Focus on the right thing to achieve big in 2017!

By Richard Thompson, Head Coach

​The start of the New Year provides opportunity for all to reflect on the previous 12 months and importantly set goals for the future. At T:Zero, we encourage all our athletes to set goals not that they think they can achieve, but have ambition to achieve something to which they think is near impossible to achieve. 

So you have set the goals and laid out a plan – what now? It is paramount at this point to ensure you are focusing on the right thing when implementing that plan.  Without question, you will face adversity and doubt along the way, but note that often the things you are most worried or stressed about are things outside of our control.  It is true that when you focus too much with things that you can not control, it is going to adversely affect the things to which you can control.   

Implementing this philosophy, we recently wrote an article for our athletes which was entitled ‘#1 Tip to Unlock Race Day Potential’.  In that article we discussed that your overall place or time in a race is largely outside of your control and that the focus must be you giving 100% of the ability you have on race day.  This is also pertinent in general life.

As coaches we strive to assist our athletes to ‘live their potential’. We do this on a daily basis.  We never impress on our athletes to be better than someone else – but rather that they should never cease to try to be the very best they can be.  Emotional peaks is something we believe should be avoided too.  We want athletes to be prepared to be able to enjoy their successes in a balanced way and the overall success of the event be determined by the ability/inability to get the most out of themselves relative to their ability on the start line.

Infrequently when we prepare a race plan do we state any specific time or place – these are not the currency of success we are looking for and in our view shouldn’t be used to determine whether you have won/lost or whether the race was a success or otherwise. 

We are striving for each athlete, on a daily basis to improve themselves – that needs to be the focus. And not only in the sport but in general life too.  In our history of coaching we have found that a fundamental key to increasing an athletes performance in training and on race day stems from that athlete always striving to be the best person they can be.  

So, have the courage to set massive goals for 2017.  The type of goals that give you butterflies in your stomach.  Once they have been set – ensure your focus throughout the year is both, keeping your emotions in check and getting the most out of yourself every day to be the best person you can be.  Do that and you will be well on your way to exceed those ambitious goals that you had set for yourself at the beginning of the year. 

At T:Zero we are certainly taking our own advice – we have set massive goals for the year that center around ways in which we can be the very best coaches for every individual athlete and to do even more to provide a culture of support and success . Over the coming weeks and months we cannot wait to show you what we are doing to allow these goals to come to fruition. 
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What are your big triathlon goals for 2017? Shoot us an email at [email protected] – we would love to hear about them!