16 Weeks to Success

Six weeks ago, I began a journey to success. 

Many successful entrepreneurs do not become 'overnight' successes over night.  It is the journey that really creates the success.  After many frustrating nights of 'not making it', I decided to take a new approach in my journey. 

I ran my first marathon at age 30 and have run 2 to 3 marathons since then; that's 7 marathons in 3 years.  An amazing feat some would say.  It's actually pretty amazing to me, too.  I mean that's at least 24 weeks of training, and last year, it was 33 weeks of training.  Ugh!  My body was beaten, broken and tired by the last marathon.  But the point is, I did it.  After completing those three marathons last year, I decided that I would complete a business marathon. 

I started this 'business marathon' at the beginning of 2011.  I guess it's a kind of New Year's resolution.  This resolution is my training, and I am going to complete it, just like I would complete the training for any one of my marathons.  Okay, so how do I begin?  Good question!

Because I am not at the point I want to be at in business, I decided to take something that I know and translate it into business.  I know how to train for marathons.  So I thought, why don't I take what I already know about marathon training and track my progress like I would my marathons.

First step, write out a 16-week 'training' schedule.  Writing down my goals is key to acquiring the success I want to achieve.  And to keep me on track, I coined the training as "16 Weeks to Success: In Health, Fitness and Business."  I wrote down my top 3 goals in each of these categories - health, fitness, business - and then broke it down by what I needed to do in each of the 16 weeks. 

Second step, I knew I had to track my results.  So, I decided to track my goals and actual results in a journal and share my successes and failures with my coaches and business partners. 

Thirdly, I have realized that this is not much different than my marathon training.  Every Sunday I sit down with my journal and write the goals for each week that I had set at the beginning of the year.  In successive weeks, I sit down and write down the results from the previous week and my goals for the upcoming week.  This is such an important task - I started thinking of this Sunday night task as a CEO meeting to get me started for the upcoming week. 

Just like in marathon training, there are peaks and valleys in this business marathon training.  For instance, at the end of week five, I did not sit down and write down my results for week five and my goals for week six.  Instead of going into week six with a firm grasp of what I needed to do, I was heading into the week without any goals written down.  I had to hunker down and try to hit my goals (whatever they might be) for the week.  This created confusion; yet the desire to succeed was greater than ever. 

The results at the end of week six were outstanding.  Without going into details, I will say that I powered through the week and completed my journal entries on Sunday.  On the fitness side, I completed a 10-mile run on Saturday.  More than half-way through the run, I wanted to quit.  I started telling my coach how much pain I was in and that I was not enjoying myself.  Then, I started thinking about my success journey - 16 Weeks to Success.  And I remembered that this is typical in marathon training.  In the middle of the training schedule, I almost always feel the need - aka want - to give up, and it usually hits in the weeks four to six.  I knew that once I could make it through these tough weeks, I would make it to the end of the 16 weeks.

So, here I go.  I made it through week six.  And I am excited about my upcoming success.  I am even more excited about the journey and sharing it with others.

Shotguns and Rodeos

This past week has taught me a lot about life, my family and shotguns. 

Last week, I lost my grandfather - who lost his long battle with cancer.  He was a prominent physician in the area; so prominent that very few didn't know him personally or know of him.  He was a great man.

His death brought the entire family together for a week's worth of activities.  Some of these family members I see so infrequently that it was a blessing to see them and spend time with them, despite the exhaustion that came with all the visits.  One of these visits included a trip to my aunt and uncle's ranch south of town near Butte Community College - to shoot clay pigeons.

I have never shot a shotgun before and hadn't the slightest clue about what I was doing.  Fear ran through my veins as shotgun ammo was placed by my teacher in the pockets of my sweatshirt, but only briefly.  I knew I would be faced with the question, "Sara, you ready?"

So, I stepped up and said, "Yes!  Let's do it."  But I needed a lesson from my teacher.  Nick had taught me how to climb a rock wall before, so I knew he could help me with this next venture.

After a short lesson from a great teacher, I grabbed the shotgun and called out, "Pull."  I honestly don't remember if I hit the first pigeon.  Pretty sure I missed.  But it didn't matter.  I did it.  I shot the shotgun.

"Pull," I sang out again.  This time it was a hit. 

Several rounds and close to 200 clay pigeons later, we called it and headed into the house for some turkey chili and family visiting. 

The next day would bring the last day of this hectic and emotional week of hanging with the crazy family.  It was rodeo time.

In our family, we have a resident rodeo star.  There is nothing this 15-year-old can't do, especially when it comes to goat-tying; she is the international goat-tying champion.

Three of us made the drive to Cottonwood to watch Courtney ride three different horses and claim her spot to Challenge - not knowing much about rodeo, this is a big deal.  The couple of hours we spent at the rodeo, I was reminded of gymnastics and track meets when I was in high school.  Suddenly, I felt very old.

So what did I take home from the crazy family induced week full of visiting, food, drink, shotguns and rodeo?

I learned that life is too short not to take risks and chances.  It may be exhausting, but the results are worth the effort expended.  All I need to do is remind myself to breathe, eat well and keep pushing to that point just beyond my comfort level.  Keep reminding myself, "Pain is in the vicinity of victory."  Just like in running; the finish line seems just too many steps away. 

I have never not finished a race, and I don't plan to quit now.  I am forging a new path to victory to create a legacy that may be worthy of my late grandpa and even my younger rodeo queen cousin.