Growing up playing sport has definitely given me a competitive streak that I bring to everyday life. If I’m not careful though the simplest of activities can suddenly become a ‘win at all costs’ situation, forgetting that success isn’t only defined by who crosses the finish line first.
Creating events has made me more aware how success for one person will be different for someone else; someone finishing a couch to 5k programme hasn’t succeeded any less than the person who ran their first sub20 5k.
The most important thing is to remember to enjoy and learn from the journey along the way.
In an endurance challenge, much like work and life we will break down the overall goal into manageable chunks or short term goals. It’s important to celebrate these successes when they come in order to keep yourself motivated to push towards the final goal.
When we don’t achieve, when we do fall short of a goal we need to remember firstly it doesn’t mean the long term aim is over, it simply means we need to re-evaluate and adjust the course. Whether that’s training for a marathon or teaching in the classroom, one set back doesn’t end the journey.
Re-adjusting your route along the way isn’t failing, it will increase your chances of overall success
Planning for failures and setbacks ahead of time will help you deal with them when they inevitably come along. Understand what you will do if a situation arises that decreases your chance of reaching your next target:
E.g. if I miss more than 2 training runs in a row I will call Laura who has agreed to run with me if I am losing motivation during training.
Training and working alongside colleagues and friends will improve your chance of success
During this time it’s more important than ever to be able to learn and re-evaluate what is important in order to help us all reach our current goal. Schools have transformed the way they teach in a matter of days, fitness providers have re-designed themselves to still offer people active opportunities, these are things to celebrate!
The current Covid-19 outbreak was definitely an unexpected hurdle that we didn’t plan for, but it’s a journey we can learn and improve from.
Event Planning Highlight
Completing If/then plans ahead of each of our events help us to foresee as many likely (and unlikely) situations as possible that may damage our chances of overall event success, we plan for failures. By each team member understanding the plans, when speed bumps do arise (and they always do) the whole team are ready to adapt and continue without it putting an early end to the challenge.
Schools' Active Community Coach 