OH! Magazine - Australian Version June 2016 | Page 20

(Performance Coaching)

RAMP IT UP
BREAK IT DOWN
Greg Sellar shares his tips to help you move successfully towards your goals.
tarting any new journey, whether
in your career, life or health, can
sometimes feel like trying to turn a Fiat
into a Ferrari. Often the end ‘success’
picture seems so far away that we
sabotage a perfectly good ‘work in
progress’.

S

Here are a few things you can do while in
this state:
•

Rather than focusing explicitly on the
end product, why not break it down into
achieveable milestones? At least that
way, you can enjoy the journey towards
your goals.
•
The best place to start is to identify where
you’re at right now. It’s no use trying to go
for it if you haven’t analysed how ready
you are to change; because if you’re not
ready, you’ll fall off the wagon for sure.
•
The three states of inertia
I’ve identified three states of inertia and
an ideal state of being. The three states
typically stop us from getting where we
want to be, while the final state is the
destination we’re all after. Sounds easy,
right? Let’s see.
1. The Inanimate
At this point you don’t know what you
don’t know. You’re at ‘unconscious
incompetence’ and you’re wallowing in
the status quo. To remain here, you
accept your current situation, however
tragic, and if you’re not accepting of it,
you’re indecisive over the steps to haul
yourself out of it.

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JUNE 2016 ( OH! MAGAZINE )

Don’t wait for motivation – take
action and the motivation will come.
Too often we use a lack of motivation
as the reason for not doing anything,
but it really should be the other way
around. When you take action, you
often become motivated by the
results, allowing you to take more
action and ramp it up even faster.
Ask yourself, ‘What’s stopping me
from taking action right now?’ Don’t
worry about the things you can’t
control. The only thing you can
control in any situation is you!

worse) are often sailing up the ‘river of
denial’. These folks don’t fool me; I
believe they secretly would love to change
once they’re given the right tools. Tips to
try during this state include:
•

Ask yourself these two questions:
‘What is it that I want, which I don’t
have?’ and ‘What is it I have and
don’t want?’ Write your answers
down in two separate boxes on a
piece of paper. The idea is to
minimise or get rid of the things you
don’t want, and set some goals
around what you do want.

•

Follow the ‘If This, Then That’
principle to find a decent reward
that you’re going to give yourself
once you’ve achieved your goal. An
example might be ‘If I commit to
losing two per cent body fat by
Christmas, I will shout myself to a
holiday in Thailand.’ That will get
you emotionally involved in the game
around ramping up your training and
healthy eating.

•

Understand whether you’re indifferent
to your current situation because you
fear failure or because you fear
success. Some people are driven by
their skill level and will not take action
because they fear they might look or
feel incompetent. Others are so
ingrained in the status quo that they
fear the changes that will result from
ramping it up and undertaking a new
journey. Which side do you fall on?

See a coach or mentor – find someone
you admire who has been on the
journey you want to embark on. Part
of ‘breaking it down’ is getting advice
or knowledge from those in the know.

Make a plan – remember, failing to plan
= planning to fail. Ramp it up by including
SMART goals (i.e. make sure each goal is
Specific,
Measurable,
Achievable,
Results-oriented and Time-based).
2. The Indifferent
Here you’re at ‘conscious incompetence’,
(i.e. you know you need to change but
haven’t and appear happy with that
‘below the line’ situation). I say ‘appear’,
because from my experience, people who
say they’re okay with mediocrity (or