I love watching the Olympics because I get to peer into exceptional performance and achievement and admire the sacrificial journey (often a lifetime) individuals pay to get there. Sometimes these athletes are born with exceptional advantages that give them an edge, but often the medal winners have exceptional disadvantages and setbacks that should have eliminated them. They turn excuses into exclamation points!
Transforming Setbacks Into Strength
The drama of the games can be entertainment I could do without, but the inspiration is powerful and transformative. Enjoy the rest of the Olympic games this week, and find examples to fuel your personal vision, growth, and healing to win gold in your own game. Find yourself in their stories. I know that sounds cliche, but when you know your purpose, you understand clearly the prize you're pursuing each day. And if we can identify something as valuable as a gold medal to pursue, we will make the everyday choices and sacrifice needed to win the prize.
I hesitate to say we are watching the world's best athletes because that feels a bit like we are watching the world's most gifted people. While there are definitely some gifted people, I don't think we are just watching the world's most gifted people. What I think we are treally watching are the world's most hopefully obsessed people. They are showing us the power of hopeful obsession.
We have talked before about the power of obsession--that relentless focus that says no to just about everything that's not the primary goal. This week, I'd like to talk about hope, because without hope, obsession can go down some dark paths.
I think hope is misunderstood as unfounded optimism that ignores reality, which can be dangerous. That sounds like, "I hope this turns out okay" or "I hope nothing bad happens." Rather, I see hope as a persistent vision or lens that frames the purpose and potential for every situation as an opportunity. Like Dweck's growth mindset, hope sees every situation as a stepping stone or building block for growth.
Proper Hope Values Growth
Olympic champions don't hope that the gym doesn't have any difficult weights today, or that the next practice opponent is an easy one. Rather, a champion's hope longs for the most difficult workout or opponent that doesn't kill them, because they know that the biggest lion they can face today, even with its sweat, bruises, and pain, will prepare them for the giant they will face later.
Consider the prizes you can be hopefully obsessed to pursue. Maybe it's a great marriage, being an engaged parent, leading your team successfully, building a home, launching a business, or becoming a teacher. Next, get a great trainer. Study the sport. Stick with training partners, and don't forget to thank your mom when you get interviewed on the podium. :)
Encourage yourself and your team this week to be hopefully obsessed--to know what you're obsessed about and to have the hope that every situation is an opportunity to make progress towards your obsession--if you take the opportunity. Remember how Edison framed failure as getting that much closer to solving the light bulb. Remember the athletes who credit overcoming their disadvantages as the arenas where they really became champions. Remember that an unengaged weight can crush you, but engaging the weight by pushing back with your own strength, will grow you. Be a hopeful obsessive.
Commentaires