Olympic athletes have a goal to be faster, higher, and stronger in their sport. As we’ve been watching the Olympics, we’ve noticed a couple of things about the athletes.

First, Olympic athletes have really impressive goals for themselves. They’ve set the bar really high – and they’ve trained for years (years!) to make that goal achievable.

• Don’t give up too easily – good things are worth the effort and the time you put into them.
• Practice a lot. Then practice more.
• Training and conditioning are not optional. Just because you’re not a weight-lifter doesn’t mean you can avoid lifting weights. Speed requires strength and flexibility. Coordination requires strength and flexibility. Aging gracefully and healthfully requires strength and flexibility.

Second, when Olympic athletes fall down, they get back up. Unless something is broken – and they take some really, really scary-hard spills on those mountains and ice rinks – they get up and finish.

• You cannot succeed without continuing to try.
• There are a lot of falls on the way to success.
• Even when you’re at the top of your game, you can make a mistake. No one is perfect and it’s not the end of the world. What happens after that mistake is more important than the mistake itself.

Third, the environment is part of the challenge. If the conditions suck, Olympic athletes don’t let that get in the way – they compete differently.

• When you get down that mountain in the shortest amount of time, you have not only beaten the other athletes, you’ve beaten the mountain.
• Don’t play the victim. Take responsibility for your decisions. Even though you’d like to blame something external for holding you back, it’s really all on you. Own up to your mistake or bad decision, learn from it, and move on.
• Conditions vary so have a backup plan. For everything.

Finally, when the first try doesn’t work out – or sometimes even when it does (we’re looking at you, Shaun White) – Olympic athletes put even more effort into the second try.

• Don’t allow one mistake or one failure define who you are. Fight back, because that’s the way to win.
• Don’t let one success be the end of the road. Set another goal. Raise the bar. Become better.
• Never, ever quit. You set those goals. Maintain your personal integrity and keep striving for them. If you need to set intermediate goals, that’s great – measure your progress, work up to the big goal – but do not quit on yourself.

Faster. Higher. Stronger.
That’s you.

This entry was posted on Sunday, February 21st, 2010 at 3:42 am and is filed under Food for Thought, Self-sabotage. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.