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A Mile in My Shoes
IN THIS ISSUE
Quote of the Month
The goal you can always top
Couldn't be better
Measure your running happiness
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Quote of the Month
Tony July 2010
"Stop asking what's in it for you and start giving gifts that change people. Then, and only then, will you have achieved your potential."

Seth Godin  
Issue: 13      March 2012
Greetings!

Welcome to the latest edition of my irregular coaching tip, A Mile in My Shoes.

This month's feature article examines the problem of achieving your lifetime ambition, and the question that inevitably arises of "What next?"

I've also included my 2 most popular blog posts over the past few weeks, "Couldn't be better" and "Measuring your running happiness" from my Mile each day blog
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Thank you to all of you who gave me such positive feedback on January's feature article "39 lessons".
The goal you can always top
I recently read in Matthew Syed's excellent book "Bounce: The myth of talent and the power of practice" about a phenomenon that often occurs with Olympic gold medalists.

After the euphoria of achieving their dream, many of them experience a "sense of loss, almost like a bereavement".

Victoria Pendleton, speaking a few months after winning a gold medal at the Beijing Olympics, said "You have all this build-up for one day, and when it's over, it's: "Oh, is that it?""

She continued, "People think it's hard when you lose. But it's almost easier to come second because you have something to aim for when you finish. When you win, you suddenly feel lost."

This initially was quite a surprise to me as it was the exact opposite of what I expected.

But when you think about it, a silver medalist knows that their dream is in striking distance, they know that if they keep doing what they've been doing and, ideally, add in something extra, they have a good chance of achieving their dream next time round.

The poor old gold medalist however, has just reached a pinnacle that can't be topped. They have achieved their lifetime ambition, so what on earth comes next?

Whatever goal they choose next, unless they're Michael Phelps or Usain Bolt who are probably trying to smash another world record or win more gold medals at the Olympics than they did last time, their next goal is very unlikely to be as inspiring as the one that they have just achieved.

I believe that this phenomenon isn't limited solely to Olympic gold medal winners.

It pretty much happens to all of us that when we achieve a personal goal, we always start looking for the next one fairly soon.

Also, at some point in time I can pretty much guarantee that you will no longer be able to find a personal goal that tops your most recent achievement.

So what happens then?

For most of us, when we reach that point we can take two possible directions. The first is to give up and drift into a state of ticking along surviving but not really living.

The second is to channel our energies into helping others achieve something spectacular. We usually call this making a contribution, or making a difference.

The difference with having a goal of making a difference to others is that, unlike when you achieve a personal goal, you will never arrive at the point of feeling that you won't be able to top the experience.

There will always be someone else to help.

So why not start now and add a goal of making a difference to others alongside your personal goal?  

Couldn't be better

Yesterday in a short space of time, I overheard three separate interchanges that went exactly the same.  

 

Person one asked person two "How are you?" Person two immediately responded "Not bad".

 

It got me wondering that whilst this is not an unusual interaction, there is an implication in each of those responses that bad is our default state. It also suggests that there are only 2 possible responses, bad or not bad.

 

Measure your running happiness
Pacing the Half

I was running with Sarah's Runners yesterday when one of my running colleagues used the phrase "my running happiness".

 

I love this phrase and think that it's such a useful idea for measuring how well running is working for you right now.

 

If you imagine an internal gauge that goes from 1 to 10, where 1 represents not being at all happy with your running and 10 represents feeling that you couldn't be any happier whatever you did.

 

READ FULL ARTICLE 

That's all for this month, and don't forget if anyone can, you can!
 
Sincerely,
 
Tony Phillips
The Coaching Approach