The Olympic Mindset You Must Adopt
July 30th, 2021 // 10:50 am @ Scott Manning
This week we are going with the Olympic theme since it’s usable only every 2 to 4 (and in this case 5) years and gives you, what I believe to be, the most important 3 part formula to being effective, successful, and productive in anything you do.
If you were to treat your business, making money or the achievement of any goal an “Olympic Event,” I would give you this as your breakfast of champions and key to victory…
1st – Commitment and Preparation
2nd – Intensity and Execution
3rd – Devastation and Rebound
Here is the point and then you get the application.
Very simply, the only Olympians who win, plan to win, believe they can win and go in with a “this is it, the last chance, leave everything out there” kind of a mindset.
The good news, bad news is for them it is real. Mess up and you’re done, possibly forever certainly for another 4 years. That is also good news because they are FORCED (and I use that word deliberately), FORCED to do well, to treat this with the seriousness that it is in reality.
For us, you, me, the “non-olympians” we do not have that good fortune to feel the finality of our “events” ending. We wake up tomorrow one way or another and go back into battle.
If you took the Olympic mindset and the actuality that YOU HAD TO WIN TODAY at whatever you decide to do (get the customer, present the treatment plan, do the deal, achieve success), then you WOULD ACT, BEHAVE, DECIDE, ACHIEVE differently.
You would have to.
So, I whole heartedly believe that the person who treats every day, every task, every sale, every patient, every business endeavor as if it is their gold medal event and final attempt at success, they will perform at an entirely different level.
If you want to win that badly, if you live with accurate thinking or if you believe in the finality that actually exist then you will transcend your abilities and success will follow.
It can’t be enough to “try”; you have to win.
It can’t be enough to “be an Olympian”; you have to be a medalist.
It can’t be enough to stand on the podium; you want to be in the middle on the top.
Think about this –
Olympic athletes are like super heroes, real life comic book characters that have special talents, super powers and perform an extraordinary feats.
Why is this possible?
They enter a new level of competition, of being, of performance. Mentally, emotionally, physically, they transcend the “known” for the improbably and unimaginable.
They push the limits because they have no choice. When you GO FOR GOLD this is what happens.
And that is why I say your secret to achieve more, better, faster is to live, act, be, do business like an Olympian.
Pursue the impossible, expect the unexpected, perform at levels that are unreasonable. Challenge yourself and demand a gold medal, once in a lifetime, give it all you’ve got.
This will only happen if you follow my 3 part formula.
1st – Commitment and Preparation
2nd – Intensity and Execution
3rd – Devastation and Rebound
Commit to what you really want and do not let anything get in your way. Decide and do not look back.
Prepare, go all in knowing that losing is not an option. If you become obsessed with your objectives then you are achieving the elite level of what is required.
Always have Intensity, I mean so much so that people call you crazy. Intensity that can’t be interrupted or derailed. And execute as if your life depended on it.
In my martial arts training we used to have a saying: TRAIN AS IF IT WERE REAL
You have to do everything like this is an “in your face” Olympic competition; only one chance for significance. That is the attitude, the mindset, the mentality of champions.
And that leaves me to the “here after” – what happens when you are done, when the events are over, what happens when you experience the moment you realize you achieved your goal or you fell short?
It is much like the “off season” for a professional athlete and what they must have felt after losing at whatever point in their season they were done.
DEVASTATION
Let it sink in, wallow in it for just a second, and do not pass it off as though it didn’t matter. Do not allow yourself to accept defeat or failure.
You should feel devastated when things don’t go your way, when you do what is necessary and fall short, when someone else beats you – take that seriously.
Winners, Champions, Gold Medalists DO THIS.
And then, and just as importantly, you must REBOUND!!!
As in instantly, certainly the next morning. Hey, you are given “mornings” for a reason. The new day exists so that you can move on from yesterday.
TOMORROW can’t become your crutch but it should become your Rebound.
Start again at step one.
Commit and Prepare
Intensify and Execute
And repeat it all over again…
This is what Champions do. If you embrace what I am saying, it will not only change your life it will change your outcomes, it will elevate the playing field you step on to and the value you bring to your customers and patients.
There is only one first place, sometimes a thousandth of a second between silver and gold. There is only 4 places between the top and no medal at all, and yet there is a lifetime of devastation, of memory, and “last chance” that Olympians never get over.
You see, that is just one thing that makes them so special, to live with this reality, that in and of itself is extraordinary.
You, me and other “normal people” don’t have that and that is why we don’t perform at the level that they do. My challenge to you is to apply this, these principles, this way of thinking, the concept of competition, the philosophy and transcendence of the Olympics to your daily life.
Make your business YOUR Olympics and win that Gold Medal.
Category : Blog
