I love swimming, but I have to admit that I am more of a participant than a spectator. However, this week I have been amazed at how Michael Phelps has smashed world records, Olympic races and Olympic records. It’s inspiring to see someone at the top of their game, and still remain grounded and humble. Let’s also mention Mark Spitz (below) who had his 36 year old record broken by Phelps. He was very gracious and spoke up Phelps as a true champion perhaps the greatest Olympian of all time.
While newspapers have been focusing on Phelps’ 12,000 calories a day diet, I noticed two things that stood out. First, was Phelps’ margin of victory in his 7th race - one one thousandth of a second. He was in second place even down to the final meter, when he decided to make a final half-stroke that took him to the wall in first place. The difference between winning and losing is so thin sometimes, but ultimately it came down to decision making. Winners make the right decisions when it counts. In fact, over the 8 races Phelps’ margin of victory was only a total of 13.1 seconds.
The second thing that I noticed from the interviews with Phelps, was a reference to his goals. Yes, he has written goals. As the great man said, “My goals are right next to my bed. My coach and I are the only two people who know what those are. Being able to wake up and look at those every morning is helpful.”
Of course, this is straight out of Napolean Hill’s Think and Grow Rich in which Mr Hill recommends that all goals should be written and looked at (and spoken out aloud) twice a day to really help them become a reality. As I have followed this advice since 2002 with good results, I often wonder how many other people really do the same. I come across some successful business owners from time to time who do, but today was a good day. Phelps does it too. It’s enough to inspire me to create more goals for my list.
Do you have written goals? What do you have goals on? I’d love to hear more about how you set goals.
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