Achieving your objectives should also be fun

In July 2014, I completed Ironman Zurich. This was not a remarkable achievement and it was not a remarkable time, (12hrs 15mins 52s to be precise) and it was over my target of a “sub 12hr”. It was the culmination of five years in Triathlon, a journey that started with being an half decent cyclist but bad at running and really bad at swimming. I went through all triathlon distances on the way; Sprint, Olympic, Middle Distance and then finally Full Distance. All 140.6 miles of it. When I did my first triathlon in my late 30’s, I never envisaged I would complete a full Ironman; it was too far, too difficult and too much of a commitment to fit into an already busy life. But with a lot of detailed planning, a lot of support around me and a strong commitment to achieving a goal, I did it. And, unbelievably I enjoyed it.

In January this year I decided that, after two years of miserable lock downs interrupting life, the associated weight gain and only ad-hoc exercising, I would enter another triathlon. It needed to be a challenge and knowing I didn’t have a full distance in me nor the time to get in shape for one, so a middle distance (70.3miles) would be a suitable goal and settled on the Outlaw Half, Nottingham. I built my training plan, slotted it into an already packed diary and set about achieving my objective. Three months of training completed, the race went well and I finished in a time of 6hrs 21m, just ahead of my target of sub 6hrs 30m and around an hour slower than my best at this distance. Project completed and the hard work and extensive planning had paid off.

What does this have to do with a blog around work? For most, working life is set up around achieving goals. The annual performance review, the next promotion, the transformational project. All are goal driven with objectives and milestones along the way, pretty much the same as a training plan. And often with our work goals, we devote significantly more time to achieving them than we do in other areas of life.

I reflected on the whole experience and if I’m honest I didn’t really enjoy the process at all. Training was fitted into a very busy life. On occasions it has been at ungodly hours or has interrupted time I would spend with friends and family. It’s become a point of stress when I’vevmissed planned sessions. The race itself was ok, painful at times but I have the finisher t-shirt and medal in an ok time lifestyle considered.

This made me think why did I do it? And its simple. Because I set myself a target and I’m seemingly so conditioned to be goal orientated that I’ve carried on regardless. That is something to really think about.

My learning from the last three months is this;

1) In setting a goal, don’t just consider the result. Yes it may be achievable with a well executed plan, but what will the journey to get there look like? Will the result be the only thing that gives you happiness and the execution is just a slog? The result may just be a moment in time, whereas the journey could be months or even years.

2) Without strong support from others, you can still achieve your objectives, but consider the emotional impact on going it largely alone. Will you be a nice person to be around if you aren’t enjoying how you spend most of your time?

3) If the execution of the plan lacks fun and even some spontaneity, then are you more likely to accept mediocrity in the outcome? The euphoria of the achievement will be diminished if the route to it has been unpleasant.

Life isn’t always filled with happiness and certainly not all valuable experiences have to be fun and we can learn a lot through adversity. But when setting an objective think about the process because with dedication and commitment you may well get to the end result, but you may also sit back when its all over, reflect that it wasn’t that enjoyable and think “What was the point?”