On the 25th of November 2022, I crossed the finish line of the UTCT 23km in 4 hours and 53 minutes just missing out on the time I’d set for myself of 4 hours and 44 minutes by 9 minutes.
The honest truth is that, though I was delighted to cross the line, I was not surprised that I did it because short of injury there could be no other outcome.
Let’s rewind 3 months so I can explain how I got to a place where I could make such a statement.
On the morning of the 14th of August, I was struck by the reality that life could no longer carry on the way it was going. It was a Sunday, I remember because I was hungover from a heavy Saturday night, I weighed 127,5kgs and it just didn’t feel good to be alive.
There was a point in my distant past when I played rugby professionally so I know what it feels like to be at the peak of physical conditioning and the morning of the 14th was definitely not it. The morning of the 14th felt more like being run over by a freight train.
A lot had changed in my post-rugby years. I had grown lazy. Grilled chicken breasts had now been replaced with Chicken McNuggets and protein shakes had now made way for pints of beer. The only thing I had to show for my post-rugby lifestyle were 30 extra kilograms around the waist, a few health issues and a severe lack of motivation in my day-to-day life.
I did try several times over the years to lose weight, eat more healthily and become active once again. These attempts would last a few days and would fade into the background any time someone suggested a Wacky Wednesday or invited me out for a happy hour drink.
All this changed on the 14th of August 2022. I could no longer stand the person I saw in the mirror, I was tired of pulling my tummy in when it was time to take a photo for the gram and walking up the 6 flights of stairs to my flat was all becoming too much.
From that day up until the race, I have run 531km, done 75 gym sessions (5 sessions a week), spent just over 30 hours doing yoga and lost 15kgs…
Even though I am not where I want to be, I am far from where I started. I am setting bigger goals now and am more than confident that I will achieve them.
There are three things I’ve learned along the way that’ve successfully helped me turn my life around. You too can use these pillars to achieve anything you want in any field of life.
Once you build the foundation for them, you really can achieve what you set your mind to. It’s the commitment to them that separates the all-time greats from the ordinary.
1. Consistency: Show up every single day
Success is in the details of the process, not the outcome of the result.
We often tend to look at successful people and think: “I want to replicate their success.”
That’s great. But while you’re marvelling at the tip of the iceberg, have you considered what’s standing underneath the surface of the ocean? There’s a mountain you must first climb — and you can only do it one day at a time.
The first pillar of success is consistency. And the way to consistency begins is by building the right system for your goal.
What’s the difference between a system and a goal?
A goal is a target you want to achieve while the system is the process you put in place to help you achieve it. Goals tell you where you want to go; they’re focused on tomorrow. Systems tell you what you need to do every day to get there; they’re focused on today.
The secret to building a great system is to focus on small consistent wins. And in order to create small consistent wins, you need to show up every single day. Whether you feel like it or not, that doesn’t matter. What matters is that for this day — today — you put in the required number of reps. You logged in the hours. You practised. You improved.
This is what Darren Hardy describes in The Compound Effect: “Success is small, seemingly insignificant steps completed consistently over time” that will compound to create a radical difference in the future. Consistency, then, is about respecting the process and playing the long game.
2. Persistence: Willingly rise back up after failures
The road to success is bumpy.
It’s easy to give up on a goal. It’s easy to fall short of our ambitions and think maybe it wasn’t meant to be.
Here’s a reality check: Nothing is meant to be. You make what’s meant to be.
If you want to succeed, you need to be persistent, and the only way to persist lies in your ability to change your perspective.
If you’ve tried opening 10 different doors to your goals, then you haven’t failed 10 different times. You’ve found 10 different ways in which the process doesn’t work. You’re not 10 steps behind, you’re 10 steps closer to your goal.
If persistence is the cloak that cradles your faith, perspective is the fabric that weaves it together. Persistence and the resilient willingness to rise back up after getting knocked down is the second pillar of success.
Setbacks are the natural path to success. When you understand that success is not a linear equation, you’ll begin to see the beauty of setbacks. You’ll realise that failure is not a sign of defeat.
Failure is nothing more than constructive feedback on how not to do things. Failure is the way. What you perceive as an impediment to your advancement is what advances you.
“Most people knock on the door of their dreams once, then run away before anyone has a chance to open the door. But if you keep knocking, persistently and endlessly, eventually the door will open.”
Les Brown
3. Community: Build a supportive environment
I didn’t do it alone. In my personal context, I am part of a trail running community. My people have collectively helped me learn more about running, have shown me the way when things seemed difficult and have celebrated my accomplishments with me as I celebrate theirs with them.
I do not know what your personal goals are but you should find a community of people who are heading down the same path as you. people who will celebrate you and encourage you to be better than yesterday.
Success is not an individual game. Success is a team game.
There’s an African proverb that reads:
“If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.”
The final pillar of success is community.
Invest ample time and energy into building a supportive, empowering, and uplifting environment for yourself so that when you fall, you won’t crash on the floor, you’ll be immediately caught and spring-boarded back upward onto your mission. As Epictetus, the Stoic philosopher wrote: “The key is to keep company only with people who uplift you, whose presence calls forth your best.”
What it Takes to Achieve Real Success in Life
Life has taught me this: All great successes are realised by people who have unparalleled self-belief, the willpower of commitment, and the ability to really cut back and sacrifice for greater ambition.
But here’s the unspoken secret to success, and it’s this:
Do it for yourself.
Don’t do it for others, do it for yourself. Relentlessly pursue a goal that is authentically yours because that’s the only passage through which you can fully channel your intrinsic motivation to be consistent and persistent, and to build a community around that dream.
You have to really want that one thing and it has to come from your heart. It has to be something you genuinely crave to master. Something that brings you joy. Something that allows you to contribute more meaning to our world. That’s the only way you’ll be willing to stick with it for the next 10 years.
Not many people understand this, and that’s why they keep failing to achieve their goals. Don’t make the same mistake. Don’t do it for fame or money or for someone else’s approval. Do it because you cannot live without it. Do it because it has the power to positively impact someone’s life. Do it for yourself.
So what’s the vision that you’re working toward over the next decade?
Be very specific about what you want to achieve, commit to it, and then go out and make it happen.