Friday, August 15, 2008

Inspiration Friday: Think Like An Olympian

Good Morning Everybody,
So how many Olympic "junkies" do we have out there this week. I can't pull LaDawn from the TV set and I hit NBCOlympics.com early the next morning for the previous day's highlights. If you caught any part of the broadcasts this week, you know what inspiration is all about. The opening ceremonies were super creative, mesmerizing and totally inspiring to watch - at one point, 2008 Tai Chi Masters executing a utterly impossible visual display of precision and grace. You can catch the Opening Ceremony Sights and Sounds right here. I had to download Microsoft's SilverLight software to view the video, but it was well worth it. Check it out if you one of the few to miss it.

How important is it for us to try to excel at that level or even near that level of performance? The opening ceremony guys/gals weren't even competing in any events and yet their dedication to perfection and expertise in presentation were amazing to watch. It all comes down to this - How good do you want to be, just good enough or the best you can be? And if you agree that it's the best you want to be, and you aspire to that goal, and then think that you have reached it - I offer you this. You still are not at your top form.

Being the best is an ongoing journey, it's a mountain that is constantly being climbed with the peak always within site but never reached. But as we pursue are goal to reach the unreachable peak, we go farther and higher with each new step we take when we thought we couldn't take another. None of us know what our "best" is. The worst remark we can make is, "I'm doing my best." Why, because for each of us "our Best" is an unknown level of performance we have within us that we have yet to achieve.

Look at all the world records being broken just in the swimming meets so far - Michael Phelps has broken his five "Bests" by far this week. Were his old times his best times, I think the answer is clear - I think his best times are still in his future even as he shatters his past records with his current wins.

We need to do the same if we want to be at the top of our fields, we need to constantly move toward that unreachable peak always keeping it in our sites, always taking the next step when we thought we couldn't take another, and we too will find Olympic Golds laying in our own paths as we move towards that unattainable peak.

1 comment:

  1. Mr. Ziser,

    Very inspiring and true. It made me realize how very mediocre I have been at times. Not attempting to push myself to excel. Not only cheating others but cheating myself. Thanks as usual for the great post. Take care, Michael Murphy

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