Tag: Tom Daley

How To Start Paying Attention To Your Priorities And #Goals

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Moving Toward Your Goals - Picture From CDN At Morguefile.com

Moving Toward Your Goals – Picture From CDN At Morguefile.com

 

I’m at my most consistent…I feel ready physically, psychologically, everything, so I am really excited

 

Tom Daley – Olympian Diver, Speaking Before His 2016 Bronze Medal Win

Lessons From Olympians

So the Olympics are here once again and I’ve been thinking about all the effort that lays behind being ready to achieve peak performance. Team GB have worked hard to be third in the medal tables. Watching a team member achieve a personal best, or an Olympic record in just a few seconds is only part of the story.

Here’s A Thought Experiment

Imagine yourself standing on the edge of the 10 metre Olympic diving board.

You tune out the hundreds of people in the aquatic centre. You don’t think about the millions watching at home. Your team mates and coach have helped you stand ready to perform at your best.

You breathe deeply. Then you spring off the board and tuck into your dive. Your thoughts are focused on your goal. You know you are going to achieve a perfect result. You perform twists and turns like nothing else matters, because nothing else does. You enter the deep water and you come back to the surface. You are buzzing with the feeling of achievement. You did your best.

How easy was it to focus on your outcome? Could you tune out all the background noise?

How To Start Paying Attention To Your Goal

I am not an Olympian, few people are, but I think we can all strive to achieve our main goal, if we are clear what aspect of our performance requires attention.

Sir Dave Brailsford (Principal of British cycling’s Team Sky) and coach has a theory about this. He believes that by concentrating on making a large number of small changes to improve performance, the net gain is significant. Each step is a marginal gain. Those steps correspond to the gradual process of becoming consciously competent at life.

I know background noise and life’s pressures can seem overwhelming. They can crowd out the internal messages which tell me it is time to change. However, once I have decided what I want to achieve (and when I want to achieve it) I can set a goal. That goal will help me move forward. The goal today was to write this post from scratch to share some information with you. I started with a blank page and here I am putting the finishing touches to it.

Getting started was hard. The next few steps were easier. Maybe the same is true for you?

How To Get Started

If you want to work out where you can focus your attention today is a good day to start. Why not start improving your wellbeing, strengthening your team working skills, or begin creating client-pleasing results now. There is plenty of support at hand (so you don’t have to feel isolated).

Your first step is easy. Head over to the Members’ area and download a free tool to help you start to reach your goal. If you want to share your progress you can leave fa reply with your comments below (or Tweet me @RogerD_Said ). Don’t forget to Like this post, or Share it to help others get started on their way.

Thanks for reading and keep an eye out for more ideas about doing what you need to so you can move toward your goal.

The Business Show: Part Two – Connections

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Here is the follow-up post I promised you, inspired by last week’s Business Show at Olympia (that’s #TBS2013 if you fancy looking at the coverage on Twitter).

TBS2013

Brochure from The Business Show 2013

The event was web heavy, naturally enough, since the internet is such a significant part of business today.  People without tablets, netbooks, smart phones seemed to be in the minority.  Most people seemed to be connecting to the world outside the event.

Felicity McCarthy, Facebook’s Head of Small and Medium Business Marketing Communications made a point which re-enforced the idea of connectivity.

Felicity noted that brands with an online presence are consumed by people who have developed a respectful and loving attitude towards the brand’s products and services.  A brand’s Facebook, or other, online profile helps to build warm relationships.

I was mulling that thought over yesterday, in light of two news stories.  I think the stories capture how the public’s feelings about a corporate and a personal brand can be affected by events.

The corporate story concerns the online banking offer from RBS.  This has, once again, failed to provide the level of seamless service customers expect.  The timing of course could not be worse.  People with Christmas shopping to do really don’t need to have their card transactions refused.

Ross McKewan – RBS Chief Executive – today said “…It will take time but we are investing heavily in IT systems our customers can rely on…”  I wonder how much respect, love, or loyalty the bank will receive from customers in 2014 whilst those IT systems are developed?

On the other end of the scale from the corporate brand there is 19-year-old Olympic medalist Tom Daley .  He has managed a change to his personal brand impressively, according to a piece in the Guardian today* by PR Consultant Mark Borkowski.   The consultant believes that by using his own Youtube channel to affirm his new relationship, and his bisexuality, Mr Daley has demonstrated “strategic control” over his brand.  That is a lesson to other and bigger brands Borkowski reckons.

As everyone – from corporations to individuals – has a story to tell; support to generate; and a reputation to manage perhaps the question is this:

What single step can each of us take to manage our brand better in the connected age?

* Tom Daley Youtube Video

Mind Your Language

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Andrew Mitchell in Pakistan

Andrew Mitchell in Pakistan (Photo credit: DFID – UK Department for International Development)

Unless you work in total isolation you probably realise that what you say, and the way you say it, has an impact on the people around you.

If you are a senior politician, like Government Chief Whip Andrew Mitchell, it is probably unwise to (allegedly) use the word ‘Pleb’ – a derogatory description for a common person – within ear shot of a Downing Street police officer with whom you have just had a row.  It’s bound to antagonise a public servant to have that language buzzing in his ears.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-19690240

If a comment made in the heat of the moment can be contentious how much worse is a homophobic remark, deliberately launched into cyber space towards Tom Daley and his diving partner Pete Waterfield, through social media?

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/olympics/diving/9555394/Tom-Daley-homophobic-tweet-by-footballer-Daniel-Thomas-will-not-result-in-charges.html

Interestingly the Daily Telegraph article notes the Head of the Crown Prosecution Service, Keir Starmer, saying ”the time has come for an informed debate about the boundaries of free speech in an age of social media”.  How much thought is needed not to seem a twit when tweeting?

All of which makes the casual references to people being ‘mad’, when they in fact have a mental health issue, seem sadly common place.  Sadly as mental health charity Mind has evidence that verbal abuse can spiral into worse treatment.

http://www.mind.org.uk/blog/7459_coping_with_stigma

So, what is the solution, given the pressures that people are exposed to simply going about their daily lives, and the ease with which some people use offensive speech?

Taking a deep breath, releasing it slowly while counting to ten is probably not enough these days.

Maybe the guiding principle should be: speak to others, in an emotionally charged situation, as you would be spoken to yourself?

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