Recently, I was shared this church bulletin from a friend. There is a story in the bulletin where a 67-years old grandpa describes his journey and achievement on completing a 42-kilometers marathon after five years of trying. He described the journey on how he was able to this feat, and this interests me.
His story starts at the birth of his grandson. They named the boy after a mountain name. And that is his initial motivation comes from. It was never something like running or completing a marathon, he dreams that someday he will be able to climb that mountain that his grandson is named after together with the boy. He knows at that moment he lacks the strength to climb a mountain, and so he sets himself of starting to do exercises. He started by doing a series of walks around the area where he lives, following a method that is called walking interval training. The idea is to alternate 3-minutes of normal walking and 3-minutes of fast-walking. After almost a year of training, his legs finally gained the strength to do some simple hiking.
Nevertheless, he didn’t stop there. He continue to challenge himself doing interval training over longer and longer distances. Around this time, he was introduced to a more advance of interval training where it replaced fast-walking with 3-minutes jogging. It was though at first, but his training continue build strength and stamina. And, after a while he started running 2-km continuously, and keep on extending the distances.
Now, after completing the marathon, he looked back and feels very proud of being able to complete this feat. I am sure that he is more confident than ever to realize his dream of climbing that mountain with his grandson.
Whenever, I hear a story like this, it always amazed me how people get motivated and keep on challenging to improve themselves and meet their goals. The goal for this grandpa is very clear, he wants to climb the mountain that his grandson is named after together. Guided by this ultimate goal, he sets a goal to strengthen his legs by starting the interval training. He completed a milestone when he hiked the first time. But, he didn’t stop there. He knows that is not enough to reach his ultimate goal. He continued his training, and setting even a higher goal of being able to run non-stop for a number of kilometers. Then, he completed another major milestone, which is completing the 42-kilometers Marathon run.
Setting goals that are clear and tangible are very important to keep us always motivated. Completing a goal and milestones gives us a sense of satisfaction that is rewarding. Even though our ultimate goal maybe far stretch and difficult, we knows that each goals and milestones we completed brings us one step closer achieving the ultimate goal.
Scrum and Agile Product Development brings back empiricism and borrows a lot from this idea. The way we position ourselves toward the grander Goals and Vision guiding our immediate goals. How we keep challenge ourselves sprint-after-sprint to be better and improve ourselves. This is how the team grows, and how the product grows. Having your team or your company looking at the same ultimate goal, pushing yourself toward the next goals and milestones, celebrate and learn on past achievements. Good luck!
Agile & Cycling 