Lizzy Dening asks a sports-turned-business coach for help in scoring some work-related goals...

As my neighbours, watching me restart Couch to 5K for the millionth time, can attest – I am not one of life’s natural athletes. And on particularly lazy workdays I sometimes wonder if being a non-sporty kid has put me at a disadvantage. After all, goal-setting and laser focus are transferal skills, which could explain why many career coaches have a fitness background. I decided to try a couple of sessions with Kerry Hearsey, a former England hockey player turned business and life coach, to see what I could learn from  Sporty Spice, and whether thinking like a sportswoman could improve my work as a freelance journalist.

During Kerry’s career she’s worked with athletes and their coaches, and now applies these skills to business owners. “Lots of athletes reaching GB level have been developing their mind-set since their early teens – skills including resilience, communication, and self-regulation,” says Kerry. “Athletes are able to overcome rejection and get back up again – but it’s my job as a coach to help people see that we all have those abilities.” 

 Her coaching sessions start – as many athletes might begin a training session – with a breathing exercise to focus attention and calm the nervous system. To a count of four each time, breathe into your belly, hold, exhale, and hold again (not a bad way to start any working day tbh). Then it’s a matter of getting into a winning mind-set by breaking down goals and setting clear targets. Here’s how to unleash your inner athlete. Little slices of orange: optional.

Score business goals like a pro

Arguably the main skill of an athlete is their ability to set (and reach) a tricky goal – whether it’s winning a championship, or acing a penalty shoot out.  But the secret is focusing on the training, and not the match. 

“When we set goals in business we often focus on the outcome, but that can feel too distant and challenging,” warns Kerry. And that’s where sports stars have the edge. “Athletes are trained to compartmentalise – they won’t necessarily visualise the finish line a few months ahead, they’ll picture putting on their shoes that morning, or starting today’s running drills. It’s why when GB hockey won a match at the Olympics and were interviewed about whether they could win the whole competition, all you’d hear the girls say was: ‘we’re just focusing on the next game.’”

I am definitely guilty of obsessing over the end result professionally, to the detriment of the hundreds of baby steps required to get there. “When you break down your goal and focus on the small pieces, your outcome becomes inevitable,” says Kerry. During our coaching sessions we identify my ‘marathon’ goal, and start to visualise the steps to reach it – in other words, putting my shoes on first rather than worrying about the finish line. My ‘marathon’ is growing my free newsletter, Out Of Office [https://outoffice.substack.com/], into a supportive community of self-employed women, as well as developing a Patreon group (with bonuses such as professional development webinars and accountability sessions) to prop up the free elements and help make it financially viable. It only launched in September, but I’m always impatient for it to reach more subscribers without leaving room to plan how I’m going to get there.

When I think about where I want the newsletter to be, my head can start to swim and the ‘if/then’s start to pop up. But sports stars just create a strategy and chip away at the training, one day at a time. This mentality is immediately helpful – I feel calmer when I remind myself that I can’t control everything, but I can create a kick-ass to do list for the week ahead. 

One foot in front of the other

If, like me, you spend most of your working days flitting between different pieces of work, there’s another important lesson to learn from sports pros. “Most of us are under the illusion that we’re great at multitasking, but we’re not,” says Kerry. “Athletes specialise in working at one task, finishing it, then moving on to the next one.” Sometimes those steps are less appealing than others (I find updating social media for the newsletter a slog), but as Kerry points out, athletes don’t love every day of training. It’s just that they accept it’s part of the process to reach their goal.

My coaching sessions with Kerry help me boil down what my next tasks should be, and agree specific deadlines. Seeing jobs as inevitable might not make them more tempting, but this shift in thinking does help me tackle those less desirable jobs – it’s the only way to get where I want to go. Plus, having a firm deadline means I don’t procrastinate, and manage to schedule a week of social posts in 30 minutes. Cue Megan Rapinoe posturing. 

Schedule in rest days

In any given training plan there are rest days. And in that sense, sport should be no different to work. Last year – like the majority of self-employed people I’ve spoken to – I suffered from awful burnout. Feeling helpless in the rest of my life, I channeled all of my energy into my work. Here, I thought, was something I could control – but it ended up controlling me. 

As I chat to Kerry about my incredibly ambitious plans for 2021, she’s keen to drill down into timeframes, pointing out months when I’ve mentioned two (or more!) separate projects. “I’d encourage you to really have a think about the journey of the 2021 marathon,” she emails me after our session. “What are the pit-stops in your year ahead, what are the milestones, and how can you harmonise work and life so that it works for you?”

It’s admittedly rare that I picture the year as a whole – especially in a covid-stricken world. But without a wider sense of time, it’s easy to overload my work schedule. I immediately set some much-needed boundaries around my Christmas break, asking for a later deadline on a commissioned article. But more importantly, my New Year’s resolution is to take a half-day every single Wednesday this year. It’s not quite the same as a beach break (sigh) but carving out some space to rest and reset each week should go a long way to helping me realise my ambitions. After all, if anyone understands the importance of a decent holiday, it’s footballers.