In life it can sometimes seem difficult to do things ‘your way’. It’s easy to get caught up in everyone else’s ‘game’. As a kickboxing coach I used to always say that you need to fight your own fight. The second you get drawn into the other person’s fight, i.e. their strategy, strengths or even down right stupidity, you lose….or at the very least, make it very difficult for yourself. I have the privilege now of knowing many successful people from other sports such as motor racing and volleyball. Each has their own way of saying the same thing whether it is, race your own race or play your own game. The message is the same in successful business or any other area of life… you must always play 'your' game, your way otherwise you’ll get pulled into someone else’s game which will to some degree or other will be more detrimental, difficult or down right painful ;)
Play to your strengths and train your weaknesses. Know your abilities and set challenging but realistic goals. That said don’t let experience or limitations in self belief get in the way of setting the biggest 'dreams' available, it's just each step, or goal, along the way that has to be perceived as achievable. Once you’re underway, go your own pace and do things the way you planned. Always look for feedback that your strategy/game plan is working….if it’s not look at changing the strategy, ON YOUR TERMS.
By all means go and get advice, mentoring, coaching or whatever you need to be able to put your own game plan together but at the end of the day, take ownership of your strategy or plan and deliver it the best way you see fit. The very best in any field do it their ‘own way’. They educate themselves and maybe even model other successful people but when the race starts or the ‘game’ begins, they play it full out, ‘THEIR WAY’.
This entire metaphor for living your life your way was bought home recently as me and Tracey ran the Reading Half Marathon. I had done my training and I went in the run knowing exactly what I could expect from myself. There was pressure from my group to head a little up the start line to the slightly faster runners. This was the first opportunity I had to challenge myself to ‘run my own race’ and it was well before the thing had even started. I stood my ground and lined up where I knew my paced runners were…..just behind the two fairies and to the side of the massive yellow banana ;)
The race started and immediately the excitement on top of being in front of hundreds of supporters got hold of many around me and off they went at speed. The temptation to join them was immense. Everything in me wanted to keep up but for the second time that day I exerted my game plan and ran my own race starting exactly as I had planned, i.e. nice and slow. Inevitably just two or three miles up the road I’m running past the 'fast to start, slow to finish' brigade as they walk up the notorious first big hill. I keep to my own pace and settle into the run.
Mile after mile people run past me at speed and then I plod past them as they walk to grab a rest bite. This goes on till the end of the race right up until I cross the line with people who have sprinted past me and then I've overtaken as they walk. I’m not judging them for how they chose to ‘run their race’ but I had to really keep to my own game plan and strategy and, in this situation, ultimately my own pace. I won’t lie, it was seriously mucking about with my mojo and it was incredibly difficult to settle into a pace with the group of walkers, sprinters, 6ft dogs and superheroes dancing all around me. But, I was disciplined and I knew my limitations and my strengths and ‘ran my own race’ and got the outcome I went out to get, which was to complete the entire course without stopping or waking. I crossed the line with zero energy or strength left, a clear indication that you’ve done your absolute best regardless of where you come. I couldn’t have done it any faster on the day and if I had got caught up in anyone else’s race, I wouldn’t have achieved my outcome.
What amused me every time, was as we approached the water stations where many spectators hang out, the ‘walkers’ would leap into action and run through proudly…such is the power of how we feel about how we're perceived by others….I mean who were they kidding? ;)
As a final note, my biggest challenge to sticking to my game plan was at around the 8 mile mark where there is an incredibly steep hill followed by gentle inclines which seem to go on forever. My goal was to run the entire 13 miles but as my legs started wavering half-way up the hill I seemed to be one of only a handful of people around me still running. The whole run had, for that short period, become a walk and it would have been so easy to have joined them…no-one would have judged and my mind was manipulating me saying it would be okay to walk because, well, look at everyone else. My resolution to my goal and game plan of not caring how long it took me as long as I run the bloody thing, won through and I plodded upwards and onwards.
The lessons in pushing yourself in something like this can be taken into any/all areas of life:
1) Know your outcome
2) Know your ability
3) Set yourself a realistic challenge
4) To the best of your ability, lay out a strategy playing to your strengths and limiting the effects of your limitations
5) Don’t let other’s outcomes, abilities, strengths or limitations effect your strategy
6) Run your own race, play your own game, live your own life
7) Don’t be adversely influenced by others’ races, games, lives
8) If all else fails, just keep plodding…..
My personal lesson from the run itself regarding the run was, if I ever do it again, I want to be able to run a pace that get’s me out of the pack at the back where all the sprint/walkers hang out and get myself up the pack where the more serious runners were. For that I need to address my known limitations and get off my arse and do something about them. Where in life should you be moving up the pack to be with the more serious runners? ;)
Good luck in your own races and living your own life by your own rules!
George
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