Go For the GOLD!

"An athlete gains so much knowledge by just participating in a sport. Focus, discipline, hard work, goal setting and, of course, the thrill of finally achieving your goals. These are all lessons in life.” — Kristi Yamaguchi, world champion figure skater

Did you all have the opportunity to watch the Winter Olympics? What an exciting time! You couldn’t help but be inspired, motivated and PROUD as you watched these young athletes give it their ALL for their team, their sport, and their country!

The quote above by world champion figure skater Kristi Yamaguchi does an excellent job of summarizing exactly what motivates these athletes to win and HOW they do it. This quote is also an excellent metaphor on how we can live our lives. It provides us with a blueprint on how to win in the gold medal in the game of life. Think about it, each day are you practicing these five principles?

Focus: Do you know what you are striving towards? Have you clearly identified what you truly want in life? It is important that you become crystal clear in this area so that you can focus on what you want. Visualize your Success!

Discipline: It takes a lot of discipline to reach our goals! If you’ve ever been on a diet, you know the importance of discipline. It is really about focusing on the long term results and having the control to pass over the short term gratifications that throw you off track. Simply put, it is skipping desert in favor of going to the gym…practicing self control to reach our goals.

Hard work: Nobody ever said life was going to be easy. It takes hard work and perseverance to attain our goals. The Olympic athletes spend countless hours practicing and perfecting their skills to compete in the Olympics. In life, we also must work very hard to reach our goals. We must not accept being average, we must strive to be the best!

Goal Setting: Once you know what you want in life, the most important thing you can do is set specific goals. You can bet that every Olympian’s goal is to win a GOLD medal for their country. Once that goal is set, the next step is to create the action plan (and strategies) to achieve that goal.

Achieving your Goals: This is the thrill of the victory! The GOLD medal of life! Your pay off for having focus, practicing discipline, working hard and setting specific goals. When all of your hard work pays off and you have reached your goal!