Lessons from Olympics: From Zero to the Greatest EVER.

The last race of Michael Phelps’ career ended with a Gold Medal in the 4×100 relay. It was a fitting end for a man called the “Greatest Swimmer of all Time” and perhaps the “Greatest Olympian of all time” with 28 Gold medals and 23 of them Gold it’s hard not to argue with those titles.

While I was watching an interview with Phelps’ before his televised last race he talked about his experience at the 2000 Sydney Games. He left the games with ZERO medals. The man who would be called the greatest swimmer and greatest Olympian ever went to his first Olympics and FAILED to medal.

Wow.

Like most Americans, I really only follow swimming during the Olympics and only learned of Michael Phelps at the Beijing Games when the network started hyping him up about trying to win 8 Gold Medals. During that games he accomplished that Goal and Michael Phelps became a bona fide superstar.

But just think: Eight years earlier in Sydney he did not medal and nobody knew his name and now he was beginning to be called a legend. There’s more to the story of Michael Phelps but this is the question I want to ask :

What if Michael Phelps had given up after “failing” in Sydney and decided all the training wasn’t worth it and he was going to quit on his goals?

No Overnight Success or Quick Fixes

Michael Phelps won his first Gold Medals in Athens but it was all of the training he did after the Sydney Games that got him to that point. He said leaving Sydney without medals was definitely NOT a good feeling and after he won his first medals in Athens he wanted MORE.

It’s FOUR YEARS BETWEEN OLYMPICS. He did not see his intended RESULTS FROM HIS TRAINING FOR FOUR YEARS.

Hard work pays off but Hard Work takes a long time to see results as well.

Hard work Pays off but it pays off slowly

If you’ve followed me for any amount of time, then you know I hate Quick Fixes and Gimmicks. All of these programs hyping you up to get quick results in a limited amount of time are setting you up for failure because real and lasting results take time to appear. In order to make SUSTAINABLE change then you have to do be consistent every day with habits that will take you to your goals. It takes the time to build these habits and it also takes time to develop a mindset that builds your belief that you can do it.

Purpose of Challenge Groups

In my challenge groups, I do not promise people that if they do this challenge for 14 Days all of their problems will be solved and they will have the body of their dreams because that is MALARKEY. What I do teach them is that each challenge you’re becoming more aware of what habits that need to go and developing new habits to take you toward success. That’s really the difference between failure and success. People who fail have habits that take them on the elevator to the bottom and people who are successful have habits that take them on the way up.

Real success does not happen in 4 weeks, 8 weeks, 12 weeks, 16 weeks, etc. It takes time to build and as one of my favorite teachers says: Sometimes you may have to do something for a long time before you get a right result.

Inspiring me to keep on keeping on

After listening to Michael Phelps’ interview, I was inspired to keep on keeping on with my own journey. It’s uber frustrating and I’m not seeing any results. I’ve read the research and talked to people who have “been there” and they’ve assured me that it takes time and told me it takes time. Even though I know better, sometimes even I am tempted by the quick fix programs, crash dieting, and InstaResults training because nothing is changing and honestly I am frustrated with that.

I’ve come to accept that this was the consequence from my attempt at the fitness competition and I can either resist it and get so frustrated that I give up or I can just stop worrying about my weight, fitting into my pants, etc. and continue to work on building habits that will support me living a healthy and high performing lifestyle.

I believe my mindset and habits are 100% better than they were 2 years ago when I was at my leanest. My body may not reflect it but I am way ahead of where I was mentally 2 years ago.

Listening to Michael Phelps reminded me that it will take time to see the fruits of my nutrition and training program. I attempted a big goal and “failed” but I learned a lot from the experience and I expect to be back better than ever! In the meantime though I will enjoy the journey of not dieting, feeding my body nutritious foods, training for life, getting stronger, and living a life full of energy and vitality.

What if I give up on my goals and say forget it since nothing is changing or because I feel as if I have “failed”. I can’t imagine how miserable and full of regret I will be. Even if I don’t make any progress I have to keep on keeping on because I will lose respect for myself if I do not give it my best shot. I will keep on keeping on with my nutrition, training, and personal development because giving up is not an option!!! I’m going to stick with it and emerge victorious!!

How about you???? What if you give up on yourself? How will you feel? Could you be cheating yourself out of your own greatness?