In 2009 as a sophomore at the US Military Academy, I went to my first Eastern Collegiate Cycling Conference (ECCC) championship with the Army Cycling Team. Our team had been racing all over the Northeast of the US for the last ten weekends in a row. We were exhausted, especially the seniors who endured an 85 mile road race on the first day. For the championship, about 20 cyclists on our team were competing against hundreds of other collegiate cyclists over the course of two days during three separate races. It was super exciting for me to be a part of and was my most memorable moment of the season. For the past year, we had been working out about two hours a day, including hours upon hours inside during the winter on stationary trainers. We had trained hard and were hoping to finally reap the rewards of all the work we put in.
The first event for the conference championship was a team time trial, and the second one on Saturday was a long road race out in the mountains of Pennsylvania. On that Sunday, we competed in a criterium race with a quick, mile-long loop that weaved through the poorly paved streets between Pennsylvania State University’s sorority and fraternity houses. Our men’s and women's teams raced across several different categories for that Sunday's races. The points from each of the three races would add up to decide where we finished the season and if we would qualify for the national championship.
The Army Cycling Team actually finished the season with a decent performance. We didn’t end up winning the conference championship though - the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) team won, but we finished toward the front of several races. Plus we qualified a team of both men and women to go compete at the national championship. Done racing for the year, I was sad that it was over. I didn’t accomplish my goals of placing in the top 10 consistently in races, but I was happy that I had improved drastically during my first season with the team. I went from crashing during my first race to consistently finishing with the peleton. What I didn’t fully understand was that the team had a much larger goal: to win the national collegiate cycling championship.
Our team’s results within the conference were probably below what they could have been if our focus was the conference championship. The training program our coach designed was supposed to completely exhaust us a few weeks before the national championship. Still, our fastest cyclists had a few weeks to recover. The plan was to peak in early May for nationals. So a couple weeks after the conference championships, our nationals team went off to Fort Collins, Colorado. We knew that MIT likely had the best team in the nation, but we thought we might still have a chance at beating them.
The Army Cycling Team went out and raced well. Yet some of the men did not perform at their peak level. They had overtrained early on in the season and were not at their top performance. Their individual goals were not aligned with the team goal. They had focused on winning single races and shining throughout the season. Maybe they didn’t dream big or believe that they could win as a team at the national championship. The Army Cycling Team did end up winning fourth place overall. But what would they have accomplished though if their goals were aligned and laser focused on winning nationals? Are you focusing on your big goals or putting too much effort into short-term wins that hold you back?
Jay Tiegs, my best friend from the Army, and I are writing a book on high performance frameworks to help people maximize their performance and crush their goals. Our hope is to empower others to become Goal Crushers. We don’t want you to fall short of your full potential. The step-by-step tactics we use and recommend are:
1. Make a bucket list. Getting all of your biggest dreams written down on paper or saved in a file is the first step. Keep these stored in a safe place and come back to them when you feel low on motivation.
2. Organize Your Goals. Sort your goals into the HARD lines of effort: Health, Affluence, Relationships, and Development. Then organize them by when you realistically would like to achieve each goal.
3. Triage Your Goals. Unfortunately, not all goals will make the cut. You only have so much time, so prioritize each one and identify the top two or three big goals you are going to focus on now.
4. Make Your Goals SMART. Define your big goals so they’re specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and timebound. Make a feasible timeline with milestones that will keep you on track.
5. Identify High Yield Activities. For each goal, determine where you will have the most leverage for focusing your time and effort. What small things can you do that will make big results?
Once you’ve made a clear plan to achieve your top goals, then you can focus on the details and discipline of crushing them. Clarity on your big goals and how you will accomplish them allows you to move forward with confidence. This is the mentality of a Goal Crusher.