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The Mind Of An Olympian!

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With the summer games in full force, it’s nice to reflect for a moment on what it takes to become an Olympian.  What is the formula these athletes use to build up to the excellence needed to compete, not to mention, win in the Olympics? I’ve spoken and written at length on the characteristics of winners but reviewing these high-performance athletes helps us to once again look for that “secret sauce”.  Notwithstanding what I call the “Financial Path”, there are four remaining paths that I believe to be the central issues in creating excellence; Emotional; Physical; Intellectual and Spiritual.  The athletes who perform at this level are all very advanced in their journey on these four paths.

Emotional strength is every bit as important as the other paths when it comes to high-performance because it is our ability to address adversity that often delineates performance between an excellent athlete and a not-so-excellent athlete. Science has studied the Intelligence Quotient (IQ) and they’ve even studied the Emotional Quotient (EQ) but little attention has been paid to a concept that was developed in the 1990’s called the Adversity Quotient (AQ).  This hard to define indicator measures a person’s ability to keep battling toward the next goal regardless of obstacles can often accurately measure a person’s persistence and self-confidence.  Athletes at a high level, as well as high performing business people, politicians, or any other group of high-performance people,  require a high AQ in order to make the decisions they make and find the motivation they need to press forward regardless of obstacles

Physical health is an obvious characteristic as these athletes work diligently for years to optimize their muscles, tendons, bones and total body to perform as needed.  A good analogy is auto racing.  A car racing in the Indianapolis 500 is optimized to run 500 miles at the top achievable speed and then be to be rebuilt.  A dragster, on the other hand, is designed to run for ¼ mile and then be rebuilt. Marathoners clearly have a different development program than shot-putters.  The question here for you and me is what is our goal?  And yes, you’ve probably figured out that ties to the Emotional Path because many of the physical goals we have are emotionally driven; I want to be better looking!  I want to live longer!  The linkage is clear

There is often a question of how the Intellectual Path comes into play but, to have the mind of an Olympian, you must have a thorough and conscious knowledge of the processes and procedures necessary to optimize your physical needs.  If we examine how athletes exercise, for example, there is a great deal of intellectual knowledge of how the body works, how muscles develop and how the cardiovascular system works.  And we continue to learn more from High-Intensity Training, the Tabata Protocol, Yoga and simply a better use of our muscle development.  In our lives, we too need to think about the processes and procedures we need to achieve our goals.  Often, you must start with a blank sheet of paper as you review your goals and work to define what can make them become realities.

Finally, the mind of an Olympian is typically at peace with their Spiritual Path and often find purpose in it.  This path is often the guiding path to a person setting their values and priorities and helping to clarify and provide peace.  Performing at a high level and competing at that level opens you up to loss.  And for those who are Emotionally charged, Physically tuned and Intellectually committed, the loss can be so painful as to derail  a person. In this situation, being at peace along your Spiritual path can provide you significant comfort.

Whether you’re an Olympian or a person simply trying to build a better life, don’t negate the importance of having your life’s paths lined up, centered and moving forward.  Yes often there are roadblocks, detours, and bumps, but by continually striving to move forward you will, in the end, realize that you’ve traveled much further than you thought you could.

Steve Beaman is the founder and chairman of The Society for the Advancement of Financial Literacy. He is the author of “The American Dream Under Fire” and over a hundred S.A.F.E. Insights highlighting key contemporary economic and financial issues. Steve is the host of the weekly radio show, The Steve Beaman Show.  Steve also appears as a regular guest on televised financial programs.

For more information about Steve Beaman, visit http://stevebeamanshow.com/

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