No matter how good you are at what you do, everyone gets “out of shape”. Yesterday there was an article on Michael Phelps – you know, the swimmer in Beijing who has already been labeled by many as The Greatest Olympian. The article was about his next goals and intentions for the Olympics in London next year.
Ever since Beijing in 2008, Michael has been found more often on a golf course than in a swimming pool. The article said that before the 2007 World Championships he was logging nearly 50 miles a week in a swimming pool (holy cow!), and in this past year, it’s been more like 19 miles a week. That’s less than half the amount of time per week than before.
Many of you know that I had the privilege of meeting Michael in person because of my Event Management project in Beijing. When I talked to him in Beijing, he said that in the 3 years leading up to Beijing, he never missed a day in the pool. No exceptions. That means birthdays, holidays, sick… no matter what. The difference between #1 & #2 in swimming is often hundredths of a second. He said that he truly believed that the consistency in the pool is what made the greatest difference. Is he talented? No doubt. But there are tons of other swimmers around the world that are also very talented. The critical inch is the amount of time he spent in the swimming pool. It’s what set him apart.
Since Beijing he has spent significantly less time in the pool… and he’ll be the first to tell you that’s one of the reasons he has (temporarily) lost his edge. Is he still talented? Of course. Does he still know how to swim? Absolutely. But there is nothing that replaces time logged in action.
I don’t care how good you are at what you do, the more time there is between appointments, the rustier you get. There are nuances that cannot be learned in a book, the only way to sharpen your skills is to be in action. I dare you to test me on this one.
Go hold one skin care party and afterwards take notes on what you can improve on. And then I dare you to hold 10 within a week. Whether you are successful at it or not, re-evaluate yourself at the end of that week and tell me that you didn’t improve. When you know what you need to improve on and then apply what you learned immediately, the learning curve is shorter. You will get better exponentially simply because there is less time between applying your lessons.
The article about Michael says that the losses he’s had in the last couple of years is beginning to build up his motivation to come back even stronger. Maybe you’ve had a little dip in your success over the last year. There’s no time like the present to come back even stronger! I don’t know about you, but I am looking forward to seeing what a champion like Michael does. You know what? I’m even more excited to see YOU take a quantum leap this quarter!!!
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