Every sports team, company or business venture set goals for the short term and for the long term. The reason why those entities set goals is because they want to measure their success against something and without a goal that is not possible.
In 1997 I was playing in my second season as a contracted player and I had the privilege of playing in a great team. In 1996 we had very difficult season and Harry Viljoen was appointed as the head coach at Western Province Rugby. Harry was and still is a very astute businessman and the first thing he did was to get us in a room and plot the year ahead.
As a team we decided that we wanted to win the Currie Cup so that was our goal. We had many older more experienced players like Tommy Laubscher, Dick Muir, James Small, Gary Pagel and many more. We also had a group of young players who had come out of an unbeaten WP under 21 team. Myself, Percy Montgomery, Robbie Fleck, Hottie Louw, Selbourne Boome and the list goes on.
The end destination was to win the Currie Cup but there were many smaller short-term goals that we could aim at and we did. In October 1997 we won the Currie Cup final at Newland against a formidable Freestate team that had the likes of Os Durandt, Naka Drotsky, Werner Swanepoel, Helgard Muller, Brendan Venter and Andre Venter.
The reason why I am telling you this story is because nobody gave us a chance of winning the Currie Cup that year but that didn’t matter. What mattered was that as a group of players and management we had a very clear goal and all of us believed that we had the talent to win and that is exactly what we did. So why did I tell you this story? Definitely not to brag about the win but to demonstrate the following.
Why is it that in sports teams and in business we set goals but, on many occasions, we don’t set goals for ourselves in our daily lives. In business you set meetings and you either diarize them on your phone or if you are like me in your diary, yet we don’t do the same with our personal lives.
Do me a favor in 2023 and make place in your daily, weekly and monthly schedule for your family. Block your family members birthdays out and make plans to spend the morning or afternoon with them. Remember your anniversary and plan something romantic with your wife for the day or the weekend. Set personal goals for your health, work, friends, finances and your spirit and share them with your family. Celebrate small personal victories with your family as that will keep you motivated as you battle the distractions of daily life.
Enjoy the process and journey and remember that nobody is perfect so don’t be too hard on yourself. If you would like to get in touch with me for Debunking Motivation, please send an email to corne@cornekrige.com or look at my speaker sheet for more info. I also share my story on my social media pages on Facebook and LinkedIn.