How to Do What Hasn't Been Done

The 2014 Winter Olympic Games are just days away. 

 

Close your eyes for a moment and imagine these more than 2500 athletes from 80 nations, and the endless, bone-wearying hours of practice, training and no-doubt pure pain endured in preparation for the Olympic Games.

 

Think of their incredible execution at every trial and competition leading up to Sochi, and the unbelievable, unwavering, inspirational persistence and patience they demonstrate as they compete in 98 different events.

 

We are smack dab in the middle of what could be called P.E.P.P. week. Every competitor vying for a medal follows the P.E.P.P. formula: Preparation, Execution, Persistence and Patience.

 

So many Olympic athletes have overcome so many odds: injuries, illness, less –than-ideal training facilities, financial burdens and training schedules most of us would never consider. They are the epitome of cliché phrases about inspiration and hope. But, because of their stories, and what they have accomplished, we can see that hard work pays off in accomplishing things that may have never been done before.

• US Olympians Shani Davis, a speed skater, and Shaun White, a snowboarder, could win their third straight Olympic gold medals!
• Three sisters from Canada, Justine (19), Chloe (22) and Maxime Dufour-Lapointe (24) are all competing for Team Canada in moguls in Sochi. If they all win medals, they would be the first trio of sisters to sweep a podium!
  
• The United States has never won a gold medal in cross-country skiing, but 2013 world champion Kikkan Randall could pull it off in Sochi!
• And, in an unheard-of sacrifice, American biathlete Tracy Barnes gave up her spot on the Olympic team so that her twin sister Lanny, who was too ill to compete at the Olympic trials, could go to Sochi. In her third Olympics, Lanny will be leading the largest Olympic biathlete team in American history.

Whatever your goals, approach them like an Olympic athlete – prepare, follow through, keep trying and know that rewards may not be around the first turn, but rather, somewhere down the trail.

 

 

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“I am building a fire and everyday I train, I add more fuel, and at just the right moment, I light the match.” -- Mia Hamm