Thoughts and pictures have power

A lot has been said and written about the London Olympics so I wasn’t going to say anything but there are just two wonderful stories from medal winners which I want to quickly share with you. They are fabulous examples of how we influence our own lives with our thoughts and drawings or scribbles.

 

“I want to say that I beat him. I want to go out there and beat the best. To be the best means racing the greatest that’s ever been.” said Chad le Clos prior to the Olympics. (I love his positive language and his focus.) About Phelps he said, "Ever since 2004 when he won six gold medals, he has been an inspiration and role model.” "I have all his major races on my computer, I think I have watched the 100m butterfly Beijing final, when he beat Cavic by 0.01 seconds, a million times. I have it in seven different languages."

Now years ago I was told if you want to be successful pick a person in your field that you admire, and feel what it is like to be them.

Here is what Chad said after he won the gold and beat Phelps, “I felt like him, swimming that last 50 I felt like I was Phelps,” “I always wanted to swim in an Olympic Games and I wanted to be like him.” It seems it worked for him!

And here is a story about the enormous power of putting your dreams and inspirations onto paper:  

A bit of opposition never hurt anybody

I have just read the following quotation sent to me by http://www.cybernation.com/
A certain amount of opposition is a great help to a man. Kites
rise against, not with, the wind. - John Neal

It got me thinking, as so many quotes do. Few of us talk about how easy things are; if things are moving along easily and smoothly we rarely mention it. But when things are challenging, when its not all going our way, when there is some opposition, we talk a lot. And that talk is usually in the form of complaints.

Talking is not a bad thing but if we can find benefits in the opposition we can “kill a few birds with one stone”. Complaining encourages us to think negatively which encourages a negative, self sustaining, reality. However if we search for the benefits in the struggle we start seeing the doughnut instead of the hole. If we do this often enough it becomes habit and we bring about a change of our own mind set. When our mind set changes to one of seeing the positives, we speak positively and our thoughts become positive thoughts. We then encourage a positive reality.


How many of you say “I work best under pressure” or “I always leave it to the last minute and then I get it done”? Not necessarily the best habit to have, but a reminder that opposition often helps us. An athlete rarely does their best time when they compete on their own or in a weak field. To achieve a personal best they need tough competition to help them find that extra ability and determination in themselves. We are athletes of daily life. A bit of opposition gives us the opportunity to find something special in ourselves.


Originally written in Dec 2007