I am involved in rowing and am very fortunate to be involved with coaching 2 very motivated and talented athletes. We were at a rowing regatta recently where the lads found themselves racing 5 times as they made it through to the final of both their events. By the time their fifth race and second final of the day came along, they were exhausted, so I asked them to just focus on the first 5 minutes of the 8minute race, race well for 5minutes and see what happens. My belief was that if they just focused on the first 5 minutes and found that they were still in contention to win, this would be enough to motivate them to keep going. Well, I was wrong. As soon as they hit the 5minute mark, fatigue set in and the other competitors pulled away from them. This got me thinking that perhaps by asking them to just focus on the first 5 minutes of the race, was I setting their targets too low.

In business, what are you aiming for? What are you focused on? Will you be successful if you achieve what you are currently focusing on?

Ever stop to think about what or who is setting your targets and goals. If your target is to increase sales by 10%, chances are at best you may achieve 12-13% increases. Ever stop to think what would happen if you raised the bar to 20%, 50% or even 100% increase in sales? I do a bit of weights training and I find that if my target is to do 10 bench pulls, I will just about manage to do 10 however when I set myself the target to do 20 bench pulls, I will do 20. It may take a little longer but it certainly is achievable.

Sometimes we put a ceiling on what we want to achieve and that ceiling can be quiet low. Our results and the outcomes we achieve are determined by what we aim for. If we aim for mediocre improvement, we will get mediocre results however if we aim for massive improvement, we will get massive results.

In what areas of your business, could your targets be higher? Where are you setting limits on yourself and what your Company expects to achieve? What targets and limits have you set for targets in sales, cost savings, productivity gains, moving to a bigger office, making meetings more effective and absenteeism. If your current cost savings target is 10% in 12 months, could it be 20% in 6 months? If your absenteeism rate is 5% now, could it be 1%.

Ask yourself a question; you will always get an answer. Sometimes the questions we ask are too conservative and will not bring the success that we deserve.

So here is my challenge to you. Commit in writing to recording (a) What am I / is my company aiming for now? (b) In what areas will I / my Company aim higher. Please feel free to send me an email with your findings in strict confidence if it will help you follow through on what you have written.

Remember: We are 7 times more likely to follow through on something we commit to someone else than we are on something we commit to ourselves.

Fergal O’Connor is a Business and Personal Life Coach working in partnership with his Business and Private clients providing a supportive, confidential, challenging and non-judgemental environment to make their ambitions and dreams a reality. Fergal also facilitates a range of Management training programs and is available for public speaking engagements. Fergal can be contacted at Synergy Coaching Services, Tel: (061) 467287, email This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Copyright © 2006 Synergy Coaching Services.