>Sport and business have much in common as each is about teamwork, discipline, hard work and, above all, success!
At a recent seminar, Amy Williams, gold medal winner at the Vancouver Winter Olympics in the skeleton event, described the huge amount of research undertaken to help her gain those precious extra few hundredths of a second.
This included the controversial design of her helmet, down to her body temperature prior to the start of the event. Research had shown that her body performed best at slightly above normal body temperature so Amy wore a thermal wrap (like we see marathon runners wearing after they have completed their run) under her jacket for the period immediately before the start. Research had also shown that muscles recover more effectively if cooled down rapidly after her event. This required Amy to immerse herself in freezing water for a number of minutes after each race. Amy acted on all of the research and guidance provided and the results spoke for themselves!
A few years ago I read a similar story from Adrian Moorhouse, 1988 Olympic gold medal swimmer. After failing at the Los Angeles games he realised he would need to break the world record, which was 2 minutes faster than his current personal best. He worked out that to speed up by that amount he needed to reduce his time by 30 seconds a year and broke that right down to four hundredths of a second for every swim if he did 2 swims a day. That is what he did and he too achieved his gold medal.
The point of these two amazing examples is that little improvements accumulate into big ones, in business as in sport. And the more specific those improvements are the more motivational they are to achieve.
What specific improvements can you make on a daily, weekly and monthly basis to achieve your goals and win your ‘gold medal’?
