Bruyneel’s Tweet

Johan Bruyneel had an excellent tweet on Twitter last week in between stages of the Tour de France. It’s a concept that I talk about all the time, especially when it comes to ironman racing and training. Johan wrote -  Accept – then act. Whatever the present moment contains, accept it as if you had chosen it. Always work with it, not against it.

Although this was probably intended for his riders in the Tour, one can easily find the real life applications in this approach on handling obstacles, road blocks, hurdles, or whatever you want to call the things that always seem to get in the way of what seemed to be the perfect game plan. My version of what to do should you become diverted from your initial plan, goes something like this;

Assess - Stop and access the specifics of the situation. Try to cut through the emotions and clutter and understand the true root of the problem.

Explore – Determine how many ways there may be to “fix” or remedy the situation and still receive the desired outcome.

Choose – Based on the options available, and the expected outcome, select the best option.

Adjust – Make whatever tweaks or adjustments are needed to the plan.

Move – Get yourself back on course and do not focus time or energy on what had gone wrong.

I know these sound like simple and logical steps. The problem is, in times of a crises, simplicity and logic can become obscured by anxiety, fear, anger, or any number of emotions which are counter productive to your ultimate goal.

For more on Johan visit www.johanbruyneel.com