On occasions when I'm discussing with clients about reaching their goals, there are a number of instances when I need to use the idea of "The Shortest Distance". This idea presents itself, conceptually, when some arbitrary barrier comes along to halt the passage towards achieving THAT goal.
In these cases I always use the illustration of the world record for running the mile, and the "myth" that had grown up around breaking the 4-minute barrier. It was finally broken by Roger Bannister back in May 1954 - and it appeared that once the 4-minute barrier had been broken, that further sub 4-minute performances were being reported from all over the world. Mankind had surpassed that (almost) unbeatable barrier!
In reality the march towards breaking the barrier was relentless - and it was the dearth of timed running activities during the 2nd World War that halted the steady progress and reduction of all timed athletic performances for various distances.
For those outside athletics, it became a popular notion that "4 minutes" was a well rounded figure and a watershed in man's advancing prowess - rather like the previously unconquered Mount Everest up to 1953!
A study of Bannister's running career from 1948 onwards shows that his exceptional talent was considerably enhanced once he added serious training into his regime; plus there were regular planned assaults on the mile record using pacemakers and measured lap times within the breakdown of the distance itself.
The timed logical argument is this - in a run taking 240 seconds (or 4 minutes), the SHORTEST DISTANCE between 241 seconds and 239 seconds is 2 seconds - or less. Divide that by 4 laps of an athletics track and it becomes less than half a second per lap. And less than half a second per lap for 4 laps is utterly achievable!
In terms of goals, there is no such thing as an arbitrary barrier - save that installed by a person's belief that it cannot be reached or surpassed. If we think we cannot do something, then we are right - and every attempt has the built in safety net of being able to say:-
"See I was right," upon failure, and therefore reinforcing my belief OR (in the event of success) "Well how lucky was that?"
Limiting beliefs and arbitrary barriers are only mental constructs.
Plus, if you are moving towards achieving a goal and find the "final push" hard to achieve - look at the structure of your achievements to date in this journey and reframe your perception of the SHORTEST DISTANCE required to arrive at your destination. Take a more calculated and unemotional logical view, and you'll soon discover that in terms of "seconds" you only need a less than 1% overall improvement.
Small increments are always achievable.
PW
2 comments:
I completely agree with the power of using goals, and then setting each one in steps. The problem that most people suffer is that they don't know what direction they want to head or they are afraid to be honest about it because they consider themselves less than who they are. Something the overweight suffer from and use food to feed the pain. Excellent post.
Excellent post Pete. If we don't break our goals down into smaller chunks it can be too overwhelming and we don't get started. Breaking our goals down into small chunks also allows us to build on our success too - one small chunk at a time.
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