Destination or Journey?

I’ve been enjoying Josephine Perry ’s writing about sport psychology for years but her latest book has given me more than usual pause for thought.

Dr Perry (to use her formal title) advises high performance athletes on creating the right mindset in order to achieve their goals; her tweets are a mixture of curious enquiry, great advice, swimming pool etiquette and wry reflections on motherhood. I’ve often been struck by the insights she brings into what makes sportspeople tick and wondered if the lessons she draws out can be applied in my own professional life.

Given that Josie started her career, not in sports but in PR and Comms, I suspect there is a natural cross over to be explored here! And I think her comms background is definitely reflected in the quality of her writing and her strong story-telling style.

The Ten Pillars of Success pulls together lessons from a number of high achievers in sports, entertainment and a few surprising fields and reminds us of themes such as the importance of a sense of belonging, having purpose, developing confidence and courage as well as applying pragmatic optimism and internal insight. The book concludes with a powerful chapter on gratitude which I would particularly encourage everyone to explore.

The book started life as an audiobook and the interviews with the featured actors, athletes, astronauts and comics are a real bonus (Audible subscribers get a free listen).?However, the print version sets out the practical exercises which are thought provoking.

What especially got me thinking is the way she explores the issue of chasing goals vs concentrating on process. Perry and her subjects talk about the need to set clear goals but they warn about the futility of neglecting developing the skills and technique needed to get to the starting line in the first place.

As a comms advisor I have written often about the need for practitioners to keep asking about the end goal of any communication. It drives me nuts when the production of a newsletter, the creation of content or the project management of a conference becomes an end in itself. Fellow comms professionals will recognise the frustration that arises when a colleague from HR or legal or wherever asks for some artefact or another and is unclear about what they what to achieve beyond having some nice comms ‘magic’ to spam the rest of the organisation with.

This book is very clear about the importance of goal setting but also advises about the importance of mastery and purpose. Perry talks a lot about how developing the wherewithal to achieve can be neglected in the rush to get to the finish line. And she reflects ironically, that as we become more competent, our inner critics actually have more material to work with as we become more aware of our shortcoming than we had as absolute beginners!

Her advice on process is therefore quite nourishing and will resonate with people who have an agile approach to their planning. She draws on the experience of her high achieving subjects to stress the value of setting intermediate goals from which we can learn and enhance our mastery. And, she suggests, that rather than just deciding to practice more, we might identify specific drills which we can follow for a certain number of minutes over a set period of time.

She says “when we focus on the trophy, we are unlikely to be satisfied of long – there’s always another big race, another promotion or another deal…. By focusing on the process of doing that thing brilliantly, the results tend to deliver themselves.”

I’ve really enjoyed this book and it’s come at a good time for me as I head in to the Autumn with my consulting business and organising next spring’s cycling events. If you have an Audible subscription, check it out – you’ll end up getting the hard copy!