I learned an important lesson from my attempt to ride the Etape du Tour. When I told my sister that I didn’t finish the ride, she said “that’s ok, goals are overrated anyway”. I agree with that, but I want to amend it to “goals are overrated, unless you don’t have them”. What do I mean by that? Having a big goal like riding a stage of the Tour de France provided me with incredible motivation and focus to do things I would not have done otherwise. I would not have done all the training I did, I would not have ridden mountains in Las Vegas, California, Tuscon, I would not have had the incredible rides in the Pyrenees of France, and I would not have rediscovered my passion for cycling. Finally I would not have lost 25 pounds and gotten into better shape. At work we always say that going through a solid process of training will result in a powerful and lasting learning experience. That’s what I got out of this.So what I really mean about goals being “overrated” is that focusing on whether or not you achieve the goal in the end is what is overrated. There are so many factors that go into making a goal that are outside of one’s control. For me, I didn’t achieve my goal of finishing the ride, but in hindsight, that was never realistic anyway. I didn’t even achieve my “secondary goal” of making it up the first two mountains. But I had an incredible ride, I did my absolute best and gave it everything I had. More importantly, the six month journey leading up to the ride has had a huge lasting positive impact for me.
Set big goals for yourself, but don’t get too caught up in whether you actually make it. It sounds cliché, but it really is about enjoying the journey. Letting go of outcome is part of being emotionally intelligent. Attaching negative emotion to this ride would only get in the way of my ability to learn and grow from it.
P.S. when I do my next Etape du Tour in a few years, I plan to reach my goal!
Bonjour Bill! Felicitations, mon ami! I’ve been pondering the application of goals and goal-thinking to the topic of overall resilience and thriving. You clarified for me a key point and love your idea that “goals are over-rated . . . unless you don’t have them.” So yeah, you didn’t complete the stage . . . but you “won” the stage nonetheless.
Comment by Bill Hefferman — August 13, 2010 @ 2:54 pm
Great work, Bill. Having spent time with you several years ago, I get a sense of how much the training/prep gave you, way beyond what you ultimately achieved. You sound very excited by your work…the greatest gift of them all!
Great to hear this story.
m
Comment by Marilyn Shapiro — August 13, 2010 @ 3:57 pm
I think i learned something from this reading. It inspired me to continue pursuing my goals despite obstacles beyond my control. Sometimes im beginning to think that im not an effective leader when expected outputs are not being delivered. Now, i should keep focus on pursuing my goals despite failures/obstacles. I believe that at the end this experience will bring out the best in me.
Comment by Nelia Elisa C. Florendo — August 13, 2010 @ 11:35 pm
Great post Bill. I wonder if most people know what kind of killer “tour” that was. My own dad has a variation on this piece of advice: “Always bite off more than you can chew, so that you know you’re chewing all you can.”
Comment by Ryan McClure — August 16, 2010 @ 2:14 am
My thoughts:
You have a choice in how you think about your experience and you are choosing thoughts to set you up for sucess in your life both personally and professionally. For others this choice in thinking would not come naturally. What I also heard you say is that you didn’t have a clearly defined WIN going into the event. W/O one, you leave much to chance..
Comment by Angela Bruckner — August 16, 2010 @ 10:51 am
Thanks everyone for the great comments. I am glad that my story has got all of you thinking!
The good news for me is that I haven’t had any “let down” (yet) after having such a big goal. I have been keeping up the training and passion for cycling.
Now I have to set another big goal for myself!
Bill
Comment by Bill Benjamin — August 19, 2010 @ 7:59 pm