Last year after a swimming race, a group of us were standing by the warm-down pool talking loudly about USRPT (ultra short race pace training) – the next big thing, maybe. A friend of mine – who is a competitor of mine but who also coached me for a short while – stubbornly insisted that he’s not going to recommend it unless he’s tried it on himself first. He didn’t care that US Olympians were using it. He asserted that experimenting on himself was his approach for everything, whether training, supplements or equipment.
I agreed with his approach, and the idea trickled into the back of my mind, and rested there until earlier this year when we were talking about objectives at work. It was clear that we needed to improve the way we wrote objectives, because we needed more clarity about what we were intending to do, and to know when we’ve achieved our objectives. Writing an objective might sound straightforward, but it’s actually a fine art to get it right, I discovered.
OKRs (Objectives and Key Results) are often used as an effective framework to bring a team together and focus their direction and their energy, like a laser beam, towards a challenging and ambitious goal. I was keen to implement it, but I thought back to my friend and coach. Did I really have the right to recommend this to the team? Shouldn’t I at least try it on myself first? (If that’s even possible). After all, apart from setting objectives for swimming, I had never set any objectives for myself.
I figured that I would experiment on myself, so this is a journey about the art of objectives, a van and a surf trip – but how on earth can they be related?
About the van:
Recently, I was at a mechanic’s waiting for my alternator to be fixed. I espied a white VW Transporter at the end of the parking lot for sale. I went over and inspected it.
The salesman came over and said that I should take her for a ride.
I’ve been dreaming about getting one of these for a very long time, I told him.
I gladly took the keys and drove her to a car park on the coast. I looked at the van and I could imagine a sleeping bag and surfboard in the back, opening the back door in the morning to a view overlooking the ocean! A sea breeze. A coffee on the gas stove. Freedom!
When I got back to the garage, the salesman offered a good price if I traded in my car which had now been fixed.
It was a good opportunity and a good price. They’re in high demand so it’ll be gone by next week.
I scratched my chin.
I thought back to some of the objectives that I had recently written for myself. Buying a VW Transporter van was not actually one of my priorities right now. Nor was going on surfing trips for that matter! Come to think about it: How many times had I been surfing in the past three years? Precisely zero times. How many places can I park overnight in England? Precisely zero. Not only that, my surfboard still had a rip down the middle from the last time I went surfing which was just before my daughter was born, precisely three years ago!
I remembered that I had other objectives for which to use my saved up money for. Convinced by my own decision, I said no to the van and concluded that I nonetheless needed to fix that surfboard. I had been meaning to do it for three years.
I put ‘fix surfboard’ and ‘buy epoxy’ on my to-do list.
That evening, as I was looking at my to-do list, I noticed that, I had written ‘organise solo-trip’ and it was now near the top of my to-do list. I had this overwhelming feeling that I needed to do a solo trip of some sort. I had a need for ‘aloneness’. Time towards reconnecting with nature, experiencing the wild (not the savage, but the wild), a journey to the unknown, and seeking that inner oneness. Finding that spirit of the inner wolf. About time I do something about that. I decided to commit.
About a week later, as I was sanding the dried epoxy on my surfboard outside on one warm summer evening, I was thinking about what to do for my solo trip. Maybe I should go surfing? I pondered and then it clicked – as if it wasn’t already obvious. I don’t need to buy a stupid van to do that! How about I do a solo trip and just sleep in my car for a few nights?
I went to the garage with my inflatable mattress, swung down the seats and lay down. I could fit! Even at 6’2 I could lie flat. Why hadn’t I thought of this earlier?
I then planned the trip. I would go around Wales with my board following the waves, hike if there’s no surf, and sleep where I want. I chose a date, booked time off, got the thumbs up from the family, and set everything up to leave as soon as I got back from Spain. I was utterly determined. I had found a trail and I was on it.
And then … maybe it was coincidence, but all sorts of other things were going to be happening at the same time. Children’s birthday parties, weddings, baby showers. All sorts. I had to say no to the lot.
