New Years has come and gone and I'm sure that most of you have formulated some type of resolution for the upcoming year. Resolutions take on different faces and I'm confident most people don't follow through on their commitments or put much thought into meaningful goals and objectives for the following year. The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. How much time did you really put into your resolutions for this year and how will you hold yourself accountable. For 2010, I contacted another small business owner (outside of the triathlon world) and asked her if I could share with her my business plan/monthly objectives and if she wouldn't mind having a monthly conference call to discuss my progress each month. I purposely selected someone who I know will hold me accountable should I stray. I also established different goals for my business and personal life. Self Discipline and motivation will be the foundation of my success in achieving success in 2010. I plan to stretch myself beyond my comfort zone and although failure is a possibility, I know that we learn more in our defeats than our victories.
As I was sharing some of the motivational articles, which tend to float around at this time of year, with others, I received one back which I felt all athletes could benefit from. The speech from Tony Blair, the former Prime Minister of The United Kingdom was given during the Olympics. As I read his speech (which I've included below) and reflected about the athletes I've interacted with over the years there are many similarities between those who have achieved great things and those who do not. If you spend time listening to those who have done well in relation to their circumstances (note that doesn't mean winning) there are a lot of similar qualities. Although all of his points hit home, as a coach the biggest obstacle I see athletes dealing with is is not being afraid to fail. Too often, athletes go into races worried about falling apart instead of laying it on the line and accepting the outcome. If you have done the work up front, don't throw it all away because you are afraid to say I tried my best and came up short. Take some time to reflect on the following points and do some reflection. Ask a friend, coach or a family member to read the article and to give you some feedback on what they hear and see in you.
7 Characteristics of a Champion
1. Success comes to those who strive. Striving is a better concept than merely being competitive. Striving is more than wanting to be the best. It means even if you are the best, you are striving to be better. It is the product of a spirit that is restless for still greater things. It can mean a state of perpetual dissatisfaction, certainly with yourself. Of course, it shows up in a strong competitive streak when in a race. But it is also an attitude that illustrates that the competitor is as much competing with himself as with others in the same race.
2. Champions are creative people. They are innovative. They are always pushing to the new frontier. They don't accept the "givens" of any field of endeavor. They challenge them. They are non-conventional people. Creative people challenge the parameters. They go back to the first principles of a subject. They ask not the superficial but the profound questions.
3. Champions are endlessly inquisitive. They are always searching for new insights, for original thinking, for something that makes me think anew and afresh. This also means knowing you can be wrong. You may have to re-think, and possibly radically. The characteristic of a champion is that they are prepared to do so.
All of this takes application and hard work.
4. The fourth quality is therefore self-discipline. That is more than just the hours you put in. But it is the discipline to lay aside other pleasures and concentrate hard on your own development. It is about focus and single mindedness. It is not just about deciding to work rather than spend an extra hour in the bar. It is about absorption in your task, about deep not shallow thought, about getting down to the core of what you are trying to achieve. It is about not accepting second best; about knowing in your heart, when something is not good enough and can and should be better. Notice that this is self- discipline. Past a certain point, you and only you can provide that intensity of will.
5. The fifth quality is courage. No champion is without courage. It may be physical, it may be intellectual. It may be of mind or body.
Courage is invariably found in a champion. Inevitably a champion is out in front. Championship is like leadership. When things are in the balance, when you cannot be sure, when others are uncertain or hesitate, when the very point is that the outcome is in doubt; that is when a leader steps forward. The courage lies not in acting without fear; but in acting despite fear.
Such people are the people who are prepared just to go for it; to back their instinct when their instinct is all the certainty they are going to get. Taking the uncalculated risk is just foolhardy. But a calculated risk is still a risk. Calculate too much and you miscalculate. You wait for the perfect moment when such moments rarely if ever exist. At a certain point you have to step forward, with an insecure terrain beneath your feet.
6. What this means is that you must also be prepared to fail. This is the sixth and possibly the toughest quality of all. The strange irony of the champion is that the champion must be able to live with failure as well as enjoy success. The very act of courage, of leadership that sees you step out into the unknowable, carries with it the possibility of defeat. You must be willing to be humbled as well as exalted. You must accept that the risk, however calculated, may not pay off.
One of the most common reasons why people don't strive is the fear of failure. Yet virtually no one I have ever met who has succeeded, has not failed first. The question is what you learn from the experience, what you learn not just about the process of competing, but about yourself, the strengths you should exploit, the weaknesses you must eliminate.
7. If you are to be a true champion, you must be motivated by more that "you". If the striving is purely selfish, if the love of personal achievement is purely the personal glory, something is missing; some aspect of championship that is elusive in definition but critical in action, Some people may see this in spiritual terms; that is one way of looking at it. Another way is simply a belief that to achieve to the highest level and beyond, to extend the frontiers of human knowledge or activity, is in and of itself, something good or worthy, noble even; that fulfils a purpose beyond your own recognition of your own self worth.
The true champion is not just a winner. He or she is a person of compassion, of humanity, motivated by a sense of obligation to others as strong as the will to succeed for themselves.
