Nine Feet Tall’s sponsored surfer’s goal is to be a permanent fixture on the Big Wave World tour one day very soon. Goals are essential for any successful sportsperson (and for every successful business) and clearly establishing your goal is the first step to turning it into reality. Remember, these need to be SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, Time-bound). For example, a business may wish to be more environmentally friendly and have a goal to be paperless by 2017. For Tom, however, his goal is much riskier…
Tom’s Goal: A permanent spot on the WSL Big Wave Tour by 2018.
How can Tom achieve his goal?
In order to achieve a goal, you need to set objectives which support it. Businesses set objectives all the time: Five year plans, annual and monthly targets dominate any successful company. Here at Nine Feet Tall we work with our clients every day to help them not only achieve their goals, but go beyond them through the hard work of our excellent project managers and expertise.
If a business’ goal is to become paperless, one project objective might be to reduce the amount of printing by 50% within six months. For Tom however, the first step is to receive an invitation to one of six global World Surf League (WSL) invitational events. There are only 24 surfers invited to each event, 10 full time and 14 wild cards. Once he has made it there, it’s up to him to ensure he stands out and prove that he deserved his spot in the line-up by performing time and time again in big waves in order to gain a permanent invitation.
Tom’s Objective: To gain an invitation to the WSL event in Nazaré, Portugal this year
But what things need to be done in order for Tom to meet his objective?
This is when you start to think about the actual tasks which need to be completed in order to achieve the project objective. Within each objective, individual tasks can be identified, for example to achieve 50% reduction in printing, an investment in new hardware such as tablets and laptops may be required. Those tasks can be broken down even further into sub-tasks, i.e. gathering requirements, conducting research into the latest tablets, testing the available options and developing a business case.
Breaking down objectives into smaller and more manageable chunks will help to gain some traction. The key is to keep asking ‘How will you do this?’ until you have a comprehensive list. By adding time frames and resources, this can effectively build your project plan to follow until the objective is met.
For Tom, the tasks which he needs to undertake over the next few months might be broken down like this…
Increase performance:
- Travel to Nazaré, Portugal
- Train on a daily basis
Raise profile with the WSL:
- Submit photos and videos of current performance in Nazaré to the WSL on a regular basis (i.e. weekly) which demonstrate ability and commitment to Nazaré
- Submit evidence of past performance highlights to the WSL i.e. winning the WSL XXL Big Wave awared with Sebastian Steudtner in 2015
- Enter high profile surf events such as Punta Galea and La Vaca in Spain
Raise social media profile:
- Release regular promo material on social media
Travel to qualification events:
- Compete in qualification events
By carrying out the above tasks and sub-tasks, Tom should make the likelihood of securing an invitation to the WSL event in Nazaré which will overall bring him closer to his goal of securing a permanent spot on the WSL big wave tour.
In Tom’s words: My targets are simple – get the invite into Nazaré through commitment at the wave before any event is called on. Travel to the qualification events, make the top 2 and better my performance from La Vaca. I won’t pressure myself on results but will put the utmost effort into every day and see where I end up at the end of the Northern hemisphere big wave season!
A quote I like is: “Wins and losses come a dime a dozen. But effort? no one can judge effort ‘cause effort is between you and you” – Ray Lewis, NFL American Football Player
