A sprint or a marathon?

Yesterday my almost-10-yr old daughter attended her schools athletics day at the local high school oval.  It all seemed pretty harmless from my perspective until a few days before the event when she started making up excuses as to why she didn’t want to go.  I thought it was rather strange, and decided to not worry about it too much.  Then the day before the event she told me that her teacher had offered the kids extra homework if they didn’t want to attend the athletics day – to which my daughter agreed to do.  At least, she agreed in principle to me.

This would all seem rather normal to a busy working parent as I am, however I didn’t believe it!!  Why?  Because homework and my daughter just don’t mix. They are not great friends.  If there is homework to be done, my daughter will find a way to get out of it or create a scene to save her from it.  It’s rather entertaining if truth be told.  So I knew when she told me about the extra homework that there was no way she’d agree to that deal – so I smelled a rat.

I decided to call a couple of her friends mums and lo and behold – I learnt that there was no such offer from the teacher, and that my daughter had simply created a way for her to stay home. She was busted!  However the important thing for me was to find out the real reason why she didn’t want to go.  So using my very best communication and negotiating skills I delicately prodded and weaved a conversation around her fears and nerves, and managed to come out the other end with an answer. Thank goodness!

It seems that the 200 metre run at the beginning of the day was expected to be done by everyone, and they had all been told that any student who stopped running or was short of breath – would be disqualified!  To make matters worse – there is a SECOND athletics day this Friday where there is an 800 metre run as a lead-in to the junior cross country run of 3km.  My daughter was not only petrified, she point blank refused to do it.

I thought about her situation before coming to her rescue, and I realised that her fears were just the same as anyone elses in life.  We look at a future goal or situation we have to go through – and the hill or mountain seems almost impossible to climb.  We procrastinate, stall, cry, flounder, back-peddle, and even deny – until we have to face what we have to face.  Yet the climb isn’t as bad as it first seems.

I told my daughter to do her best in the 200m but not to worry if she was slow.  I didn’t want to place any unnecessary expectations on her.  As it turned out, she did stop due to a stich in her stomach and was disqualified for not running non-stop.  Ce la vie.  The 800m race on Friday will have the same rules, and I’ve told her the same thing.  She’s not yet 10 and doesn’t have a fettish for running, so I’m not going to push it on her. I didn’t start running properly until I was in my 20’s so she has plenty of time.  And if she gets disqualified again then so be it.  Running just isn’t on the agenda right now.  But the important thing for her to learn was that showing up was part of her journey, and at least experiencing what it was all about.

So running isn’t her thing but she does enjoy cycling.  So what about cycling?  Tonight we were watching the Tour de France, as we do each year, and my daughter marvelled at the cyclists ability to climb up into the Alps and race at the speeds they were going.  She asked me how old the cyclists were and I replied that they were mostly in their 20’s and 30’s.  She remarked “I’d never be able to do what they are doing”.  I explained to her that once upon a time those cyclists were the same age as her, doing the same sort of things, and have just worked hard over time to get where they have.  It didn’t happen overnight.  I explained that sometimes we set big goals in the future and sports people often set them 1 or 2 years out or more!! – working diligently each day to get there.  My daughter took it all on board and seemed to understand it.  She could then see that if she wanted to race the junior marathon at school she’d have to practice a long time beforehand, and not just on the day.

This situation made me think about the businesses I work with and some of the big goals they set for themselves up to 5 years away.  It’s exciting to have goals and see what you’re working towards.  Yet just like my daughter’s situation: if it’s not realistic to run a race in a few days time that you haven’t trained for, then you shouldn’t expect a good result.  Setting goals and objectives in your life and business are important for achieving success along the journey.  Sometimes they don’t happen exactly as we plan, and sometimes they cause us less sleep than we’d like!  However they’ve got to be something that’s meaningful for us.  Just like my daughter not wanting to put the effort into running the 800m race – if you’re setting a goal that you’re not passionate about, then there really is little point in going for it.

Achieving success quickly like a sprint race isn’t common, because success takes time.  The Tour de France riders train all year for that race and they know exactly what the cost and effort involved is to take part.  It doesn’t always ensure success at the end in Paris, though.  In life it’s important to set little goals that are achievable so that we get a sense of accomplishment and inner worth.  Almost like making a trail of breadcrumbs to reach a bigger prize through the woods.

As you embark on another day of life, work, study and living – think about the little things that you can mark off your to-do list that will keep you on track.  What is the marathon that you are running, what is the ultimate prize you’re working towards?  And if you have a running race coming up that you’re not prepared for – don’t expect wonderful results.  Preparation and dedication are the only ways to get there.

Keep things simple!

I heard from a good friend of mine today whom I haven’t spoken to since January and it was great to catch up.  He’s one of those friends whom you don’t need to see or hear from for a while but when you do you just pick up where you left off and the connection is still there.

What I love about this guy is his passion and energy for life.  He’s always so buzzed and positive, and he infects everyone around him with his happy vibes: I love it!

So anyway, we were chatting and catching up on the goss – “what’s been going down, dude?!” – and I shared with him our adventures of moving to Brisbane and how we’re settling in.  We started talking business (he’s Managing Partner of a privately-owned Advertising Agency) and I was telling him how things are going here in Brisbane and the success I’ve had since I arrived.  Talk moved quickly to the economic downturn and how that may affect our businesses.  My friend loves giving advice (and I love hearing it from him) and gave me some true gems of wisdom to help me angle my business offering in the future.  After that he said to me some very wise words:

“Keep it simple Ave!”

This single statement can be applied across all facets of our lives.  We over-complicate it with fears, concerns, thoughts of the past/future/unknown, other people’s issues, and a bunch of stuff we have no control over.  Yet if we all sat back for just a few minutes a day and adopted a zen-like approach to our life and kept things simple, imagine how much better we’d feel!

In our everyday working life there are a zillion things that appear to add stress or confusion to our day.  How we handle it is completely up to us.  If you’re a Business Owner you’ve got even more pressure on you!  And the buck stops with you, I know.  So rather than try to not worry about everything you’ve got to do (which is almost impossible), how about keeping things simple and only dealing with the things that you SHOULD be doing as the Owner?  Leave the other stuff to the people who are responsible.  Delegate.  Outsource.  Re-align tasks.  If necessary – downsize.  Focus on your core business instead of everyone elses.  Allocate time to invest in your staff (remember that they are the ones who make you money).  And most importantly – allocate time to invest in yourself.

Here’s to a productive and calmer week, keeping things simple:)