You're wondering how to set achievable goals? I've invited my son here today.
This is Adam and we're going to talk about that. Hey, Live On Purpose Family,
I'm excited to introduce you to my son, Adam.
-Hey, everyone. -Adams here today for a couple of different reasons. He's actually one
of our Live On Purpose coaches and that's a whole other story that we could
get into. At some other point if you want. But back in high school. You remember
this Adam? When you were in high school, you were running on the
cross-country team. -That's correct. -And I I'm going to tell my version of this,
you can clear up whatever you want to. Adam started out in cross-country in the
high school the way I ran cross-country in high school. I was always on the JV
squad. I always came in in the triple digits somewhere because there's
hundreds of kids running these races, right? And I would come in I don't know
one hundred and fiftieth. There are a few people behind me but most people
finished in front of me. I really was not that good of a runner. Back in high
school. And you started out that way. And I still remember this race Adam where
you are... You were running, you know, on the JV squad and I think it was down at
the University near our home. And on this course I... I saw you as you were coming
around one of the turns and I said, "You can do it, Adam." And you waved at me and
you were smiling. And you didn't seem to be in any pain or anything like that.
Well, when you finish the race, one hundred and fortieth or whatever it was.
I noticed that there was still some gas in the tank. -Right. -Do you remember this?
-Yeah. -And I think I commented to you about that. now dad's can sometimes get
away with, you know, pushing their kids a little bit harder. But then I saw a
change happen. And I would just love to have you share with our viewers today
what... What was going on in your mind back then? -Well, as I remember... And that guess this
was a while ago. But several things were going on in my mind and I think it
kind of hit me that like what you said, I had gas left in the tank still. -Yeah. One
of the reasons why is I think it was maybe a combination of factors but I
kind of had a lucky day that day and I ran a pretty fast race. And I ended up
beating a senior that I'd never beat before. I was a sophomore at the time. So
this was like really cool for me. And... -Be on one of the scene. -Yeah. And he
commented on it and he was kind of like mad that I beat him and I shouldn't have
any business doing that as a sophomore. So, that kind of gave me a little bit of
the boost. And then I just realized that I had a lot more like potential
than I thought I had. -Yeah. You know what? As you're saying that, I think we all do.
I think... I think you've got some potential that you don't realize that
you have. There's still some gas in the tank. And this became apparent to you
when you beat the senior. -Right. -And it turned... It flipped a switch in your brain
or something. What happened? -Well, I kind of just had a I guess sort of an
epiphany or a moment of just inspiration. And I realized that, you know, I could
maybe relate or be in sort of the same group as this senior. And it gave me a
big interest in doing that. And kind of to give some background to the story and
where we're going in with this is that I had been running with a lot of similar
aged friends at that time. -The other freshmen and sophomores. -Yeah the other freshmen and
sophomores and... -Makes sense. -And we were those guys that were coming in at
hundred to two hundred place every race. You know was... We were pretty slow. So... And
I think I realized that I wanted to kind of start getting more. I was becoming
less shy on the team and I wanted to get more out of my workouts and more out of
my performance. And we were really not that motivated as a friend group. We
would sometimes slack off and cut a workout short.
And I just realized I was like, "I need to just start spending time with these
varsity kids. And (you know) work harder." And I... It was a... There was a mental
gap for me and kind of like a bridge I needed to get over. Because I was not
fast enough or in shape enough to run with the varsity kids. But I just decided
I need to do it anyway. They were they were the ones I wanted to spend my time
with. I felt like I was starting to respect them more and I was more
interested in like hanging out with them at races. But I couldn't really hang out
with them because I wasn't fast enough to compete with them and we ran at
different times. So... -I got to tell you, Adam. This is something that has changed
my career. -Mm-hmm. -It's changed my life because I saw that. I watched that as a
father from the sidelines. And I saw... I saw my kid out there performing kind of
in a mediocre way but he still had gas in the tank. And I'm like, "You can do
better." Right? And then I saw that switch flip for you. And you mentioned it to me
at the time. "I started hanging out with the varsity kids." ♫Oooh♫♪ This light goes on
in my head. -Right. -About my own career. And think about where you are for just a
minute. When we talked about setting achievable goals, you don't even
know what's achievable until you start experiencing some things like what you
had where you you came in in front of the senior. -Right. -Right? And it's like,
"Wait a minute, I can maybe do this? How am I going to do
it?" Start hanging out with the varsity kids. Just last week, I spent 6 hours in
mastermind groups with people who push me and stretch me. These are the varsity
kids. -Right. -In my industry and professional speaking and sales and
marketing and the things that I'm trying to be a varsity player. Start hanging out
with the varsity kids. I thought that was brilliant.
