• tonydorigo
  • Blog
  • December 9, 2024

Cycling Challenge

𝗖𝘆𝗰𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗖𝗵𝗮𝗹𝗹𝗲𝗻𝗴𝗲 – 𝗪𝗲𝗺𝗯𝗹𝗲𝘆 𝘁𝗼 𝗟𝗮 𝗠𝗮𝗻𝗴𝗮!

I was fortunate to experience elite-level football, which teaches you much about yourself, teamwork, and leadership. The constant pressure cooker of the media, the fans, and the very public assessment every few days is unique and, once retired, can’t be replicated.

There are plentiful transferrable lessons for business, but can a successful businessperson be immersed, at least partly, in the psyche of professional sports?

Many years ago, I did a charity bike ride for breast cancer with four other ex-professional footballers, along with nine others from different walks of life. Wembley to La Manga in Spain, nearly 100 miles daily for 14 consecutive days. One particular rider, a very successful businessman, did get to experience something that he would never forget.

It was the most challenging day, and we had to get up and go over the Pyrenees. Constant switchbacks going upwards splintered the group as we all just tried to pedal at our own ‘survival’ speed. After many hours, the riders arrived at the summit at different intervals; we started to cheer the next rider home.

We had all arrived except for one. Looking back down the mountain, we couldn’t see him anywhere. As a group, we decided to walk down the mountain, find him, and cheer him on to the finish. After walking quite a way down, we spotted him, shin and knee bleeding, grinding his way towards us at a snail’s pace and wanting to give up. If he had gone any slower, he would have come to a complete stop and toppled over.

For the next 20 minutes, the 13 finished riders cajoled and encouraged our beleaguered businessman up the mountain. We looked like a bunch of hyenas around this poor dead-tired cyclist.

However, he was one of us, and there was no way we could not all get up that mountain. He found energy he didn’t know he had and reached the summit, tired but deliriously delighted, with us wildly celebrating his achievement.

At that moment, he understood—he was part of a team, it was our Team, and we were stronger together.

#Teamwork #DreamTeam #Motivation #Leadership

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  • tonydorigo
  • Blog
  • December 6, 2024

Trust the right Process

Trust the Process – but are you utilising the right one?

Your mindset is crucial in your professional and personal life. It’s not always easy to focus on the right thing, so we often meander along daily doing broadly similar things to what we’ve done before.

Now and then, we stop, think, and decide to do something different. The New Year’s Resolution syndrome is coming up quickly – it’s time to join a gym! At the gyms I’ve gone to, you get an influx of new members in January that slowly dissipates over the coming weeks and months. We all know how that ends, but why?

Our focus is heavily weighted on the result rather than the process. Instead, changing your mindset enhances personal fulfilment, and the likelihood of achieving your goals will skyrocket.

Using the gym membership analogy, say your goal is losing weight.  After 5 or 6 sessions, you find that you’ve not lost 1 pound – you get demotivated and end up going less, and eventually, you start searching for cancellation terms! 😊

Instead, think about committing to leading a fit and healthy lifestyle. In this context, you can have goals, but they should be process-driven rather than results-driven. If you commit to that mindset/lifestyle long enough, the goal of losing x pounds will take care of itself.

A few process-orientated goals would be:

  • Focus on eating a balanced diet
  • A gym/fitness/cardio session 3 times a week
  • Sleep 7-8 hours each night
  • Hydration goal each day

These need to become habits rather than exceptions. Trust the process, and then our gym-goers’ goals will take care of themselves, as the changes will be sustainable.

So, think before you take up your local gym’s New Year offer!

#Motivation #Mindset #TrustTheProcess

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  • tonydorigo
  • Blog
  • December 4, 2024

Stop to Smell the Roses

Enjoy the Ride and Stop to Smell the Roses

I remember encountering a very successful entrepreneur some years ago, and I was fascinated to learn how he built and sold his company for over £100 million.

For all the nuggets of knowledge I garnered from him, the biggest surprise was how he felt after selling out and achieving his lifetime goal. He didn’t experience that Eureka moment; he understood and realised that his absolute joy was not receiving a substantial financial reward when selling up but building his business with the team of people he did it with.

Focusing on the end game is an easy mistake. You can spend years trying to achieve your goal, but it’s done instantly when it’s finally completed!

I played football from 3 years of age, and it wasn’t until I was 26 that I won the now Premier League with Leeds – it took 23 years of training and a blow of a referee’s whistle to signal the achievement. However, I loved the process of training and playing football.

In my keynote or workshop sessions, I discuss ensuring that a key function of your role is one that you enjoy—if not, you’re in the wrong job! Trust that the correct process over time will reap rewards, but that journey can be long and arduous.

So, it’s even more critical that we enjoy the ride and stop to smell the roses. Enjoy the experiences you go through, embracing both the highs and lows. It’s about being present and savouring each moment, no matter what it brings amid life’s busyness.

My entrepreneur found joy in the everyday moments with his team when building his business; maybe that was the lesson to learn. We need a balanced perspective that reminds us to find joy in the everyday moments while pursuing our goals. Trust and commit to the right processes, and then good things happen.

Enjoy the ride!

#Motivation #Mindset #TrustTheProcess #EnjoyTheRide

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  • tonydorigo
  • Blog
  • December 2, 2024

Trust The Process Meaning

What Does Trust The Process Mean?

In Sports and Business, many leaders talk about trusting the process. One solution might be a short-term fix, but this may only mask the issue. Trusting the process is the only way to sustain medium—to long-term growth and performance.

It also requires patience and commitment, as results don’t miraculously appear overnight. Golf is a sport where this is visually evident. Players will work away for hours and hours with their swing coach, strength and conditioning coach, sports psychologist, and backroom team. Mind and body are strong, flexible, and balanced. The swing has been grooved by endless ball hitting and analysis of swing plane and speed.

However, how can all this practice turn into performance under pressure? By diligently following another level of the process. Watch any top-class professional golfer before taking their shot, whether driving off the tee, hitting an iron from the fairway, or putting on the green. They repeat their particular ‘routine’, trusting a preconceived process that, over time, will stand up to the pressures of top-level golf.

When putting, a player might look at the line from both sides, take two practice swings, visualise the shot, and then putt. And he might miss. The next time he putts, he will do it the same way, as he trusts the process.

In layman’s terms, trust the process generally means:

1 – Focus on the Journey: It emphasises the importance of the steps and experiences leading to an outcome rather than the final result.

2 – Embrace Uncertainty: The path will be filled with challenges and uncertainties, encouraging you to remain optimistic despite difficulties.

3 – Value Growth: Even when progress seems slow or invisible, the experiences and lessons learned contribute to personal development.

4 – Stay Committed: Perseverance and commitment remind you that consistent effort and patience are vital for long-term success.

Have faith that your efforts will yield positive results, even if they aren’t immediately evident.…..or the ball doesn’t drop in the hole!

#TrustThe Process #Patience #Growth

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