Good morning Friends,
I greet you a little bleary eyed this morning as I woke up early to watch some of the last cricket Test match in the Ashes between England and Australia (in Australia).
You may or may not know but I’m a huge cricket fan.
I love it.
The war of attrition, the strategic elements of a days play and the fact it can end in a draw after 5 days I think is brilliant.
I know I may be in the minority, but I’m comfortable with that.
Let’s just put it down to the experience of enjoying tea and cucumber sandwiches (with the crusts cut off!) when playing County cricket as a youngster.
The reason for saying this is England aren’t doing very well at the moment. In fact, I would go as far to say, that’s an understatement as we’re 3 nil down in a 5 match series having drawn the 4th Test.
We’re staring down the proverbial barrel of a 4-nil drumming.
But that’s focusing on the outcome. The result if you will.
I’m more interested in how we got here.
Let me explain…
Lightbulb Moment
When you take on an endeavour, it’s easy to become fixated about the result.
In keeping with the cricket analogy, we would like to win back the Ashes (a tiny little urn with huge historical importance - details here) as that would make us victorious.
But this is no longer unlikely, it’s positively not going to happen.
And that sucks.
Which makes me wonder, what went wrong?
The obvious answer would be to say we lost the Test matches by not taking enough wickets or scoring enough runs, which would be true. But I think it’s more than that.
You see, the outcome is less relevant in my eyes.
It should be more about the process.
When thinking about this tour, the England Cricket Management will have known the magnitude of the task ahead. England winning the Ashes Down Under is a very rare occurrence.
So the thought of doing so could easily lead to feelings of overwhelm, uncertainty and doubt.
Whilst it may seem like a too big a task at the beginning, the truth is, the achievement of this goal will be a simple process.
By identifying that process, refining it and following it consistently, you will soon be right where you want to be.
If the England team sat at Lords (the Home of Cricket) and thought:
“How the Dickens are we going to win this?”
The answer is to break the task down into smaller elements and focus on doing one thing at a time.
This could be a particular element of the game, such as fielding.
An old cricket saying goes ‘catches win matches’ that implies if you take all the catching opportunities that come your way, you will more than likely win the game.
So it wouldn’t be unreasonable for a team to focus on becoming the best they possibly can at fielding; specifically catching.
This about doing the identified task well, repeatedly and then moving on to the next one.
The road to goal achievement is paved with taking one step after the next. It’s fair to say that the process you employ will take you to exactly where you should be.
Acknowledging that results are the enemy that distract us & prevent us from seeing this is important.
That’s why I’m intrigued as to what England were doing in preparation for the Ashes. Did they focus on the result or employ methods to improve their processes?
Stepping away from cricket for a moment, if we focus on the process, and not the outcome, the way we tackle things (especially work) will change very fast. It is highly correlated with quick change too.
Things will begin to change around you…
* You’ll operate at a higher emotional level
* You’ll no doubt make more money
* You’ll achieve much more than you ever thought possible
These aren’t lofty throw away comments, they are my strongly held beliefs.
You are capable of more than you realise, you just need a helping hand to remember this sometimes.
That’s why starting now is important.
Focusing on the process gives you the foundation to achieve what ever you want.
Break it down into bite size chunks, do the World Class Basics (previous lightbulb moment) and take one step at a time.
You don’t achieve success simply by thinking about it.
