Don't do it by yourself!

My family is crazy (I’m sure they will love me putting this in here) but they really are. I remember vividly the moment in my life when this was confirmed. I was competing in my second Ironman and had completed the 3.8km swim and I was around the 100km mark in the bike leg. At this stage of the race I found myself in the middle of nowhere and starting to feel a little tired. The long straight roads seemed to be never-ending  and my mind was starting to struggle.

I made a slight turn in the road and off in the distance there was a group of people dressed in wild outfits with bright wigs to match and the noise they were generating was like there were hundreds of them, not the actual five that were there. They seemed to be giving every single athlete the support they needed as they passed by them.

The closer I got to this bunch of misfits the more I realised who they were. Around 500 meters before I got to them another athlete road beside me and said, ‘aren’t these guys great, they’re crazy!’, I turned to him and with pride said ‘yeah, that’s my family’. When I road past them they gave me the greatest boost which made me forgot about the struggle I was having and I’ll of a sudden I was smiling from ear to ear.

While trying to achieve a goal can be a personal journey, we all need some level of support from those around us to do achieve it.  We don’t have to do this by ourselves and you’ll find that you’ll do a much better job if you can recruit a team of great people who understand what you are trying to achieve, how they can help and what you need from them to help you grow.

When you sit down to plan a goal ask yourself who can help you achieve success and how will they do this? By communicating your goal and needs with these people all of a sudden you’ll feel that you have a team of people around you that are lifting you up on their shoulders.

I know I couldn’t have achieved any of my goals in my life if I hadn’t had the amazing support team that is my crazy friends and family.