Kicking goals

This past weekend my teenage daughter joined me for @Parkrun. It's become a weekly ritual of mine, only disrupted by junior sport commitments, whether I run it or walk it I get it done each week to start my Saturday. The kids laugh and joke that it is like a religion for my husband and I. She joined once before, whined the whole way and then quit at the 2/3 point as my husband had forgotten to prepare her that it was 1.5 laps, not one lap. In her mind she was nearly finished when he said only one third to go!

This past Saturday her motivation was to keep fitness up over the warmer months from a winter of footy and footy umpiring. A great idea and she was motivated so we jumped onto it with her, even when in the morning she was loathed to get out of bed early, she got herself up and we walked to the park for the first full run. When we arrived she was astounded at how many people had made the effort and were going to run on a Saturday morning by choice. I agreed to run with her and give her some encouragement. It was harder than she expected and we set short term goals along the way. I was guided by what she wanted to do but at a few points I pushed her to run just that bit further "let's get past the stadium", "let's get jogging again at that big tree" "you pick the next landmark that will get you to the finish faster".

With a consistent pace not being her forte, there were a few short spells of walking along the way, but a mad sprint at the end when she saw the finishing line and wanted to beat her mum who had paced and encouraged her a long the way. Being around all the positivity was great to boost the feeling of finishing the first run and hearing people say "see you next week". All the volunteers are happy and most people thank them, it is a positive place. After we finished and headed to one of our favourite local cafes, she shared with us her goals - for running.

Loving her enthusiasms we jumped on board. Working back from the goal of being the first female at a run to how we would get there. We started with, the obvious one, running without stopping for 5 ks. We talked about the mental game of jogging when it's not something you naturally love. And away we went with setting a few short and long term goals to maintain fitness and work on continually improving ourselves.

It's important to set goals when you are hungry for reaching them, having this conversation straight after while the adrenalin was still doing it's job was fab.

Setting and acknowledging your big goals is great. It's setting the short term, bite size, achievable and tangible ones to give you that sense of achievement and build towards your larger goals that is key to reaching your goals.

When setting goals, think about what will signify achievement to you and what will spur you on and keep the momentum along the way. Chose goals that work for you, not others, as ultimately you need to be driven by your improvements along the way - it's all about you, no one can do the work for you.

Too often in the consulting space I see staff wanting to hit the high notes without putting in the work to get there. Whether it is in the quality space, business planning or strategy - it's chipping away, building culture, improving practice, nailing your craft along the way that helps you meet the end goal.

Today is Monday, set yourself a goal for this fortnight and then work back with 3 small goals to help get you there - make it something that counts, make it achievable, make it behaviour changing :)

Keep focussed and block out the noise.

It's you that will make it happen :)