And I don't know if I've even told you how much of an impact I've made on me.
-Right. -But it was really cool. And then Adam won't even tell you this himself.
But he went on to become a very elite runner.
Especially in those last 2 years of high school and instead of finishing one
hundred and fortieth, your fish at finishing second. -Right. -You're beating
everybody, right? And then later on you held the record for the Tim trails half
marathon. -Right. -For a couple of years or something. -3 years, I think. Yeah. -Wow.
So, can you play at a higher level? Can you set an achievable goal? I think one
of the important things here... Let's have a little discussion about hype and
sellout, okay? Okay. So, if you put all this on a spectrum and
I'm thinking about you're running too. If if my goal is to finish the race - okay - it...
That's sellout. Of course you can finish the race you get to walk it and finish
it. Right? Right. So, that sellout and we'll put that clear
over here on the left end of the spectrum.
Well hype is over here at the other end. And hype might be, "I am going to win the
Olympics this year." -Mm-hmm. -Alright? And you're not on an Olympic track yet. -Right.
-That's hype. You're not going to do that. So, we need to have something between
sellout and hype that I think preferably is on the side of hype. -Right. Pushing
that border a little bit. -Yeah. -What are your thoughts about it? -I definitely agree
with that. I think so. And if anyone's been really involved in like working out
or any kind of growth, it's usually uncomfortable and it stretches you a bit.
-Yeah. And so you know, erring on the side of sellout is not going to be as
uncomfortable. And you know, we may feel like that's advantageous but in the long
run, I think we're gonna do ourselves more benefit by erring on the side of
hype. And kind of pushing ourselves past the point of comfort. This is a careful
balance because you don't want to push it so far on the hype side that it's
unbelievable to you. -Right. -But you do want to feel stretched. If you don't feel
just a little bit of stretch or maybe even fear
or in trepidation, then you're probably not thinking big enough. It's time to
push the limits a little bit. -Right. -Which is easier to do if you're hanging out
with the varsity kids. -Yeah, have someone else help you push your limits. -And show
you what's possible. -Right. -I just realized
part of the power also of your idea of hang out with the varsity kids.
That's a way of installing some level of accountability. So, it's not just you
telling yourself I'm going to do this. -Right. -If you're sharing it with a group
of peers that are performing at a higher level already, then there's an
expectation and an accountability there that helps you to push through the hard
things. Because it's gonna be hard, right? -Right. Yeah and for me, it definitely was
hard to. You know, like I said I wasn't really in shape to run with the varsity
kids and so oftentimes, we'd start the workout and I would it felt kind of like,
you know, sprinting at the beginning about 5 K and then crawling through the
rest of it. Because it was way too fast for me. But the nice thing was, you know,
there's a typical separation between the varsity and the JV. And so, I kind of was
forced into being accountable for working harder because if I wasn't able
to hang out with the varsity kids and run with them, I'd have to run on my own
or find my own way home. I was new on the team that year and I didn't know all the
courses that we ran. So you know, there were some elements definitely with
putting myself in that position before I was really comfortable to do so that.
Held me more personally accountable for my efforts. And I liked that. -I think it's
also important to celebrate the wins. -Yeah. -The incremental progress that
you can make because probably, if you're doing as we've suggested here and you're
picking a goal that is achievable but it's toward the hype side instead of
toward the sellout side. You're not going to just jump over there. -Right. So, as you
make incremental progress toward that, probably a good idea to pat yourself on
the back little bit. Enjoy some of those winds and
pause every so often to look back behind you and see what kind of ground you've
already covered. -Right. -You may not be trying to run cross-country or a 5k.
Hopefully this example though has helped you to see how you can set achievable
goals. One of the things we didn't mention is to have some good coaching.
And if you would like to have a coach, we've got a resource available for you.
It's called me liveonpurpose.coach. Not dot com. Liveonpurpose.coach where
you can find some resources there on almost anything that you're wanting to
accomplish.