Good morning!
Are you a person with BIG goals for your life? Or even, do you know someone or an organization with a gigantic ambition?
When I first left Nike, there was a team I started consulting with that had huge dreams.
They had a very aspirational ambition they were chasing as a company. It sounded good coming off the tongue and it looked amazing on paper. And the initial trend line was tracking for incredible revenue growth. But truth was that there was a limited sample set and there was a loooooonnnnnnng road to reach their audacious goal.
When I started to ask some questions to clarify the process of how the client was going to get there, I was met with pushback.
When I wanted to lean in to help refine the foundation of the organization, it was not received well.
It wasn’t until the momentum of their business started to stall that they opened the door to allow me to help them examine and refine their process.
The truth is that success is built on a process of pursuing our dreams - not just having big dreams.
PROCESS OF WINNING
I just finished reading a book that blew me away and had me thinking a lot about the client I just mentioned. The 7 Commitments of a Great Team, by my friend Jon Gordon, is a book EVERY team and leader should read. The lessons packed inside are powerful and foundational to become a great team, but there was one thought early in the book that stood out to me - especially as it relates to Worthy Wins.
“Teams often focus on championships but they don’t engage in the process of what it takes to be champions.”
What does the process of champions have as foundational to it?
Not dreams alone.
Every team (and person) starts with a big dream. We all want the great outcome - just like my client.
But the process of becoming champions is built on commitments.
HOPE VS. COMMITMENTS
In a way we are all wrestling with the tension between hopes and commitments.
Hope is good and needed. I’m a big advocate for hope, but it’s not enough on its own.
Commitments are the road that leads each of us - and each team - towards their ultimate destination.
In the book, Jon shares this thought…
“Writing down your goals gives you hope, but hope doesn’t wake you up at 6a.m. for an early morning practice when you want to sleep in. Hope doesn’t give you discipline. Hope doesn’t pay the bills when work is required. But your commitments create a standard and if you keep your commitments and live up to the standard, you will much more likely achieve your goals.”
Commitments are not magic.
They don’t guarantee an outcome - but they increase the likelihood of success.
And commitments require us declaring what is worthy and what’s not, because we can only commit to a certain amount of things.
That means some things will be worthy of investing our limited TEA, and some will not.
WHAT IS WORTHY?
Going back to my client. Part of their problem was that their big ambition was lofty, but not concrete. The dream was more so a BIG revenue target, but without the foundational support of how to reach it.
Whether we are talking about organizations or our own personal lives - a financial target is not a plan by itself.
The process matters more than the outcome because the process is the part we control. I loved this insight from the book...
“So often teams will say they want to win championships, but I think it’s more important to compete like a champion, because when you compete like a champion and play like a champion and commit like a champion, you win championships more often.”
What I read here is this: teams that want to win championships have extreme clarity about the different inputs that will lead them to succeed. In this case - competing, playing, and committing like champions. Those three elements would set them up to be a championship team.
There was nothing explicitly wrong with my clients ambition, but it was incomplete. They needed to dig deeper about what would truly allow them to succeed. They ultimately needed to match their big goal with the foundational actions that would point towards that ambition. But there was a problem - they needed to get more clear first.
In the Bible, Jesus tells a parable about the importance of making decisions in advance of making a big investment of money and time.
“Suppose one of you wants to build a tower. Won’t you first sit down and estimate the cost to see if you have enough money to complete it? For if you lay the foundation and are not able to finish it, everyone who sees it will ridicule you, saying, ‘This person began to build and wasn’t able to finish.’ - Luke 14:28-30
The cost to build a tower is completely dictated by what type of tower is built. The materials. The usage. The setting.
Anyone can desire to build a big tower - but all the other elements will dictate what’s needed to ensure that tower can actually get built.
Extreme clarity about the inputs is foundational to success.
INTENTION + ACTION
As I think about both my personal life and the organizations I work with, the challenge is actually the same. The biggest thing to bring to life are what I call “Active Intentions” - intentional desires + consistent actions that lead towards the desired outcome. That’s what Jon is talking about in the book with the literal commitments of great teams. They pair intention and action together.
Active Intentions are all about long-term process and direction.
They don’t guarantee success, but they will lead to success more often.
If my client was going to reach their big target, they needed to pause and come back to the drawing board on their process - and what real commitments were needed to build themselves into a brand with big revenue that they desired to be.
HOW TO TAKE ACTION
So, here’s what we did to to help them realign their process - and how each of us can do the same in our own personal lives.
- Sharpen the definition of success Rather than just a big revenue target, I pressed and pressed - and pressed some more - to help them unlock a definition of what real success looked like. It started with long-term perspective and then moved to more short-term milestones. Those were their Worthy Wins.
- Define the consistent actions Then I helped them define the consistent actions that were needed to move towards those Worthy Wins.
It sounds so simple. And it yet it’s difficult with all the noise, challenges, and distractions in our world.
But what’s become clear is that the sooner any of us does this work starting with getting clear about the Worthy Wins, the better chance we have of actually winning in the places that matter most.
Just like Jon showed in the book.
It’s not a guarantee, but success becomes much more likely when we commit to the right inputs.
Much love,
JO
WORTHY WINS REFLECTION QUESTIONS
A few simple questions to consider...
- Are you crystal clear on your Worthy Wins?
- If not, can you take a pause (30 minutes) this week to define them?
- What is ONE consistent action you can begin to take action on now that will point you towards getting one of your Worthy Wins?
MY BOOK
Worthy Wins the book has been such a blessing to me so far - because I keep getting messages from people about how it’s encourging them and the way God is at work through the words. Thanks for the support and sharing how it’s impacting you!
If you haven't gotten a copy and are still willing, here's the best ways: Hardcover and Paperback, Kindle, & Barnes and Noble.
If you would like to help me out MORE, the biggest thing I need right now are reviews on Amazon.