Last week I achieved one of the goals I’ve been chasing for the past two years.
In the aftermath, I’ve been contemplating the formula we need to follow to give ourselves the best chance of achieving our goals, whatever they may be.
In this instance, I wanted to run a marathon in under three hours – I had run two marathons previously, in 2019 and 2022.
Marathons are the ultimate test – equal parts physically, mentally, and emotionally challenging.
Anyone who has run a marathon will tell you that it doesn’t matter how much preparation you do, come the 35km mark of the race you find yourself locked in a battle with your mind and your emotions to get you across the finish line.
I ran my first marathon in 2019, just two months after we lost my Dad.
“It was my first experience with long-distance running, and I found it to be the perfect habit for overcoming hardships and maintaining mental and emotional balance. Those early mornings spent pounding the pavement for hours, alone with nothing but my own thoughts and emotions, were truly transformative.”
The second marathon I took on was in 2022. In this one I managed to clock three hours and two minutes. Just two minutes shy of the elusive three-hour mark.
For those who don’t know, the three-hour marathon is the pinnacle for most marathon competitors. I’d fallen just two minutes short – less than five seconds for every kilometre I’d run.
Sometimes we reach our goals and sometimes we don’t. Whether we do or don’t get there, I find the formula for achieving a goal is the same no matter what the goal is.
There are three essential aspects to the formula for setting and achieving goals – these being the right motivation, mentor, and team.
The first crucial aspect of goal setting is to have a strong motivation for achieving the goal.
For me, I like long-distance running because a one or two-hour run can be gamechanger when it comes to keeping me mentally vibrant, clear and present.
I wrote in Bulletproof Investing about the importance of habits when it comes to becoming successful at whatever it is that we do.
One of my most important habits is making the first hour or two of my day my own. No devices, no company, just me and my thoughts – ideally coupled with a form of exercise in the great outdoors.
I know I can be the best version of myself – as a father, husband, colleague and friend – when this is part of my daily routine.
Signing up for a marathon gives me a reason to ensure I maintain that habit, particularly during the winter months.
The three-hour marathon was about setting a personal best and discovering what my full potential may be.
In my first marathon it was a case of seeing if I was one of the few capable of starting and finishing a marathon in their lifetime. This time around it was about seeing if I was one of the even fewer capable of finishing the marathon before the clock ticked over the three-hour mark.
“I realise there’s a fair bit of ego associated with this aspect of my goal setting. But I think that’s always going to be the case when pursuing personal growth.
The second essential aspect of achieving a goal is to find someone who has already achieved what we are striving for and ask them to mentor us.“
For my first couple of marathons, I sought the mentorship of a few individuals who had successfully completed multiple marathons. They provided me with a training plan and, more importantly, imparted some extremely important advice and wisdom.
It’s a good example of what mentors offer us. I was particularly interested in how to avoid making mistakes and gleaning every detail possible to achieve my goal.
We don’t know what we don’t know.
- I didn’t know most people never make it to the start line of a marathon because they overtrain, going too fast or running too far too early in their training schedule.
- I didn’t know that the more effective way to train for a marathon is to go by heart rate rather than speed or pace – the language of numbers I so often talk about.
- I didn’t know that I would need to hydrate with water, electrolytes and carbohydrates at different periods during the run – again more numbers.
- I didn’t know that I would need to change my runners every 600km and that my race day runners should ideally have 100km of running under them to give me optimal comfort on race day. A typical training plan will cover between 600km and 900km across three or four months so this is an important thing to plan for.
The final essential aspect to achieving a goal is to support ourselves with the right team.
No one who experiences success has achieved it on their own, they have been supported by the team around them. In a marathon, that team is a dietitian, masseuse, physiotherapist, coach and/or mentor.
In Bulletproof Investing I wrote about how our financial success will only happen if we surround ourselves with the right team – mentor, mortgage broker, accountant and property manager.
On race day, I must admit, I was a little nervous. I felt confident that I could maintain a 4-minute 20-second pace for the full 42km, but I wasn’t certain if I could maintain the 4-minute 15-second pace that I would need to achieve my goal of completing the marathon in under three hours.
I hit a wall at the 35km mark, as expected. That’s not unusual, we all hit a wall at some point in the quest to achieve our goals.
That’s where the first essential aspect for goal setting becomes super important. Our motivation for doing it all in the first place.
On Sunday, June 2, I managed to cross the line in 2 hours and 58 minutes, ticking off this goal I had been chasing for the past two years.
I’m not sure what the next goal will be, I just know that there will always be one.
Goals challenge us to reach for our full potential and allow us to move through life with purpose and direction.
Have you got your goals? The workbook I use for setting my goals is available for free in this link.
