“Will It Make the Boat Go Faster?”

I recently heard a talk from the great Ben Hunt-Davis, who was one of the Olympic Gold Medalists of the British Rowing Team in the 2000 Summer Olympics. His message was simple yet profound and has solidified a line of thinking that has been forming in my mind over the last few weeks. Namely, what do I want in life and what do I need to become in order to achieve those dreams.

Before winning the gold, the British Rowing Team had suffered a number of defeats. After a rather disappointing loss the team went out to drink their sorrows away (such was their custom) and came to the realization that with every failure they would simply go back to their same old routine with the simple resolve to work harder. There was no reflection, no insight, and therefore no real improvement; however, that was no longer the case.

As Ben described it, this realization finally prompted a change. Many of these changes were profound and will be covered in greater detail later, but the ultimately decision they made was the resolute focus one question “Will it make the boat go faster?” The looked at everything through this lens and if the answer to anything was “no” they cut it out and stopped doing it. If the answer was “yes” they worked hard to improve at it.

This prompted me to think, what exactly are my “boats” in life? I have many dreams, aspirations, and goals; yet I have never written them down. I have never truly made the decision to follow through on any of them. As a result I tend to wander through life in an aimless fashion. There is enough self-awareness enough to SEE that I am being lead through life by my prior decisions, poor belief systems, faulty self-image, and other people; however, I have thus far lacked the clarity of focus to change any of these things. It is past time for me to start asking myself the big questions: What is important to me? What do I want for my life? What disciplines do I need to implement? What current habits do I need to break, because they are slowing me down? In short, what choices do I have to make to achieve what I want?