An Ironman’s Approach to Achieving the Impossible: Five Steps to Get the Results You Want

Is there something you would like to achieve that seems way beyond your reach? This talk showed how the skills gained from training for and competing in Ironman Triathlons can help you to set and achieve performance-based goals in your personal and professional life. An Ironman triathlon—2.4 mile swim, 112 mile bike ride, 26.2 mile run, done consecutively in one day—is something that only a very small number of people attempt and complete, but can be handled by almost anyone with proper planning and persistence. Drawing on experience in completing two Ironman triathlons and 23 marathon races, Gloria identified and discussed five critical principles for achieving goals that seem initially impossible, or at least impractical: 1) the value of intense discomfort; 2) the cumulative value of incremental progress; 3) the need to update priorities as things happen; 4) the value of celebrating milestones; 5) the value of recovery time in building sustainability. Whether it’s completing that next professional goal or completing your first 5K run, this talk engagee, inspiree, and motivatee NextGen leaders to dream big and make their dreams real!

Download the Slides

ABOUT
Gloria González, Associate Chief Officer for Strategic Partnerships and Policy, Scientific Workforce Diversity, National Institutes of Health – Office of the Director, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services

Dr. Gloria González is Associate Chief Officer for Strategic Partnerships and Policy in the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Scientific Workforce Diversity, a unit of the NIH Office of the Director. Her work focuses on establishing and maintaining effective partnerships and collaborations within NIH, as well as with other government agencies, academic institutions, and associations, with an overarching goal of enhancing outreach, recruitment, and retention of populations underrepresented in biomedical research. Dr. González also serves as the lead for the NIH Advisory Committee to the Director’s Working Group on Diversity and the NIH Steering Committee Diversity Working Group.Previously, Dr. Gloria González was a public health advisor and the Latino health policy lead for the Division of Policy and Data in the Office of Minority Health at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). There, she leads efforts related to community health workers and the HHS Promotores de Salud Initiative. Her portfolio also included supporting trans-HHS evaluation and policy coordination related to racial and ethnic health disparities. Prior to her time with HHS, Dr. González served as a social science researcher in the Food and Nutrition Service at the U.S. Department of Agriculture, where she conducted research and evaluation on food security and reducing childhood hunger and on employment and training programs. Before that, Dr. González was the Director of Research at the American Dental Education Association in Washington, D.C., where she oversaw data collection and analysis pertaining to member institutions’ applicant pool and student/faculty populations. Before coming to Washington, D.C., she taught courses on race/ethnicity and gender as a visiting assistant professor of sociology at Pomona College and Lewis & Clark College on the west coast.Dr. González earned her Ph.D. and M.A. in sociology from the University of California, Los Angeles, her Bachelor of Arts in sociology from the University of California, Berkeley, and her Associate of Arts degree from Mt. San Antonio College.