Lesson’s Learned from Olympian, Shaun White…..

The 2014 Winter Olympics have come to a close and every participant gave it their all. Some became Gold Medalists and some went home wishing they could have done better. Those without the medals have gone over their event in their minds numerous times to determine where they went wrong and what they need to do to improve.

Now the real challenge begins.

The challenge of refusing to allow doubts and negative thoughts to overcome them. The thoughts in your head are what you listen to. You have lived with yourself all of your life, so you are going to believe what YOU tell yourself before you believe what anyone else tells you.

This is where Olympian Shaun White comes in. He went to the Olympics fully intending to win the Gold Medal – just like he’d done before. Same event that he has competed in for many years. He knows his stuff. But when it came time to compete and go for the Gold, what happened? He wasn’t on his game. He did the same thing he’d always done, but it didn’t turn out like it was supposed to. He didn’t win the Gold. He didn’t win the Silver. He didn’t win the Bronze. He got 4^th place.To a professional athlete and someone who likes the thrill of the competition, that might as well be 100^th place. Many people would have considered themselves a failure. How did Shaun handle it? With a grace and dignity that revealed his true character. This is what I gleaned from his interviews:

We don’t always win everything we work hard for but tomorrow is a new day
He didn’t think that it would break his career because, “it was only one night”
It just wasn’t his day and he lives on to fight another one
He was so gracious in his loss and genuinely happy for those who won (or so it seemed which is good enough for me!)
He asked a friend for a hug after the race – he knew he had a bad day, he wasn’t afraid of seeking comfort
He didn’t over-think any of it and told others not to either. Everyone has bad days. You have to get up and keep working hard and live to enjoy another great day and celebration.
He’s grateful for who he is and all he has accomplished so far, this one event didn’t change all that
He didn’t blame anyone or anything. He didn’t make excuses. He accepted the loss and was willing to just deal with it.

So, how does all of this apply to you?

How do you handle defeat? When you call 25 people in a row in an attempt to schedule an appointment and they all turn you down, what do you do? When you meet with a client and it seems that everything you say is wrong, nothing goes right, you don’t close the deal and you walk away feeling like a failure, how do you deal with it? When you were optimistic while setting your goals at the beginning of the year and now as March approaches, you see all of the goals you haven’t reached, what is the ‘self-talk’ that’s going on in your head?

Take a page from Shaun White’s book and tell yourself that it ‘just wasn’t my day, but there’s always tomorrow’. Praise yourself for what you’ve done well. Realize that all of your challenges are building character in you to make you into the best YOU that you can be!! Demonstrate grace and dignity not only with others but with yourself!! If you didn’t get that deal closed, move on! You’ll close the next one! Commit to reach one goal today. Commit to reach another goal tomorrow. Keep on doing that every day and you’ll be surprised at your accomplishments within a week’s time!!! Keep it up and your monthly goals will be reached. Then before you know it, you’ll be reaching your goals BEFORE their scheduled deadlines!!

Change any negative self-talk into positive encouragement!! You are special! There is only one you and the world needs YOU!!