no meaningful role in your life. Simply reducing and then scheduling time will make you more productive and you will feel better for it.

In Summary, ask yourself W.H.A.T. it is you want to Achieve and Why, then you can “Leave your Hat On” and the rest will take care of itself. Wishing you all the best in your pursuit of doing things differently and achieving your Goals and remember this. A Goal is a Promise you make to yourself and if you can’t trust yourself to keep a Promise, who can you trust?

“A Dream is like a cloud floating aimlessly in the sky, unless you commit your Dream to stone (Paper)!”- Alec Riddle

YES, you Can, you Will, you Want to!!