Build out your plan - Part III

  PART I - Are you ready?

  PART II - The mindset blueprint

Foreword: How athletes do it?

Let us start with what I do know and what I know I am good at.

Training professional athletes.

They need to get it, as their careers are not as long as say a corporate career, and their livelihood depends on it. I believe no one gets this more than professional athletes, and they can't do it on their own. They are good athletes, and this is where I come in.

You may not be a professional athlete, but you need to think like one and train like one. Why?

• Your future success,
• Your health,
• Your family,

All may depend on it. Enough said.

How we don't do it.

Most of us don’t have our own dedicated high-performance team of professionals supporting us, giving us the best research and current trends in health and fitness. People who design and apply programs to accelerate and maximise gains, while identifying and negating physical and mental risk factors.

Incorrect perceptions.

Professional and successful athletes have a perceived public arrangement of I’ll bring the skills, and you bring the gear and the right environment. A bit like work sometimes I hear you think.

Let’s stop right there.

Would that work for you? I just do what I'm good at, and the rest is provided.

How would this structure of you not thinking or having to reach for resource, change your life? Would you be a success?

Champions, successful, progressive, and satisfied athletes, as well as successful, progressive and satisfied businesspeople, turn up with knowledge and skills, but also with a plan to navigate life, which becomes a process, which becomes repeatable.

Make sense?

In Part II, you developed a blueprint and some idea of where you wanted to be. Now revisit that, keep it fresh, and move on to the next step.

Step 1 - Clarity of purpose and incremental steps.

Using your blueprint, set clear goals for the short and longer term, which are both clear and measurable. Write them down. (Getting fit, is not a clear goal. Training 3 times a week for 30 minutes is a clear and measurable goal.)

Break these goals down to build incremental success. (Setting a goal to run a 10K race will need time to build, so walking 15 minutes a day to start, is a great example of an incremental goal.)

Step 2 - Consistency & Routine.

Build a daily, or weekly schedule/ plan that integrates these goals and resulting habits into your routine. 

I do this in quiet time on a Sunday night, preparing for the next week, but whatever works for you. There are no rules here, other than incremental goals and concrete actions. During this time, I also reflect on the prior week, what worked, what didn't, and what I have learned as a result. 

Personally, weekly planning works for me and worked for many of my athletes. Sure, there are holidays that are months away and need longer-term planning, but weekly is better for most people. Do daily tasks, but all based on your weekly plan. 

A wise man once said, "long-term success is based on a series of short-term successes".

Build a daily repeatable schedule that fits. Build it around something that ignites you each week, something which has to be consistently committed to.

Step 3 - Habit stacking.

Find new things to introduce, which assist and support your new schedule, and regime. Now link these to an existing habit. "Adding to" is easier than "taking away". It also makes it easier to remember and implement. (An example could be: after brushing my teeth I will do 10 minutes of meditation, every morning.)  

Step 4 - Introducing new skills.

Get outside your comfort and start (small). Try a new skill, music, public speaking, backgammon, skipping, singing, juggling, writing, drawing, something that challenges you, but you will enjoy. 

Set up simple reminders and triggers to prompt action. Could be a phone alarm or putting the protein shaker on the counter the night before, to remember your morning protein before work. Experiment and encourage all new behaviours.

Step 5 - Tracking progress. Set rewards. Be accountable.

Motivate yourself. Motivation supports longevity and success.

Be accountable or be accountable to someone. Social reinforcement is a great way of doing this as well.

A great idea is marking off on a large visible calendar, or even just a spreadsheet in bright colours each day what you achieve, to show a streak of ongoing achievements. When you achieve a goal, for example, a weight goal, reward yourself with a new shirt that fits the new you.

Remove obstacles. Anticipate or plan for challenges in the coming week, changed arrangements, meetings, your diary, etc.

If there are unhealthy lunches at work, go for a walk over lunch to avoid them, as an example. There is always more than 1 solution to every problem, we often just get stuck and cannot see them, and sometimes we don't want to see them. 

Be patient, flexible, and kind to yourself.

Summary

These are actions, challenges, and changes professional athletes make to ensure they turn up with balanced mindsets and are in a strong positive position to gain from the programs they are a part of.

They also apply themselves away from the formal programs to succeed within the program. 

They build repeatable processes, adding behaviours rather than taking them away.

Written by: Don Singe (Performance Coach)

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