One Step at a Time...

Edwin Moses was arguably the greatest American hurdler of all time. A multiple Olympic gold medalist and world record holder in his chosen event, the 400m hurdles, Edwin Moses holds another record that's unlikely ever to be bested...

In 1977, early in Edwin Moses' career, he lost an international race to a rival hurdler from Germany. The following week, Moses ran against his rival again and won handily. Starting with that meet, Edwin Moses went on to win 122 consecutive races...going a staggering 9 years, 9 months and 9 days before his next loss!

An amazing accomplishment, to be sure, but what's even more interesting to us here is his process. 

And that process was fairly simple. He never worried about winning a given 400-meter race. Instead he focussed on excelling at a series of shorter, more manageable distances.

Before each race, Edwin Moses would walk the track and put a piece of black tape on every 3rd or 4th hurdle. When the race began, Moses didn't think about reaching the finish line before everyone else. Instead his goal was merely to run as quickly as possible to the first hurdle with black tape on it.

Once he reached the marked hurdle, Moses imagined in his mind that the starting gun had just fired and the race was just now  beginning. So his goal then became simply to run to the next marker with all the blazing speed he could muster.

And so on, all the way around the track.

At each meet, Edwin Moses ran a series of 50-60 meter races. By winning each of these little races in turn, he was able to win the overall race as well--122 times in a row, against the best hurdlers of his generation! Nearly a full decade without a loss...and all as a result of focusing on smaller accomplishments within a larger framework!

Setting major goals for ourselves can sometimes feel intimidating. Whereas breaking any goal down into smaller "races" and simply excelling at each of these seems to me like a sound strategy to adopt in many areas of life, from losing weight...to cultivating a vegetable garden...to, say, mastering the techniques and strategies for buying a new car at used car prices!

Feel free to share any examples from your life in the comments section where you achieved a larger goal by breaking it down into easier-to-accomplish steps!