[tweet username=”@bmoynan” layout=”none” url=”http://18.130.43.167/wp-admin/post-new.php”]Learn the Lessons from Elite Sport in Business.
As many of us I have been inspired by watching the Olympic games and witnessing the extremes of human performance at the athletic level and I was reminded why I first got interested in firstly sports psychology and then subsequently NLP. The thing was as a young man growing up in Yorkshire and therefore inevitably playing cricket, I couldn’t quite fathom why some of the most talented cricketers I played with went onto achieve very little and yet some lesser talented cricketers went onto fulfil their dreams of playing first professionally and then in a couple of cases for England!
It soon became apparent that talent as we perceive it; although important was certainly one of the lesser ingredients in the mix!
Now many years later and a lot of study, training and thousands of hours of coaching experience behind me I have been able to watch the Olympics from a different perspective.
I think there are some key lessons we can take from the Olympics both in our personal and professional lives…
Firstly I’d like to ask you a couple of questions what do all the Olympic athletes have in common?
Well on an old model of belief a lot of people may say things like, super-talented, exposed to opportunity, determined, motivated, prepared to make sacrifices etc etc and although on one level this may be true these tend to be the answers that people perceive themselves not to be and therefore gives us an excuse from ever believing we can achieve something spectacular…
Looking from a different perspective there are two clear messages that I think business and us as individuals can take from the Olympians…
In order to get to the first point let me pose a different question, why do you think they started and continued doing what they now do in the first place?
In every case you can bet your bottom dollar that the reason why was because they enjoyed it! However much it looks like damn hard work (and it often is) that level of enthusiasm and passion for what you do is fundamental to success!
Why because what is the purpose of achieving anything?
If you keep asking that question over and over the purpose of achieving anything is to make you feel good and enjoying what you do on route allows you to do whatever you do with more energy, passion, enthusiasm and all of the ingredients that both are and lead to success…
If your not enjoying what you do stop and find something which you do! The story of why you can’t is just a story or set of reasons which are not true. It is merely your creation from your current perception of how things are when your perception changes so will your results…
Secondly is the concept of goal setting, in the UK most people do not have goals! I know crazy huh, especially when we know that the most successful people on the planet consistently set bigger and bigger goals; the example of which is currently staring us in the face!
Why? Well in the Uk we tend to have been brought up with the philosophy of “best not to aim to high in case you are disappointed”
How crazy is this?
If you aim to earn £200,000 and only get half way there many would be pretty happy with that failure!
Yet here lies the problem; most of us, (myself included in my early years) were trained to avoid failure rather than seek success and therefore spend time creating stories of why we cant do something to avoid that disappointment…
True performers and performance comes from doing the opposite. In essence the key to success is failure! The most successful people on the planet have simply failed over and over again, learnt what they needed, bounced back and set higher more challenging targets…
Let me give you a crude example In Business from both mindsets…
Business A
Year 1 target: £100,000 profit
Achievement: £75,000 profit
Business B
Year 1 target@ £100,000 profit
Achievement: £75,000 profit
Lets say Business leader A has the mind-set of most and is avoiding failure; what does he do?
That’s right he either reduces the target for year 2 or leaves it the same! This you may see as sensible…
Well taking the Olympic approach; what does the Inspired Business leader do? That’s right he increases the target even though they did not achieve last year’s target…
Lets follow this chain of though through…
5 years on
Business A
Year 5 target: £125,000
Achievement: £125,000
Business B
Year 5 target: £1,000,000
Achievement: £750,000
As you can see from this Business A has achieved their target; the boss would be very happy at that achievement whereas in Business B they have failed every year to achieve their target, how disastrous!!!
Very few of us really know what we are truly capable of and therefore even our wildest dreams are closer within our grasp than we think. We just have to dare to believe it is possible and let go of the negative emotions of fear of failure, guilt for being successful (this effects more than you realise) and learn to overcome our internal battles…
If you listen carefully to the Olympics you will hear a familiar story, somewhere along the line somebody somewhere started the dream by helping the athlete believe it was possible! For Mo Farrah it was his PE teacher…
Now think about the people in your life, are they good role models and positive influences who are themselves successful and happy?
This neatly moves onto my third point, no one person ever achieved any one thing completely on their own with the knowledge of how they are going to achieve it, there has to be an element of uncertainty of how and the trust that you will find people who will help you along the way…
If this is of interest and you think I can help you fulfil some of your potential get in touch and we’ll begin by getting clarity for you of what you want…
After all if you don’t know what you want your pretty sure not to get it!
Have a great week/end enjoy the end of the Olympics, take some inspiration and make some positive changes in your life now!
Contact me at [email protected] for an initial free consultation to see how we can help you to achieve your best…