Even when I told friends about my idea, their faces all lit up with eagerness, and I could sense that they, too, needed to do something similar and for the same reasons. Deep down, I could feel myself wanting to say ‘come along’, but I was determined to do a solo trip, knowing what the purpose was.
But despite my best intentions and preparation, my little trip was stopped by none other than the British Government! Because I had been in Spain before my planned solo trip, I had to quarantine upon my return, thus missing my opportunity or face a fine. I felt disheartened that despite my determination, I couldn’t even pull off something as minor as a short trip!
Set back, I decided to rebook my flights and stay on a few days longer in Spain. But, my good friend Craig, hearing my predicament, and knowing my aims, suggested we do a few days of surfing in Spain, and we can sleep in his van.
So I didn’t get to do a solo-trip but I did get to sleep in a van. It was kind of the wrong way round. I figured I’d do a solo trip at a later point, with or without surfboard.
We drove off to the coast, parked up, assessed the waves then grabbed our boards and walked intothe cool and highly oxgenated Atlantic ocean. The late afternoon sun shone on our backs as we paddled out to sea. From there, floating on deep water, we could look back and see the coastline stretch as far as the eye could see. Mountains in the distance. The waves formed on the horizon beneath the orange sun. We made our way closer to the roaring white waves. Back in the wild.
It turned out to be good to surf with a friend because, as I came to realise, I had lost a lot of confidence at the lineout. I kept missing waves and bailing because I became intimated either by the height of the waves (some of the waves were too big for me) or the fact that there were some confident surfers out there who called the waves and took them. Craig said I should just flunk some waves deliberately just to ‘get over it’.
He said, flunk it.
I said, watch me.
Watch me flunk this wave. So that’s what I did. I tried flunking it and ended up surfing it. Again, kind of the wrong way round. But in the process I overcame my fear and I had my confidence back. I flunked plenty more after that, and even surfed a few. But it was good to be back in that energetic water, still reverberating from the storms in the Mid-Atlantic. We were buzzing afterwards.
After surfing, we cooked a stew next to the van, cracked open some beers and came up with a good idea (but that’s another story which I’ll write about soon). Of course, that idea was linked to an objective we both had in common.
Objectives
A good objective leads you towards your ‘north star’. How we get there cannot be known beforehand but we need to know what constitutes completion (the key results we are looking for). The main inspiration for my journey came after I read the book, ‘Radical Focus’, by Christine Wodtke.
When I started experimenting with my own objectives for my own life, I figured that I would write one for these parts of my life:
- Family & relationships
- Work & Career
- Finance
- Hobbies
- Sport
- Creativity
- Life and home
- Spirit and mind
To have a fulfilling life we need to cater for all these areas. In my life, many of these areas had been neglected for the past few years. I was completely out of balance. Koyanaskatsi. For example, I remember writing down a list of twenty activities that I enjoy doing. Next to each acitivity, I wrote down the last time I had done that activity. In some cases it was years ago. I needed to change that, too.
My objectives were aspirational, exciting and were only about four or five words long, so that I could easily remember them. Then, I had three or four measures of success for each one (or ‘key results’ in business-speak).
Those key results they were ambitious enough to make me go uff, can I do this?. It felt like the sight of a big wave approaching. But that was good. That uff is exactly what you want (so long as the wave isn’t too big).
Here’s an example from sport (which isn’t too personal).
Obj: Strong as ever, fit as ever
Key results:
- 120 Kg benchpress
- Enter National swimming competition
- 23s 50 f/s
- Enter one open water competition
(I haven’t achieved any of this by the way, so I need to review it).
At any rate, I gave each objective a colour.
And then to progress towards those objectives, I created a simple Kanban board (using Trello) with the following columns:
Objectives | To do| Doing (max 3) | Done
The objectives list was static. They were there as a reminder of my objectives. The other columns were updated regularly.
