There’s something truly enthralling about watching the best athletes in the country compete for a coveted spot on the 2012 Olympic team, along with a little dose of irony. Us inferior beings on the couch with a big bag of potato chips watching superior, seemingly superhuman beings do insane, shape shifting maneuvers on unlikely apparatuses. The athletes’ lifelong dreams play out before our eyes. We cheer, we smile, we laugh, we cry. After four long years of hibernation, the Olympics are back and ready to inspire.
One of the most important things we can learn from our Olympians is the power of perseverance. These athletes dedicate years and years– the majority of their young lives– practicing and practicing, for the chance to make it to the biggest sports competition in the world. For most, the Games will be the apex of their career. Years of preparation for one, fleeting chance at an Olympic medal.
Your upcoming presentation may not be the apex of your career, but work to channel the energy and perseverance of an Olympian while you deliver. Think of all the preparation you’ve done and all the times you’ve practiced. Now it’s time to deliver. Now it’s time to show the audience what you’ve got. Preparation is the most important part of an athlete’s career. And without proper preparation, there won’t be an effective delivery. So, be prepared.
And then there’s the most tragic of all Olympic occurrences– those times when the waterworks really start to flow– and that’s when an athlete is so prepared, so ready to deliver, and they make a mistake. It’s almost alarming… “Wait, you’re supposed to be perfect! …and everyone knows that nine times out of ten they would have stuck that landing or scored that goal or thrown that farther. But this one time, this particular run, this specific day, it just didn’t happen. The dots didn’t connect. The stars didn’t align.
But alas, mistakes happen. People are flawed, situations don’t turn out as expected, bad stuff happens to good people, and on and on. Surely, athletes that make a mistake that robs them of their chance at gold, athletes that miss the record by a quarter of a second, athletes that were favorites but come in fifth, surely these athletes mull over those blunders for years and years. But with some hope, there’s the next year, the next competition, the next Olympics. With some hope, they’ll get another chance.
In short, sometimes, despite truly giving it your all, you fail. You make a mistake. You blunder. Even if you’ve practiced a million times, the possibility still exists that things won’t go as expected. The possibility still exists that you may fail. And while it’s not beneficial to dwell on this possibility, it is important to be aware of it, so you can keep things in perspective. Mistakes happen, whether that’s in London at the Olympics or in Chicago at a conference or in a San Diego boardroom. The important thing is to keep your head up, not take it too seriously and get back on the horse when you have the chance.
