Is success inevitable?

How do you set goals? Do you set them in such a way that success is inevitable? Or do you set goals, forget about them, only remembering to look at your goals when appraisals are near or when work is not going well?

Goals and goal setting are one of the most researched and talked about topics in personal development according to CIPD, yet effective goal setting is still misunderstood.?

In its simplest form a goal is something you want to achieve. How you deliver on that goal and create an environment where success is inevitable is what we are going to explore.

This is me after swimming the Serpentine in September. You can see 2 medals - one for swimming the Serpentine and the bigger one for the completing the 3 London endurance events.

It has taken me 4 years to achieve this goal and there were times when I doubted if I would ever achieve it. But with the right support I did.

Let me quickly share what I did and as you read this, think about what you can take from it and implement into your own goal setting.

The London Classics consists of 3 endurance events, based on a triathlon - swim, cycle, run. They can be completed in any order, over any length of time.

I wanted to complete one event every year and achieve my goal in 3 years. It took me 4.

I am not an endurance athlete.? I only started running a few years ago to overcome my mental ill-health.? But over time I started to enjoy myself, saw the benefit it was having on my anxiety and depression and slowly started to think I could complete a triathlon.

On September 16th 2023 I completed an 'almost ironman', something I had never dreamed of.

2019 - London Cycle (100 miles)

2020- London Marathon (26 miles)

2022 - Swim Serpentine (2 miles)

In 2021 the swim was cancelled due to the Queen’s funeral.

One of the biggest factor that led me to this achievement was how I set my goals.

I'd set goals many times before or had goals set for me. Some I achieved, some I didn't. Some were easy and didn't challenge me at all. Some were too aspirational and crushed me. So I knew that I had to find the right balance between challenge, talent, motivation and desire. And then develop the right strategies and tactics in place to help me achieve that goal.

My big goal and desire was to complete the London Classics Event and collect a nice big shiny medal.

To achieve this I had to achieve 3 mini goals - cycle, run and swim the required distances.?

The only way I could achieve those mini goals was to break them down individually.? So in 2019 I started with my first mini goal - cycling, and set myself smaller more manageable goals or projects. ?

I wrote out 5-7 projects for each mini goal, e.g. Project 1 - cycle at least 30k three times a week. These projects were more manageable that the mini goal and easier to achieve. I also knew that I didn't always have 100% control over my projects and when I got distracted by work, family commitments or life in general those projects slipped and my big goal got further away. So I created specific tasks, that were smaller, easier to achieve and I had 100% control over.

I found the more specific the tasks were, the more likely I was to do them and the more confident I got in my ability to reach my mini goal of cycling 100miles.

As an example, a few of my tasks for Project 1 were:

• Go to bed at 10.30 the night before a cycle.
• Put my cycling clothes out the night before
• Eat a bowl of porridge and drink 1 expresso before cycling
• 20 squats every time I brushed my teeth

To paraphrase Ted Lasso, I set up an environment where success was inevitable.

Did I have set backs - definitely.? I pulled a muscle and couldn't? cycle for 2 months,? developed a neuroma in my foot, which affected my running and had family and work commitments, which took me away from training for weeks, sometimes months. But I always kept to my tasks where possible and created new ones as required.

Along the way I had a lot of support - from a competitive group of running friends (now retired ??), my triathlon club and my family, who attended all events and were my cheerleaders when times got tough. Plus I had great business coach who taught me this process of breaking down goals into projects and tasks.

In 2019 I achieved my first mini goal. I followed the same process for the other 2, refining as I went along, until I collected my big shiny medal.

But what does all this mean for you, especially if you're not into running, cycling or swimming?

The 2 biggest lessons I took from this was that to achieve a really big goal, I needed support. I would not have achieved any of the goals without the right emotional and physical support. Secondly I needed to break down my goals into more manageable projects and specific tasks that I had 100% control over and consistently work on those tasks.

So, if you have big goals or desires that you want to achieve and you're not getting any closer to delivering on them, then ask yourself if you have the right support around you. Then break down your goals into smaller project and tasks that you have 100% control over and keep consistently working on them.

That way, you're setting up your own environment where success will become inevitable.