Giving Up

Before I get into this post, if any readers have ideas for securing 10 commercial treadmills at a discounted price then please drop me a line.

Step One of our pool project is establishing a year-round training centre on the site. The largest single cost item is our treadmills. We'll have world-class athletes (and kids) using them -- it's a worthwhile cause and I can tell you more if you drop me a line.

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I’ve been thinking about useful traits for self-improvement.

If you’ve read my stuff over the years then you will have read about the importance of “one thing” – essentially the ability to focus on the repeated execution of one simple task. Success in any field is the result of linking up thousands of “one things” over time – in fact, that’s pretty much life – a series of present moment decisions. The decisions of the past creating our current situation.

The challenges within our life are often created when our decision making process breaks down.

Superior results, results that have satisfaction and meaning, most easily flow from an ethical and effective decision making process. There is an interesting conflict with all those present moment decisions – the trade-off between short term satisfaction and longer term development.

Successful people have an ability to take satisfaction in making decisions that most benefit their long term performance. This desire for long term performance (or the pleasure from working towards a challenging goal) dominating short term temptations.

Now we can take this too far, I have a very good friend that always seems to choose the option that is most personally challenging for him – this results in a lot of self-imposed discomfort. He seems to like it, though.

Another risk to success is dilution of effort from over-scheduling. Our society seems to have this concept that it is “good” to have a wide range of interests. Personally, I’m interested in winning Ironman Canada and growing closer to my wife. Those are my two true interests. I have other items that I spend time on BUT I don’t fool myself that outstanding progress can be achieved in them. I simply don’t devote enough time to them. You can’t win Le Tour and run General Electric – well, we know that… but how often do we block our greatness by seeking exactly that.

Success through simplicity. Why is simplicity important? Because success requires overcoming ourselves. I don’t know about you but when I deal with myself I really need to keep the message simple!

Training is a great example. Here’s my list for Ironman excellence (your list will be different, this one really only makes sense to me):
***train daily
***wake up early
***don’t drink alcohol
***limit travel

Those four items form the legs of my performance platform. Without them, I won’t get the full benefit from the tens of thousands of actions that I’ll do over the next year. With them, any reasonable training protocol will show good results. Without them, I won’t be able to support the protocol for great results. With them, my year will be successful regardless of outcome. A virtuous circle starts from the application of a few simple principles.

The creation (and nurturing) of simple success circles is a key role for leaders, mentors, coaches and parents. Within my own circle, the way it seems to work is that the opposite of each category (skipping training; sleeping late; getting loaded’ traveling lots) leads to other effects that derail increasing fitness. So while the circle is good, its greatest benefit lies in helping me avoid paths that don’t enhance fitness.

By making things as simple as possible, it gives me a structure to get comfortable saying “no” to myself and others. An inability to say “no” with empathy holds many of us back. I see some very kind and generous people that have their souls sucked right out of them by a failure to limit commitments. Within my own life, being grouchy is nearly always due to being overscheduled, or having made a decision inconsistent with my goals. Simplicity helps me avoid both.

Your circle will have different criteria – but mine is a pretty good one for adult athletes. All the athletes that I know that stick to it are pretty solid – and the folks that I know that deviate would likely improve if they figured a way to incorporate the criteria.

Okay, that’s just the opener! So there are all these positive actions, decisions, beliefs that need to be created, executed and reinforced for success. In addition, there are many items that I need to “give up”. There are a lot of different ways to give up…

…giving up items to create more free time
***internet surfing
***12 hour email turnaround
***hangovers
***most elements of a normal social life
***vacations
***many interesting business opportunities
***many needy (and worthy) people

…giving up to stay within my success circle
***binge training
***showing off in training
***hammering myself for no particular reason
***being publicly “strong”

As an aside, a need to be publicly correct is a killer for learning – learning to be “wrong” is a toughie . I’ve been fortunate in that being open to change is something that doesn’t seem to cause me much stress. In fact, I probably seek change more often than I need to achieve my goals. I haven’t quite figured that out.

My key challenges within my training:
***make continual progress with my fitness between now and August

***stay healthy and avoid overtraining // avoid creating situations that impair my ability to absorb training – as an agegroup athlete, I quickly realized that my #1 limiter was absorption, not execution, of training.

***stay within my circle by declining attractive opportunities

This piece is mainly for reminding myself because one of my challenges is continually adding stuff to my life.

To achieve more, I spend a lot of time focusing on doing less.