Sink or swim?

Greetings. Great to see you again. I could do with cheering up and some company. Forgive me if my wit this week fails to spark.

I don’t know if you have noticed but I have lost a devotee recently. One of my followers has decided that he, or she, has learnt enough and has moved on. I am sure he or she will be back when he or she realises that this is the hottest place to be on the blogosphere. And I can assure you that you will be welcomed back with open arms.

I hope you are enjoying this week’s episode of global warming. Perhaps the eco mentalists are right after all. Let’s wait and see, shall we? It is summer after all. It is meant to be hot and sunny. Though it is Wimbledon fortnight and before global warming was invented, we used to get rain and Cliff Richard. Given this maybe global warming is a price worth paying.

I was cycling across town the other day to my top secret State bunker and while jousting with the bendy buses I was feeling a tad overwhelmed by the business challenges myself and my team were facing. It is not easy trying to protect the public 24x7. I would love to share with you the range of marketing programmes we are developing but too much information at this stage would be a threat to national security and so I must continue to shoulder my burden alone.

I am sure that there will have been times when you too will have been faced with a challenge which at first glance seems large, overwhelming and intimidating. It will seem of such a scale that you will not know where to start. This was my dilemma. The answer came to me while I was dressed in my Speedos. And I want to share my solution with you, though it is not necessary to don Speedos to participate.

At least once a week, when the State can spare me, I like to don my Speedos and go for a swim. It is a vain attempt to keep fit, slim and lithe. I am not one for splashing around but commit to trying doing 30 lengths. And while it is getting easier to swim that distance when you start every session 30 lengths does seem like a very large number, a very long way. The trick is not to think of it as 30 lengths but to break it down into much smaller chunks and aim to complete these chunks. It is also worth remembering and focusing on how much you have done, not far you still have to go.

I have a similar technique when I go for a run, which I do do from time to time. You will now be getting the impression that my body is well toned, muscular and lean. You are close but that is not the point I want to make. This is not about me. When running you can again be overwhelmed by the distance to go. I don’t focus on that. Instead I quite literally focus on finding something on the road about 20 yards in front of me and when I reach that I find something else and so on. My focus is not on running 5 miles but on running the next 20 yards. In that way for me the run is so much easier. My strategy is to run 5 miles. My tactics are to run it in 20 yard chunks. And for the record I would like to point out that I do not stop every 20 yards to take a breather.

Do you see what I am saying and how it might be applied day to day in your business? If my approach to my sporting career can be applied to the work place, and I believe it can, then that challenge you are facing will no longer seem as challenging or as intimidating or as overwhelming as you first thought. The key is breaking it up into small, manageable and bite size chunks and focusing on dealing with it chunk by chunk, celebrating success as you go along and recognising to yourself and to those around you, how far you have come, the progress that is being made, not on how far you still have to go, what still has to be achieved.

In business, in life, in the pool, big challenges are only a series of very small challenges. I don’t know about you but when faced with the choice of sink or swim, I know what choice I am always going to make. And that is why I am now going to make sure that while understanding the big picture, my 5 mile run, I will also make sure I understand the pieces that make up the jigsaw, my 20 yard focus. And no Speedos or running shoes required.

Is it only me?

Have you noticed how the way people walk has changed? Look carefully. People no longer walk like they used to, purposefully and single mindedly to their destination. Nowadays people walk and talk or walk and blackberry, their attention somewhere else. Instead of striding they drift. Pavements get clogged with people chatting, texting or whatever, getting in the way and slowing down the traffic around them. And it is even worse if they are doing this while toting a trolley dolly behind them.

Walking really is becoming a health hazard, especially around tube stations when people will suddenly stop at the top of the escalators to pick up messages and texts unreceivable below ground, causing a commuter tail back. And this is compounded by those stopping suddenly to light up just as they reach the fresh air. An irony in itself.

I would like to suggest that to relieve the problem special lanes are set up to separate those who dawdle while preoccupied with their mobile devices from those who want to walk with purpose and focus, just like the slow and fast lanes you get in the swimming pools or at supermarkets. I do think the self appointed guardians of our health and safety should investigate before an accident happens.

What do you think?

Have a great week.

Sit felix. Et sit fortunatus.