Sonya Richards-Ross is a 4 time Olympic gold medalist, 6 time World Champion, and at age of 28, is looking to compete in the olympics one last time. Sonya knows what it takes to be a champion, and one of those qualities is FOCUS. After a history of injuries, Sonya continues to come back and blow us away out on the track. This is because she has found a way to stay focused in a world filled with distractions.
In the business world as on the track, we face distractions every day. Issues that come up that aim to throw us off course. Odds are that we aren't facing the same physical strains as an olympic athlete during our day-to-day, but the mental strain translates the same. We live in a culture where we are never good enough. To rest on one's success is to fall behind. We are called to always be pushing the bar forward, and to keep driving our feet. But what happens when we push too hard? Have you ever seen a boy leaned into his father's palm, trying with all of his might to push his father backwards? If you have, you have probably also seen this father step out of the way, sending his son stumbling forward to the ground. We are that little boy. We push and push until something gives, and we come crashing down to the floor known as failure. This is not to say that failure is a bad thing necessarily. As we all know, some of our greatest failures today, will lead to our greatest successes tomorrow. But, what do we do after we fail? We cannot allow our failure to bring us down, and surely not our team. This goes double if you are in a leadership position. As Sonya said it, "Don't let your personal failures, get in the way of team victories."
Lets use our same scenario again of the boy pushing against his father. What if instead of moving aside, the father simply remained planted firmly in place? Sooner or later the boy is going to get tired. If you have ever run for an extended distance, you know what it means to "hit your wall". This happens to most runners. the "wall", is a point where a runner becomes both physically and mentally tired, and the thought of quitting the race becomes more and more appealing. It is a distraction faced by every runner if they run far enough. In our terms, maybe there is a problem that you are working on that you just can't seem to solve. Or maybe there is a coworker who just won't cooperate. Whatever your "wall" may be, it makes you want to throw in the towel more and more the longer it looms over you. When this occurs, we have to choices. Either give up, or push through to the finish. If you have the focus to push through that wall, the race will get simpler. Call it your second wind. Once you finally get through that point of ultimate exhaustion, if you persevere and remain focused, everything will start to become much simpler again as you regain your stride.
One way to do this is to constantly be reminding yourself of your goals. Why did you enter this race in the first place? Keep a constant reminder of your goals, and stay focused on them. Do not lose sight. While you are at it, provide support and encouragement for your team as they strive to attain their goals. Nothing takes the mind off of our own suffering better than shifting your focus to someone else. In this way, you can build each other up, and push each other to the finish line. Visualize your victory before it ever happens. Plan on what it will feel like, look like, sound like to succeed before you ever begin the race, and make it happen. If you can visualize the victory, it becomes much more probable to achieve it once the race begins.
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