Pendulum of goal setting

I read a book recently, Confessions of a Self Made Millionaire, that discussed the difference between having too many goals and going after one single goal. The book talked about, among a ton of other stuff, how if you pick one single goal and go after it day and night you will undoubtedly reach that goal. But when you start adding in other goals to try to "balance" out your life you are actually decreasing your chances of reaching the first goal because now your energy is divided up.

Last year my focus was on completing an Ironman, I made my training my priority and I never missed a training session. I gave everything I had to every training session whether I would have anything left at the end to go to work or not. I completed my goal of finishing my first Ironman and crossed the finish line in a decent time. I gave it everything I had. That was my one goal last year and I undoubtedly completed it.

I had someone else running my gym for me last year while I trained for my Ironman and it's true what they say- nobody cares about your business as much as you do. As it turned out that somebody was not focused on my business at all and unfortunatley the business suffered while I was focusing on training for my Ironman.

I told myself going into 2008 that my priority is my career and business this year. So, one month into the year and we have had a record month at the gym, signing up more new members than we ever have before. We are also expanding and taking over next door. I have been hired to be on the Perform Better Tour with the best speakers in the fitness industry. I am making a ton of progress on my career and business goals and I want to keep going full force ahead reaching our potential at our gym this year and in my career. I want to undoubtedly reach my potential as a business owner and fitness professional in 2008.

The question is can I still compete in triathlons with the same performances I gave last year? Or am I Ok with my performances dropping from what they were last year? I am still signed up for a few races this year, one of which is in 8 weeks, the Ca Half Ironman, and my training has been lacking. I get in like 4 workouts a week which seems like nothing compared to what I was doing last year leading up to this same race. I am debating on if I should even be doing the race. I don't like to do anything if I am not doing it the best I possibly can and I know I will not be going into this race the best I can because my training time is limited.

Will I enjoy myself and get something out of completing the race a third time even if my time is not as good as last year? Or will it take away from my focus this year of running my business? We should be getting the keys to expand in 4 weeks so I will absolutley not be focused on this race at all because my focus will be on the expansion. But will having this race keep me in "balance"? Or will it take away from the one goal I undoubtedly want to hit this year, of growing and expanding our business to reach it's potential?

If you undoubtedly want to hit a goal- go after that one single goal with everything you have and do not get distracted with anything else. To reach a goal it almost has to become an obsession day and night. Focus on what you want!