Strategically Planning for Success: What’s Your Power Question?

In an effort to avoid stagnation and regret, there is one powerful question that professional gold medal-winning Olympic athletes have used that will help with your planning and allow you to assess your decision-making and choices leading to long-term success, according to a recent article on Entrepreneurs.com.  

Ask this One Question if You Want to Succeed explained how former British competition rower and Olympic champion, Ben Hunt-Davis, had been on the British national 8-man rowing team for nine years and was on the team when they won the gold medal in the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, Australia. The most inspiring and motivating thing about his story is not that they won, but how they won after 88 years of losing. How the team became triumphant after not winning in the Olympics for 88 years is said to have been based on one question that determined all of their decisions for the two years leading up to the race.

How? By asking one simple question before every big and small decision: “Will this make the boat go faster?”

The team knew that if they wanted a different result, they had to do something different daily, Hunt-Davis stated in a YouTube video. The team knew they needed to make a “jump” to the next level.

Mr. Hunt-Davis proceeded to point out in the video that most people think winning at the Olympics is about what you do in the minutes of the race, but it isn’t. In comparison, it isn’t the specific moment you land the $1 million contract. It’s what you do in all the hours, days and years leading up to it. And that’s what the Olympic team focused on changing, he stated.

“Before we’d all get on the rowing machine to practice for 70 minutes, we’d ask, ‘Will it make the boat go faster?’ Unfortunately, yes. So that’s what we’d do.” Hunt-Davis explained. “Before going to the pub, we’d ask, ‘Will it make the boat go faster?’ Unfortunately, no. So, we didn’t.”

The team asked each other this question for every decision during all the months leading up to their race. This one question kept them focused and gave the men on the team a strong bond, knowing they were all using the same criteria to determine any actions they took.

In summary, the video is about how to plan and focus in order to stay on track and achieve your goals. And how it’s something we can all train ourselves to do.  

What power question can you apply? “Will this grow my business to $5 million this year?” or “Will this make my body healthier?” or “Will this help me attract and retain more customers?” or “Will this get me where I want to go?” 

Once you have your question, the power is to apply it to every decision you make. For example, you may want to scroll on social media for hours. But will it make the boat go faster? No, so you don’t. When you’re tempted to skip exercise training at the gym, will skipping it make the boat go faster? No, so you go to the gym and train hard.

It’s important not to fall into the trap of thinking your “little” decisions aren’t important. Moving forward, try strategically planning for success and using your power question and see the difference it makes in your business, choices, actions, and life.

As you wrap up 2022 and prepare to take full advantage of all the new year has to offer, contact us today so we can help you initiate the steps required to ensure your business with a clean bill of health that empowers superior performance, develop a strategic plan, and use your power question to stay on track in 2023 and beyond!

To begin your strategic plan development process, contact iSeek at [email protected], visit our website, subscribe to our blog or follow us on LinkedIn.