I populated my backlog with a few things that were on my mind. I colour coded any task according to its corresponding objective (as mentioned above) e.g. all creative tasks were coded black, financial stuff yellow. Importantly, every task had to be linked to an objective and work towards fulfilling it. If they weren’t linked, I simply wouldn’t do it.
Every week I committed to doing just three things (a WIP score in business speak). And I would make sure that they would get done, no matter what in that week.
What’s the reference to the van and the surfing trip?
In her book, Radical Focus, Christine Wodtke talks about the Greek mythology of Atalanta who insisted that her suitor must beat her in a race if he wanted to marry her. Knowing he wouldn’t be able to beat her, one of her suitors, Melanion, sought the help from Aphrodite who advised him that he should place three golden apples throughout the race to distract Atalanta. Lo and behold, during the race, Atalanta became distracted by the golden apples, and sought them. This gave Melanion sufficient time to reach the line, win the race and claim her.
In my story, the golden apple was the van. It was a distraction. But only because I had my eye on my objectives and priorities, was I able to recognise this as a distraction.
Was the solo surfing trip the objective? No. My true objective was reconnecting with nature and finding an inner peace. The solo surfing trip was simply a stepping stone towards my objective. There are many ways to achieve my objective and I cannot know what the route will be from the start.
And as I found out, some things are out of my control so I need to adapt.
The waves represent the opportunities. You will never know what will happen until you commit, and by that point it’s too late anyway.
But what was I was initially scared of? Just the fear of failing.
There are plenty of waves – they usually come in sets, with a steady cadence of about 8 – 12 seconds, but if I have a fear of failing, they’ll all pass me by, just like opportunities.
Craig was a friend and represents the mentor. Not only was he able to suggest another route when I hit a brick wall, but he also helped me to overcome a fear and get me out of my comfort zone.
My ripped surfboard represents all the things I love doing but I had neglected for the past years.
Some of the things I learned
To write good objectives, it’s best to learn from the Godess of OKRs: An Introduction to OKRs by Christine Wodtke. But here are some things I learned along the way.
The objectives
- After writing meaningful objectives, I had a quick access to them in my mind that I could recall confidently and quickly.
- Some objectives were really difficult to write. I really had to think hard! I had to go deep. I had to think about what was important.
- I had to change and rewrite my objectives a couple times until they felt right.
- I initially mixed up my objectives and visions. I had ‘visions’ for each objective. In reality, I only have one vision for me and those close to me. I’m still trying to articulate it, but I know the feeling.
- And the objectives are linked to that vision.
- And all tasks are linked to an objective.
- At an emotional level, I sometimes mixed up an objective and the stepping stones (like the surfing trip wasn’t an objective).
- A common mistake for businesses is to mix up an Objective with a Key Result.
- Once I was settled on the objective, things started clicking into place and I suddenly became inspired by relevant things that then almost mysteriously helped me along the way. It was as if I had sailed into a trade wind to take me further.
- I became determined about certain tasks even despite all sorts of setbacks. Accessing a deep and true motivation is exhilarating and something I realised I needed more of in my life.
- There are set backs at every corner (so there was no point me becoming fixated on a particular way of achieving something – another easy but completely human thing to do!)
- There are distractions everywhere for every one of my objectives. Some are deliberate and as perfidious as the candy shelves in shops that can be reached by children. There is much money to be made from selling people golden apples.
All of the above apart apply to commercial activities and busiensses.
Working towards the objectives
- A visible commitment, even to myself, is quite a motivation.
- I was able to more easily prioritize things.
- For me, an app like Trello is easier for prioritizing than a written list.
- I could say ‘no’ to things more quickly, and more decidedly
- I was able to easily recognise any distractions away from my true north. Of course, some distractions are good fun, like being creatively distracted, and lost in your creativity. Importantly, I’m glad that I didn’t do some things in hindsight (i.e. so it was the right decision in hindsight which is quite powerful). Steve Jobs said for every one thing he is proud of doing, there are 1000 things he’s proud of that he didn’t do.
- I saved a lot of money!
