You are on the long straight away, gas pedal on the floor. Engine whining! 140, 150, 160, 180 mph...! And then... CRASH!!!!
What happened?!?! Well, at the end of that straight is a 90 degree right turn and you didn't hit the brakes in order to enter that turn under control. Car went straight into the tire barrier at full speed.
Good news is you survived. A little sore. Also good news is you have another Porsche 911 GT2 you can get back on the track with. How will you approach that straight away the next time?
Hit your marks!
On the side of the track, approaching the turns, are numbered signs. Race drivers learn at which mark they need to get off the gas and onto the brakes in order to make the turn safely while not compromising their lap times. The best drivers know exactly what their limits are because they've practiced, learned from mistakes, and studied others that are better than them.
The best driver isn't the one that hits the top speed on the straight away. It's the driver that hits their marks and has the best lap time AND protects the car so they can do lap after lap without crashing or wearing out the equipment prematurely. If its a qualifying lap, they know how hard the car can go one lap. If its a 2 hour race, they know how hard the car can go between fuel stops. If its a 24 hour race, they know how hard the car can go. Top speed doesn't matter if the car dies before the end of the race. AND, simply lasting till the end doesn't matter if you are 10 laps behind the rest of the field. The key is optimizing your pace while avoiding a crash or burnout.
We all have "marks" we need to hit in our personal lives as well as our professional lives. Examples in my personal life would be daily prayer and devotion time, hitting my target calories each day, monthly check ins with my mentors, daily reading, exercise...
Examples at CFA would be things like our parking lot timer, setting clear expectations with team members at the beginning of the shift, breaks, food safety/quality checks, ice timer, repeating orders... When we stop using our marks, we tend to hit the corners too fast and either wear out the tires prematurely or crash. We want to win the race. We need to make it to the end of the race to win it. For us, its a 16 hour race each day. Let's hit our marks.
Here is an in-car video of a hot lap at the local road track. Hitting the marks.
And another in a track prepared racing Ferrari with the driver narrating and explaining his "marks".
Another one with a driving coach sharing the thinking on a lap. Hitting marks. Shifting perspectives...
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