Self
Help: Break from the Pack
In 1979, Canadian speed skater
Gaeton Boucher decided he was going to win a gold medal at the 1980
Olympics.
He
said, 'My improvement between 1975 and 1976 was so great that I started to
dream more. I decided I would make it slowly to the top in 1977 and 1978.
Then I would win in the World Championships in 1979. My dream was to win 5
golds at the 1980 Olympics.'
That
summer, Gaeton went to to train with U.S. skating star Eric Heiden. It was
in this training that he got the biggest surprise of his career. He
recalls:
'Heiden
started with a 10,000 metres warm-up of skating imitations. I had never
seen skating imitations before. You run in a skating position (bent over).
Ten thousand metres is 25 laps.
He
was warming up and he was going fast!
I
stopped after 20 laps. My legs were hurting, and that was just a warm-up.
Then he did a 5000, 1500 and 1000 all at maximum speed, just like a race.
We
took 5 to 10 minutes of rest to recover a little bit and he said, 'Okay, I
am doing a 5000.'
I
followed him and I stopped after 3000 metres.
At
this point, something dawned on Gaeton. In his own words:
'I
thought, 'I cannot beat him, he is going to win,' because his training was
so much harder. I thought I was training as hard as I could, then I saw
this guy train even harder...that gave me the idea I could go beyond.'
Boucher
was right. Eric Heiden went on to win 5 gold medals at the 1980 Olympics.
But
Boucher soon fulfilled his own dream: in 1984 he won two gold medals in
speed skating, become one of the finest athletes Canada has ever produced.*
Self
Help: The Lesson of Quality Training
Until
Boucher trained with Heiden, he had not grasped what quality training
really was.
This
is the norm. Most people are working at 60% capacity and think they are
working too hard.
It's
only when we spend time with a person who is genuinely challenging
himself--and his comfort zone--do we question our methods. This is what
quality training is: deliberate, impressive effort towards our goals on a
daily basis.
Self
Help: Mental Toughness Exercise
Take
out a blank sheet of paper. Write down your most important goal in life
right now.
Then,
write down 5 ways you could improve your skills, knowledge, or results.
Include
thoughts on how you could challenge your comfort zone and dramatically
expand your abilities. Then, do something from your list each day, and
watch your performance soar.
I'll
talk to you again soon.
Your
friend,
Lisa B.
PS:
In my newly revised online self help course, Catapult Yourself to Success
Using Mental Toughness, I explain many many strategies for rising to the
top including:
- How to establish love and
respect with people in your life
- How to stop someone from
rejecting you, including divorce
- How to move people to
action at work
- What to say when you're
under the fire of criticism
- How to neutralize the
office bully
- How to handle moody people,
including long-standing relatives
- How to deliver an effective
reprimand
This self help training also
reveals:
- The little known truth
about negative emotions
- The mystery behind procrastination
and de-motivation and how to infuse unceasing energy into your life
- How to remove self-created
suffering from your life (even the Dahlai Lama agrees)
- An Olympic gold medalist's
method for programming himself for success and confidence
- Why positive thinking is
overrated and how you can move through inner barriers of fear
I'd love to see you in it.
For
a complete description of the course curriculum, go to:
http://www.lisabrown.ca/catapult_course.html
*Psyched:
Inner Views of Winning, by Terry Orlick and John Partington. 2005 Zone of
Excellence.
Advanced
Self Help Institute
#106, 527 - 15 Ave
SW
Calgary, Alberta T2R 1R5
Ph: (403) 261-2726 Fax: (403) 261-2725
Email: info@self-helpnow.com
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