Goals

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Goals are absolutely critical for your success – they start the process.  Setting a goal reveals your direction. It clarifies your choices.  It hones your focus.

Definition of Your Path and Your Direction

When you set a goal, you are by its very definition determining that you are going in this direction and you are not going in that direction.

[box type=”shadow”]Goal: the result or achievement toward which effort is directed; aim; end.[/box]

The more specific the goal is, the more defined your direction and the more options you have eliminated. I believe that’s a good thing. Very often people become completely paralyzed because they have so many choices, they don’t know where to start and so they just don’t … start….

In my experience with clients and in my own life, it is better to start down a road in a specific direction and change your mind than it is to wait until you know for sure. Very often, if you begin to move in a particular direction, you can discover information that you would never discover if you wait.

Finding out that this path is the wrong path is extremely useful information. You can decide what you don’t want, which can lead you to determine what you actually do want.

The information, skills and experiences you get from pursuit of the goal will make you much clearer about what you want. And in the process those experiences will greatly enhance your ability to create success once you clarify your path.

Don’t be afraid to say, “I want THIS” just because you might not like it when you get it.  Or you might not get it.

It is better to pursue your goal with integrity and honor, even if you don’t reach it, than to wait, procrastinate and hold yourself back, because you are not 100% sure you’ll succeed.

Say what you want clearly.  And then go after it!
[testimonial company=”All Star in Baseball and Football” author=”Bo Jackson” image=”http://dev.entrepreneurshipforathletes.com/wp-content/uploads/bo_jackson_football_baseball.jpg”]
Set your goals high, and don’t stop till you get there.
[/testimonial]

Preparation

Preparation

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When it comes to being successful as an entrepreneur, preparation for business is as important as practice is for your game.  Too often, players push the business management off to others to handle, and then wonder where the money went.

Being prepared to handle your money and your business is as important, if not more important than preparing for your game.  Because your career as an athlete will not last.  Statistically speaking:

[box type=”shadow”] “The average playing career for an NFL players is 3.5 years, the average MLB career is 5.6 years, the average NBA career is 4.8 years, and the average NHL career is 5.5 years. Playing in one of the major four American sports takes a toll on a person’s body that is nearly unfathomable.” Jeff Nelson [/box]

Which means that the majority of your adult life will be spend doing something OTHER than playing your sport.  Here’s another scary statistic:

[box type=”shadow”]”78 percent of NFL players are bankrupt or facing serious financial stress within two years of ending their playing careers and that 60percent of NBA players are broke within five years of retiring from the game.” Pro athletes often fumble the financial ball By Russ Wiles, Arizona Republic[/box]

So how do you make sure that your professional career as an athlete doesn’t end in bankruptcy?  You must prepare as hard to be an entrepreneur as you prepare to be an athlete.  Learn about business.  Learn about managing money.  Learn about building and managing a team.

You don’t have to do everything yourself.  Delegating is a key entrepreneurial skill.  But delegation is NOT abdicating.

[box type=”shadow”]Delegate: to commit (powers, functions, etc.) to another as agent or deputy.

Abdicate: to give up or renounce (authority, duties, an office, etc.), especially in a voluntary, public, or formal manner: [/box]

When you delegate, you are still responsible and the person you delegate to is accountable to you.  When you abdicate, you are no longer responsible.  It may feel easier and more comfortable to abdicate – because you have not properly prepared yourself.  The solution isn’t to give away your power over your business.

The solution is to prepare yourself as an entrepreneur.
[testimonial company=”25-year Head Coach of the Alabama Crimson Tide” author=”Bear Bryant” image=”http://dev.entrepreneurshipforathletes.com/wp-content/uploads/220px-Bear_Bryant.jpg”]
It’s not the will to win that matters—everyone has that. It’s the will to prepare to win that matters.
[/testimonial]

 

Self-Discipline

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As an athlete entrepreneur, the good news is you’re your own boss.  The bad news is you are your own boss!

When you’re a professional athlete, your life is highly structured.  You are told where to be, when.  You are told what to practice and how.  Your coaches are your bosses.

As an entrepreneur, you must create your own schedule, your own goals, your own deadlines and then hold yourself accountable to those goals, deadlines and schedules.  This requires self-discipline.

Matt Biondi, Persistence

Persistence

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Persistence is critical in both your success in your sport as well as your success in your business and your life.  As an athlete, persistence is what gets you to practice every day, to improve with each practice and to keep going when you get knocked down or knocked out.

In business, persistence is the thing that has you call again, when your first call isn’t returned.  It allows you to get back to work when a lead or opportunity doesn’t break your way.  And it’s what keeps you pushing toward your goal in the face of the obstacles, fears and considerations that are inevitable as you pursue success.
[box type=”shadow”]Persistence – persisting, lasting or enduring tenaciously, especially in spite of opposition, obstacles, discouragement, etc.; persevering[/box]

Very often, your ability to persist in the face of opposition, obstacles or fear, depends on what you say to yourself about those obstacles or fears.  So much depends on your internal dialogue.  If you say, “Here’s an obstacle, that must mean I’m doomed to fail.” then you will find persisting to be exhausting and close to impossible.

However, if, in the face of your fear, you say, “Here’s an obstacle, that must mean I’m on the right track to something huge.” You will find a way around the obstacle.  You will persist until you break through, tirelessly.

So, listen to your internal dialogue.  And find the words that will drive you forward through, around and beyond your fears, your obstacles and your opposition.
[testimonial company=”Eleven-time Olympic medalist, former world record-holder in five events” author=”Matt Biondi” image=”http://dev.entrepreneurshipforathletes.com/wp-content/uploads/Matt_Biondi_Swimmer.jpg”]
Persistence can change failure into extraordinary achievement[/testimonial]