Will It Make the Boat Go Faster?

After enduring years of lackluster, 7th-place finishes in the Rowing World Championships, Ben Hunt-Davis reached a pivotal realization: his team needed a sharper focus.

Initiating a transformative shift, they adopted a crucial question as their guiding principle before every training session, strategy alteration, and resource allocation:

"Will this make the boat go faster?"

This unwavering concentration on their gold medal objective revolutionized their training regimen.

But Did It Payoff?

In 2000, the team clinched Olympic gold in Sydney!

Ben encapsulated this journey in his book "Will It Make The Boat Go Faster?" - an exploration of how this concept could be seamlessly applied to the world of business.

The key takeaway? Achieving success demands filtering every decision through the lens of our paramount objective.

Whether standing at the crossroads of budgeting, hiring, or introducing new offerings, take a deliberate pause and pose the question:

"Will this make the boat go faster toward our most important goals?"

If the answer is a resounding yes, give it the green light. If not, be bold enough to say no or defer.

This crystal-clear sense of purpose acts as a shield against distraction and burnout. It ensures that your energy is reserved for endeavors that truly propel your “boat” with maximum velocity.

Visualize your top priorities as a boat gracefully gliding towards a gold medal finish line.

Embrace the mantra: Only retain what accelerates its speed...

It's all too common for our goals to be obscured by the daily fog or ripples in our waters. The last thing we want is for our own actions to act as an additional impediment to our progress.

When you find yourself losing momentum, remember “…If you do what you’ve always done, you’ll get what you’ve always got…”

Here's to identifying what makes your boat go faster and keeping your speed up.

Kind Regards,

Jim @ Captivation Agency

PS: There’s a real person on the other side of these messages, so feel free to comment back and say hello - I’d love to start a dialogue :-)