Insights

“Bones and muscle,” that’s all I say when I am pushing the sled. This is what our sixty-five-year-old client said. She has recently added a day of training and we have added new intensity to her programs. She received a report that her bone density score had dropped since her last study. We also had been discussing her need to gain muscle for her health and longevity. She relates that pushing the sled is hard. Most would agree. Pulling the sled is okay, but pushing a weighted sled down a carpeted path can seem like the sled is pushing back or there is glue on the bottom of the sled. Most do not like it in their program.

Her motivating phrase helps her get it done. “It actually feels good to be doing it,” she says. “Especially when I’m finished.” Our client has developed her singular, simple phrase, her mantra. You might say she was thinking what matters? Like Molly Seidel, Olympic medalist in the marathon, who said she was just going to “send it” and nothing else was going to get in. Thinking what matters and nothing else.

In our Insight we reviewed the complex data collection, interpretation and training that Kate Douglass used for her preparation for the Paris Olympics and for most of her career. Similar to our client, once the competition begins, Douglass reports she has a singular focus.

On the podcast, People I Mostly Admire, Steve Levitt asked Douglass what she thinks about when she begins the 200-meter breaststroke, her best event.

Fascinatingly, she replied, “I actually have a stroke count that I stick to and that I want to hit to be able to go a best time. And so, I dive in and just start counting my strokes. And I focus on hitting the stroke count that I want for each lap. And that’s the only thing that’s going through my brain while I’m swimming.”

She is not thinking about technique, data or how hard it is. She is counting her strokes. Thinking what matters and nothing else. When you identify a singular, simple phrase that is aligned with doing what matters for your pursuit and/or purpose, you can create a precision that produces remarkable changes. A precision that grows bones and muscles. A precision that wins Olympic medals.

Importantly, both our client and Kate Douglass must be fit and prepared for these events for their mantra to work. They must be fit for their purpose.

What phrases do you have for your current pursuits?

What if you had some that were daily?

Do they align with your Two Lists? (what is important and what you can control)

Are you fit and prepared to do it?

Is your circle of advisors helping with this process?

Extraordinary results, like Douglass, our client, and many clients we have experienced at the institute, are due to a combination of hard, deliberate, and consistent work and unwavering, congruent focus on doing what matters.

It seems that having a visual, auditory, and kinesthetic target for what matters is an essential ingredient. Your senses are the information highway that connect your mind and body. To allow your hard work and precision to come through, thinking what matters, and nothing else, may be one of the most important things you do.

Reach for the stars,

Clayton Skaggs