The feeling of an evolution is a constant for every artist who is pursuing the search of refinement and enlargement of his/her own means of expression - Andrea Bocelli
Pursuit and refinement of becoming the best version of myself is truly at the core of why I write this blog. I do it to share my journey as I boil down and refine my mission, vision, and values. I know that these types of writings won’t last forever and the content all of you seem to enjoy are the pursuits of past races, stories of adventures, and ultimately I will share knowledge with you all about running, training, and fitness.
Refining my minimum standard
When I sat down to write this piece, it hit me that I have been a refiner my whole life. I’ve never felt good about practicing a skill once, running just one 20 miler in my training for a marathon, and I’ll never just take one cast at a rising fish and move on. I grew up in an environment where I was always challenged to refine my skills. I was always in pursuit of the extra work and conditioned my mind to see that the work that everyone saw as ‘extra’ was my minimum. I see this now when I sit down to tie flies, I don’t want to just get one right - I want to tie a dozen perfect examples. I don’t want to pace one rep in my workout perfectly - I want to nail all 12.
Engaging Muscles
As we enter the 5th week of our work defining and refining our Mission, Vision, and Values I’m seeing more of the class working through frustration as the work now requires us to get out of our comfort zones. As a collective we have dug deeper and deeper into ourselves to truly pull from our core. I finally understand what Nora has been trying to convey to us about flexing a muscle that I haven’t been using and haven’t been engaging. It can be really hard to look at yourself and refine yourself down to a set of principles, niche yourself into a market for business, and say no to things that don’t push your mission and vision forward. Refining your product to a point of perfection and honing your skills also delivers an immense value. This is the product you sell, market, and share with the world.
Raise the Bar
This week we sat down with our Mission and Vision and refined it to include some very important details. We rewrote our Mission to include the four results you bring (to your life and your work) and our six core values. This ultimately lead us to define with 100% clarity the problem we solve for the people we work with. This is where I made a turning point in my outlook on where this work was taking me. I now know exactly who my client is, what I do for my clients, why I do it, and how I do it best.
The Problem I Solve
I provide guidance on the application of small details
I build structure and principles
I remove frustration through education
I help frame realistic expectations
Refined Mission Statement
I work with people and athletes to remove frustration by educating them on the application of the fundamental principles so that they can take ownership of the outcome and become the best version of themselves.
Refined Vision - ‘A world where’
People are empowered to respect and honor one another and where they take ownership of their lives and do what it takes to create a community.