Confidence - Believe In You

Photo courtesy of ninikalviee.blogspot.com

This past weekend wrapped up a busy week of cycling. Vincenzo Nibali winning the Giro after leading for nearly two thirds of the race. Tony Martin winning the Tour of Belgium and Freddie Rodriguez, at age 40, winning the US Professional Road Championship. Each of them is talented in their own right but also have one common trait that led them to success - confidence.

In a broad sense confidence is the ability to believe that you can reach your goal. But what gets in the way of your confidence? Probably most everything, if you let it!

You Can't Achieve What You Don't Believe

You can't achieve what you don't believe. It’s reality.

It’s the reason why quotas don’t work with your sales people, why you struggle to get your managers to hit deadlines, and why you find it difficult to improve inefficiencies throughout your company.

And since you can’t dream that it might actually happen, you don’t do what’s required to make it happen. You hope that somewhere along the way something lucky happens to change the circumstances.

Happy New Year and Making Plans for 2013

Happy New Year!

Welcome to the last day of 2012. This year has flown by and we are now hours away from another year. Are you ready and prepared? Have you written down your 2013 goals?

2013 L'Etape du California - Get Ready!!

Recently, the 2013 Amgen Tour of California host cities were announced. In contract to past years, the route will run from the south to the north, starting in Escondido on May 12 and finishing in Santa Rosa on the 19th. Unfortunately, in 2013 there will be no finish atop Mt. Baldy or the "grueling climb" up to Big Bear.For those of us not competing (which is all of us!), what of the L'Etape du California ?

Thinking of 2013 - What Are Your Goals?

As we get ready to put 2012 into the rear-view mirror, it's time to take a few minutes to review the goals you set at the beginning of the year. Did you achieve them? If not, do you know why and, more importantly, did you learn anything that will help you in 2013?

As you start making your 2013 goals, one of the keys to your success will be to establish short and long-term goals and write them down. If need be, chunk them down into weekly, monthly, quarterly and yearly goals.

Pushing Past Your Limits

Ever have a moment at which time at which you just can’t go any further? Whether it's exhaustion or fatigue, in work or on the bike, you are exhausted and your body says "no more?" 

But does that mean you've hit your limit or is there more? Is our ability to achieve success limited?

How Are You Progressing Towards Achieving Your Goals

First week back from an awesome family vacation on Maui. Hot, windy weather but still enjoyed the time on my bike and with my family. The next to last full day on Maui I rode to the top of Haleakala on Maui, stopping only once to fill my water bottle at the 15 mile mark). My wife took the above picture as I was reaching the summit of the climb. So what does this photo have to do with the subject of this week's post? Read on and you will find out.

To succeed in life, you have to have a clear picture of where you are going. Clear goals will give you purpose and direction, and they keep you focused.

Just like an airplane pilot must know their destination and have a flight plan to get there, you need to have your own destination (goal) and road map to get there. Not only does the pilot have his flight plan which is entered into the computer, there are also in-flight adjustments made along the way to ensure the plane stays on course and arrives at the correct destination.

Whether in business or in cycling, those who set goals (the destination) are fare more likely to achieve success than those who do not. But just stating a goal is not enough. You also need to have a plan to achieve that goal and periodically review that plan to see how you are progressing. Maybe your goal wasn't realistic and it is time to make some changes in order to accomplish your goals.

So, back to the why I have a picture of me finishing a climb to Haleakala? The climb is a 34 miles long, rising from sea level to 10,000 ft (all uphill). Not a ride for the faint of heart or someone who hasn't been training. For me, riding to the Haleakala summit was a goal to do this year (the last time I did it was over 20 years ago when I was many pounds lighter and in better fighting shape!). However, I knew what I had to do to prepare for the ride and I knew in my mind how I needed to do the ride if I expected to make it to the top.

Clear goals will give you purpose and direction, and they keep you focused and on target. With your goal clearly in mind, it is easy to make the adjustments needed to make along the way.

So, how are you doing on your 2012 goals? What adjustments do you need to make in order to achieve them? Or do you need to start over and make your goals more realistic?

