Kevin Tiller

I just posted this note to LinkedIn :

Setting a huge scary goal – running 290km in Bangladesh

As Linkedin is a professional, career orientated website I thought I would start this discussion off with how setting sporting goals and working towards them can provide valuable lessons for your professional life. They are probably not separate – you are one person with a family, a career and various outside hobbies. So the way you approach GOALS in your hobbies should mimic how you set goals in your career. Yes ? No ? Maybe ? Well I want aim to be consistent, I am no different at work than how I am with my friends or my family – just an ordinary bloke doing his best.

I came across a great training goal that made me shiver a little bit. Its crazy, it won’t work! Impossible ! You. Have. Got. To. Be. Kidding. Then I ran the numbers and though  ..  maybe .. just maybe .. it might be possible. I discussed it with a few close friends who promptly said I was insane. I committed myself to the idea and my wife said I was CLEARLY having a midlife crisis. She wanted to slap me. Work colleagues thought I would kill myself !

Anyway I told everyone my plan so I was committed. They thought I was either totally insane or very impressive. But the cat was out of the bag – I am now in deep – too far to back out now.

The I began to doubt myself … maybe I can’t do it, maybe I can. Who knows? Why DID I open my big fat mouth. But I started training, hard, in the heat and especially when I didn’t want to. I hadn’t been so tired in years. I still have my doubts – THIS MAY NOT WORK AND I MIGHT FALL FLAT ON MY FACE. But sometimes that is exactly what’s required – a goal to push you further than you ever dreamt of pushing yourself ever before. Ever.

It’s so scary that it almost makes you feel physically agitated, but on the other hand, so scared that you just want to do that thing, for better or worse, knowing it will just be a memorable adventure, again for better or worse.

One week away from departure it’s almost too late to do any more training to actually help, its just hunkering down to go through the logistics one more time. What if this happens ? or this, or this or this ? What’s the worst possible scenario ? Failing to plan is planning to fail – that’s not me.

Ivan Turgenev summed up a good point “If we wait for the moment when everything, absolutely everything is ready, we shall never begin”. We just have to make enough plans but then we have to start, that’s the key – not thinking, not talking, but starting, then keep pushing through. We should not quit.

So my challenge is to run 290km from Kolkata India to Dhaka Bangladesh. It will be hot, but flat. Two Australian teachers ran it last year, so I KNOW it’s possible.