Did you notice that when the Olympics were on, the media was leading with positive stories? So what has made the big difference? The reason is investment, pure and simple. I’m not just talking about investment in the athletes themselves, but also in the best trainers, coaches, nutritionists, physiotherapists etc. to support them.
You see, if we don’t invest in our people we will not get the best that we or they can give. And that means investing time as well as finance! We always make excuses for spending time and money on other activities that will never pay off for us in performance, and in turn financially, rather than spending time and money on the development and growth of our people.
You can see, over the years we have been watching the Olympics, that we had become hopeful but not expecting of our athletes. They had very few inspiring athletes before them. However, the GOLD medals will have many effects on: the athletes who are part of the team – hence we are seeing some very unexpected results too; the nation as a whole, who start to feel pride; and on the youngsters who now have even more inspirations to be guided by – our future Olympic champions.
Without hope, inspiration, or expectation
…it is impossible to achieve. These athletes don’t always win, but they know how it feels to win and they know how to learn from not winning but improving on their last results.
If you see everything as a result – some results which we wanted and expected, others which we didn’t want and didn’t expect – then we learn from all our results, especially the ones we didn’t want. It is in allowing mistakes (which is happening less and less these days) that we learn the most and can then go on to achieve great things!
The team aspect is mega-important here too. When you have a group of individuals, some of whom may even be the only athlete competing in a certain discipline, but they feel part of a bigger movement all working towards the same common goal (winning more Gold Medals in this case), then the individuals work harder to achieve for others than they would just for themselves.
How many times have you heard a winner say, “this is for my…mum and dad, my coach, the team….”? Lewis Hamilton, the young Formula 1 driver, says thanks to his team every time he wins. You see it always takes a team of people to win; and this is true even if you are an individual running a company, because you need other people to give you business, you need others to supply you. Never under-estimate the power of that team spirit for giving momentum to that winning feeling, as has been shown in Beijing!
