It's More Than The Win
It's the Journey
This is a tough fundamental for me. I actually believe more in the journey than the destination. However, in the real world, we measure our success on the outcome. That’s why we keep score in sports, rank companies based on revenue and stock prices, and count how many steps we take in a day.
I choose to focus on the last sentence of this fundamental…”set high goals…hold yourself accountable for the delivering on the results.” This part is about the journey.
The Kansas City Chiefs in the 2020 Super Bowl didn’t approach the football game with the attitude of "let’s just do our best." Their ability to score 21 points in 6 minutes when they were down 10 points in the 4th quarter was driven by their focus on the win.
I just recently watched the Netflix documentary Cheer.
These athletes train all year to perform a routine that’s two minutes long. That two minutes determines a win or a loss. I would argue that the blood, sweat, and tears that led them to that two minutes was driven by their ability to visualize the result. That vision has won them 14 National Championships.
My daughter participated on a high school cheer team that won 3 National Championships back to back. I witnessed first-hand the hard work that she put in to visualize the routine and the technique needed to stay up in the air as a flyer and beat the competition.
Lindsey Vonn is another example of a champion who would visualize every turn, cut, or bump she had to encounter during her races. This picture in her mind guided her down the mountain to the finish line as the most decorated female skier of all-time.
While all these examples are based in sports, the concepts around visualization are relevant to any endeavor in life.
If you can see the result, it will be the motivator to push through the obstacles we face along the way. How we get there may change, but the end result keeps us focused on that pursuit. If we don’t get the result we want, the journey will provide us with rich lessons for the next time.
There has been a lot of attention on the year 2020 and the play on words related to “vision”. There are lots of different ways to create a vision. There are vision boards, ideal scenes, or making a list of goals for the year. There’s no right way to do it.
If you can see a result, you are more likely to achieve that result.
Sweet Dreams,
Fundamental #14: DELIVER RESULTS While effort is appreciated, what gets recognized and rewarded are results. Set high goals, don’t overpromise, track and measure your progress, then hold yourself accountable for delivering on the results.