If you found value in this article, please comment below and/or share with your friends. And, as always, please do not hesitate to let me know how I can help you!

5 Steps To Success

As I write this article, I am watching today's stage as Brad Wiggins closes in on his goal of winning the Tour. Wiggins' single-minded focus to winning the Tour and how he has prepared himself can be boiled down into five simple steps, steps that are core to success, whether on the bike or in your business.

1. Set Intention. Wiggins decided he was going to win the 2012 Tour de France. One he declared what he wanted, his plans started falling into place. It all begins when you declare your intent and put a plan in place to achieve the goal.
2. Hire coaches. In addition to his Team Sky coaching staff, Wiggins went out and hired an Australian swim coach. Only he knows but but it obviously has worked! To excel in any area, you virtually always need a guide. Who is your team of mentors and coaches who can help you achieve success?
3. Clear Fears. Self-doubt, lack of faith, negativity. Negative thoughts such as these have a way of creeping into our heads. You've got coaches/mentors to help you prepare so rely on them to instill confidence and erase all the fears as they arose.
4. Take action. So you've set your intent, hired a coach/mentor and are feeling confident that you can do whatever you put your mind to doing. Now what? Take action! Nike's slogan says it well: "Just do it." If you don't do it, how are you going to succeed?
5. Persist. Expect that you will have setbacks along the way. But don't look at those setbacks as failures but as an opportunity to learn and grow. Rely on your coach/mentor to help you learn from your setback and to provide the encouragement to keep pushing you to success. Don't think that Wiggins just rode off the track, onto the road and into the yellow jersey. He had his setbacks along the way but persisted and kept his sites set on his goal.

Final Words

I hope you enjoyed this article. Please let me know how it’s working out for you on Twitter or by sending me an email. I love hearing about people implementing and getting results. And, if I can help you in any way, please let me know!

Commitment To Focus, Dedication and Discipline

"No horse gets anywhere until he is harnessed. No stream or gas drives anything until it is confined. No Niagara is ever turned into light and power until it is tunneled. No life ever grows great until it is focused, dedicated, disciplined."  - Harry Emerson Fosdick

I have been listening Bob Proctor's Freedom Series on my training rides (not necessarily a great idea!) when Bob read Fosdick's quote. I stopped, scrolled back and listened to it a couple of times. To me, this is one of the best success formulas I've heard. To me, this is what it means:

Focus - the ability to stay on task and not let yourself get distracted and off-track. In business, sometimes it is easier to do emails as opposed to picking up the phone to call a prospect or a challenging customer. On the bike, it is the ability to stay focused on doing what it takes to achieve your goal. You have to commit to the goal and stay focused on doing what it takes to achieve that goal.

Dedication - commit yourself to putting in that extra phone call, to making the extra effort that your colleagues may not be willing to do. When riding, it is dedicating time required to achieve the goal, whether it is a personal one or even a team goal. If you choose to do, then commit the time to doing it right.

Discipline - in business and in sport, I see as the one of the most difficult tasks. It takes a serious commitment to get and stay disciplined. On New Years, many people set goals to lose weight or go to the gym. However, what they lack is the commitment to stay disciplined to those "resolutions" and, after a month or so, fall back into the ways of old. If you want to success ,you must dedicate yourself to achieving that goal and doing what it takes, day in and day out, to achieve that goal. In business, this is even more true if you work in a home or remote office. You have nobody but yourself to hold you accountable.

In 1988, I had multiple short, medium, long term and dream goals. Three of those goals were to be a National Champion, make the US National Team and the Olympic team (my dream goal), there were days when my wife thought I was crazy. I would go out on training rides all types of weather, one day even trying to ride when there was over four inches of freshly fallen snow on the ground! I committed myself to staying focused on my goals, dedicated myself to doing the work necessary to achieve those goals and was disciplined to doing my work every day to get better. All of this commitment resulted in me nearly achieving ALL of the goals that I had set at the beginning of the season!

When you commit, you focus. You focus your energy, your effort, your actions on the very thing to which you have committed. You are willing to take action without any distractions, action that delivers the results you want.