By Rob Hartnett (Leadership Development Executive, Author of “It’s All Possible – How to Lead an Epic Life” and the host of “The Art of the Possible” podcast)
Often us men can take on too much with work, family life and social commitments, and then get overwhelmed and stressed when things don’t happen quick enough or we shut down when things don’t go to plan. Sound familiar?
We need to remember – like every cyclist knows – that everything worthwhile is uphill! If you consider the fact that we don’t ever really fail, we just experiment and learn on the way, then it becomes easier to deal with challenges or roadblocks in our way.
To make things easier, I developed the CHAMPION process. Call it more “me-search” than research, but it works! I have used this process to achieve success in business and in my personal life, especially when circumstances or goals required me to make a change and upskill.
2020 certainly has tested many of us and I have found myself utilising the CHAMPION process even more. CHAMPION is an acronym for:
C Chunk it down
H Have a go
A Assess your results
M Mindset maintenance
P Hang out with the right People
I Investigate the best
O Own the outcome
N Never give in
Let’s take a look at how to become a CHAMPION in your own life!
Chunk it down
People often overestimate what they can achieve in 12 months, yet underestimate what they can achieve in three years. Very often they have a well-thought-out, achievable goal, but give up on it because they didn’t achieve it in the unrealistic time frame they allocated to it.
One way to avoid this is to break the goal down into manageable chunks, which can be completed before moving on to the next one. Remember, to achieve your impossible goal, start with the first step that is possible!
Have a Go
Positive thinking is great, but positive doing is when the magic happens. Having a go means not just having a go once; you need to keep having a go, again and again, learning each time and noting your progress.
Think back to when you learned to ride a bike, drive a car, surf, or play netball. It took effort and repetition, and only with persistence were you able to master the activity. You were persistent then, so you know you can do it this time too.
Assess your results
There has never been a truer saying than ‘what gets measured gets done’. When we know what we are aiming at and how we’re tracking it’s so much easier to achieve our goals.
Metrics need to be clear, concise and easy to assess. I also believe in transparency: you should share your metrics with a coach or mentor so they can keep you honest about how you are going. You must continue to understand what the metrics are and then check in to see if you are on-track or off-track and make changes accordingly.
Whether it’s losing the beer gut, earning more money, or building a better relationship with your kids, whatever your goal, you benchmark your starting point – that’s today – then track every week or few weeks to see how much progress you’ve made.
Mindset maintenance
It’s not just a matter of getting your mindset right once and then forgetting about it. As you take action, you must continually re-evaluate your mindset and make sure you are still on track.
If you are entrepreneurial, this can also be lonely and full of self- doubt and it can stop a worthy pursuit. Try and spend some time daily with positive messages and positive people that inspire you. This can be through a podcast, event or even a sporting activity. The key is to smooth out the super highs of success and the depth of the downturns when a poor result eventuates – and it starts with checking in your mindset.
Hang out with the right people
In my experience, motivation is 50 per cent ourselves and 50 per cent the people we hang out with. The take-out is this: if your friends, family or work colleagues are not supporting you and encouraging you to grow, you will never have the opportunity to be who you could be. You need to seek out those who believe in you and your goals and can encourage and guide you on your journey. They can be through general meetup groups, Facebook groups, social club at work, mens sheds, or special interests like 4WDing, personal growth or even personal training.
The right people will support you, remind you of your unique gifts, and be in your corner when things get tough. Rather than shutdown, these are your go to people.
Investigate the best
Once you have a goal or dream and are committed to it, part of your strategy should be to find out who does it best in the world and study them. Because we live in Australia this might mean taking some overseas trips (when we are allowed) but in the interim you can Zoom!. The internet has also gifted us podcasts, webinars and Ted talks which are a great source of inspiration. source. A key is to master what the world’s best are doing now before changing it to suit your own opinions.
Here is a secret. The world’s best love what they do and I have always found them willing to talk about their passion with like minded people. I have met many of my heroes this way.
Own the outcome
If you want to become a true possibility seeker, you must always take active responsibility for your actions – whatever the result. If you get a positive result, be happy for yourself for putting in all the effort and work that went into it. Don’t play it down, and don’t let anyone steal the glory.
But, if it all goes horribly wrong, don’t look for someone to blame. Take responsibility, admit your error and then get on with locking down the learning from it and move on. This is the time you connect with your key people (see above) and plan your next move.
Never give in
You will be tested. There will be negative people. There will always be critics and those people who ‘woulda, coulda, shoulda’ but haven’t. You need to have self belief, resilience and pure grit sometimes. Steve Jobs said we need to really believe that all dots will connect down the road to give us the confidence to follow our heart and keep on pursuing our dreams.
The CHAMPION process connects the dots if you do the work – and it works! It has for me and many others I have found out. Give it try, what’s there to lose? Your move.
