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Let the Games Begin

By Will Turner

The summer Olympics are coming. As they start to unfold before our eyes, the networks and media will be filled with stories of tragedy and triumph. We’ll hear stories about individual athletes that made huge sacrifices and overcame seemingly insurmountable obstacles. We’ll sit in awe as we watch competition after competition unfold. We’ll be inspired; but will we change?

The Olympics have provided us with so many inspirational stories. In 1984, a 20 year old second-string soccer player with no distinguishing athletic accomplishments was inspired. After seeing Scott Hamilton win the Men’s Figure Skating Gold Medal in Sarajevo, this unnoteable athlete was, by all accounts, too old to become a world-class athlete, especially in a sport he had never tried. Against all odds, Ruben Gonzalez was competing in his first Olympics only four years later.

For most of us who watched Scott in his gold-medal performance 20 years ago, life went on much the same that it had before. No lasting trace of inspiration in our wake. That’s actually more the norm than Ruben’s experience. The reality is that only 2% of our learning is by inspiration. In other words, we don’t change what we do even though we were emotionally moved by the story. Inspiration is great when it causes us to change, but we just can’t count on those odds. If we could, there would be millions of Olympic hopefuls filling the practice fields and sports complexes every four years.

Most learning actually happens by repetition. In other words, if we want to change, it will take concerted effort over and over again. Most of us won’t succeed on the first attempt. Inspiration alone won’t push us to the next level.

According to Ruben Gonzalez, there are some simple steps to his Olympic glory that we can all learn from. “Step one to success is realizing that even though we might be programmed for mediocrity, we were designed and created for extraordinary achievement.” Ruben says that reprogramming our mind is simple. It’s just not easy. He suggests that the road to phenomenal success can be broken down into five simple steps:

1. What you say to yourself
2. Your beliefs and thoughts
3. What you do
4. Your habits
5. Your results

So what do you say to yourself about your sales ability? What are your beliefs and thoughts? Do you think you bring value to your prospects and clients? Do you do the things that you need to do every day to realize your potential? What are your habits? Are you consistent with your actions? Do your results reflect your efforts?

We can all recognize that these simple steps make sense. Yet, knowing the answer to how we become successful is the easy part. While all five of Ruben’s steps are critical components to success, most of us fall short with number three. What we do is not what we need to do. Doing takes discipline. Make no mistake about it, being disciplined is hard. If it was easy, everyone would be disciplined. A simple definition of discipline is doing what we know we need to do, even when we don’t feel like it. Discipline also means holding yourself accountable and not accepting excuses.

If you have trouble disciplining yourself, find someone else to hold you accountable. If you truly want to achieve, you will overcome the obstacles that hold you back, just as Ruben Gonzalez did to become a three-time Olympian in the sport of luge.

© Dancing Elephants Achievement Group 2004