- It’s quite nice seeing all the things I have done,
- The colour coding helped me to quickly review if I was just doing tasks related to let’s say ‘finance’ (yellow). I could balance things out a bit.
- I wish I had started a focussing earlier for the relationship area – and I’m aware this doesn’t reflect well on me!
- I wish I had put even more things on the list for the relationships.
- I was over-ambitious at first – I tried to attempt working towards all my objectives at once. At the moment, it seems like I’m moving multiple pans around on a hob, keeping them warm (then moving it to a back boiler whilst I work on others).
- This was a technique to help me get some of the boring things done that I may have prevaricated on otherwise. I need that right now.
- The first few weeks of working towards these objectives were easy, I had a lot of energy to work through the top things on my to-do list. I probably put all the fun easy stuff at the top. After that it became increasingly difficult to commit to things and do them. But that’s when things start converting towards my objectives.
- I was able to sometimes combine two tasks and work towards two separate objectives, fixing the board and doing a solo trip.
- I haven’t set any of these objectives as time bound, though in some cases that might be necessary so long as, yet again, you don’t mix up the deadline with the objective!
- After six months I haven’t completed any objectives yet but I’m really pleased with a lot of the things I’ve done and I doubt I would’ve got this far otherwise. I’m very close to completing some.
- Just focussing on only one goal, like finance may have unbalanced me so I’m glad I had a broad healthy mix.
- Some things are out of your control but having an objectives will help you to become agile and anti-fragile.
- At first, I had career and finance as the same objective. I found it helpful to split them (they’re two different things and the more I think about the more sensible this is!).
Applying Objectives to work
This journey and experimentation helped me to facilitate OKR writing for our department and our project. When a proposed objective is actually just a remit or a task or a ‘key result’, it becomes glaringly obvious. It sounds like ‘Fix more surfboards this year’. Or ‘Three surf trips this quarter’. The obvious response would be ‘to what end?’ and ‘okay, now what?’.
Hence the importance of good objectives for a company and its commercial success.
During the facilitation, my role wasn’t to write the objectives or advise what they should be; but I was able to ask questions and to prompt others to figure out what the objective is and what we’re trying to achieve – and to ensure that others will be inspired by those objectives.
Also: this isn’t about making to-do lists nor is it about ensuring that everything on a list gets done. This is about getting the right stuff done. Figuring out what’s the priority – and why – and committing to it.
Reflections about the journey so far
For me, ultimately, it was easier to measure ‘success’ for physical and material objectives. Some of my objectives for my spirit, creativity and relationships were less measurable as ‘success’.
For example, my spiritual journey didn’t need a success measure, it just needed prioritizing and attention. Any progression in this area is also not linear, it’s more of a circumambulation. Even just realising this brings me joy and the whole exercise is worth it just for that realisation, and that I was able to give it this attention.
I’ve also realised that the things we love most in life are ‘pointless’ and completely inefficient.
In my life, probably up until the age of 30, I had only ever set objectives for my swimming. In retrospect, I still wouldn’t change that, though. Nonetheless, there are things that I now want to do and having some objectives feels important to me right now. Hence my curiosity to learn about this and, if possible, make sure I’m on the right path.
This brings me back to my original question: Now that I’ve experimented on myself, what would I advise? If you need a way to focus you or your team’s energy towards an ambitious goal, then a good first step is to work on writing that objective.
My hope is that this journey has prompted you to wonder whether a good objective or two can help you, and if so, I’ve included a few links for you to get you going on your journey.
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Recommended reading
Radical Focus by Christine Wodtke
One objective to rule them all by Christine Wodtke (article)
Art of action by Stephen Bungay (book)
Skin in the game by Nassim Nicholas Tableb (article)
OKRs At The Centre by Natalija Hellesoe & Sonja Mewes (book)
USRPT (I haven’t experimented with this but I think it’s essentially the same as HIIT which I do know well!)
Nye Levitt personal training – because he’s a friend and prompted this
Addendum
I was relating this story to Agile Coach and consultant, Jon Spruce. He recommended checking out Personal agility.