🔑 Preparation is the key

for success! (3 minutes read)

🇮🇹 👉 Italian version [LINK HERE]

❓ How important is preparation in achieving our goals? Our success?

“Be Prepared”
which means, you are always in a state of readiness in mind and body to do your DUTY;
Be Prepared in Mind by having disciplined yourself to be obedient to every order, and also by having thought out beforehand any accident or situation that might occur, so that you know the right thing to do at the right moment, and are willing to do it.
Be Prepared in Body by making yourself strong and active and able to do the right thing at the right moment, and do it.
This is the motto and its meaning according to the founder of the World Scouting Movement: Sir Robert Stephenson Smyth Baden-Powell, first Baron Baden-Powell of Gilwell.

I wanted to start with the scout motto because, as many who know me already know, I have been a scout since I was five years old and I believe a lot in being prepared.

⚜️ From the very first scout experiences it was all about preparing and experimenting with techniques that would later be used for the most important adventure: the summer camp week.
The planning of the camp kitchen and the preparation of the tent, set up, checked and dismantled again and again, to be solid and weatherproof, but also to know how to do it at the right time. Preparation and discipline as the key to success and facing up to the unexpected that happened, of course, every time.

📌 But that's not all. Years ago during a training session on how to improve public presentations, the trainer explained how 80/90% of a successful presentation is the preparation.
This is because once you know very well what you want to present and the story you are going to tell, you can focus more on the rest. You can focus on the audience and see how they are reacting, if they are paying attention or if there is a buzz and you can act accordingly.
You can focus on yourself, changing the tone or volume of your voice or pausing to give more importance to what you want to communicate. It allows you to face technical hitches and keep going even if the slide is not there, you can't read it or the clip doesn't start, without panicking, because you know what you want to communicate at that moment.

🥇 I was recently able to ask some professional athletes, including some Olympic medallists, how important preparation was to them:
between 80% and 95% was the answer.
What about the rest? These are some of the answers.

“That missing 20% represents so many things that are needed to achieve performance: the ability to put into practice the plan trained with preparation; personal calmness; the desire to shoot to win; the ability to improvise/react to difficulties in competition”.

“Knowing that I've trained as well as I can and that I don't have 'losses' anywhere makes me feel good about myself. It makes me approach the race differently, it makes me aware of what I'm doing. It's normal that there will be 'no' days, but those are everywhere, not just in the sports world, but if you've built something solid at the base you'll usually reach your goal”.

“A good preparation makes me feel safe, calm and prepared towards the goal, the rest is the unknown of the race day, motivation, staff, a little bit of luck”.

🤔 What I was reflecting on is that there is always a small percentage of things, of happenings that are impossible to control.
Whether it's a sudden sandstorm during the final of a competition, the light going off during the presentation or the fire approaching the scout camp.
What we can do though is minimise it or minimise its impact and consequences, thanks to preparation.

👉 What I have started to do in my daily life is to spend more time on my preparation. Not so much, sometimes 10/15 minutes is enough.
It may sound unrealistic, however I really do save a lot of time.
One example of this is my weekly meeting with my leader: 15 minutes before it starts I focus on the important things I want to communicate to him, I open any files that might be useful, I write down the questions for him, I put them in order of importance. Sometimes I also realise that a topic doesn't make sense, so I delete it. The result after 6 months is that from one hour, the meeting is now 45 minutes long and most importantly we both have the feeling that it is more fruitful.

📜 👉 Preparation as the key to success. Have you ever thought about this? Do you plan to prepare even more?
Let me know in the comments!
As always, I'm happy to help you learn more. If you'd like to have a sparring partner or have a chat about this or other topics, feel free to leave a comment and I'll be in touch.

🙏 A special thank you to the athletes of the Italian national shooting team who helped me understand how important preparation is for them.
Follow their achievements here [LINK HERE].

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#BeCurious #BeFocus

Giuseppe