Be In Place To Win You Happiness

Blog post 2-17-06

Watching the Olympics going on in Torino the last few days has revealed a lesson we all can use. To always be ready, prepared and in position to win.

The American skier, Ted Ligety won the Alpine Combined event because he was there and he has given it his best. He was not favored to win before the race, but when the predicted leaders had troubles he was there. Had he not given it his all, someone else would have been there.

Then, yesterday in the Snowboardcross final race when American rider Lindsey Jacobellis crashed near the end, with a sizeable lead — Tanja Frieden of Switzerland was there to take the gold. Tanja had kept striving after an earlier mishap on the course that slowed her down.

Be There

Both of these people were there, giving it all they had — ready for the opportunity to present itself. They could have not given it their all figuring that they were not favored to win.

How about you — are you ‘there’, giving it all you’ve got? Success comes to those who are ‘in the game’ and ready for the opportunity. One difference between you and an athlete is that every person can be successful in life, where in the Olympics there is only one gold metal per event.

In order to succeed at the things in your life that you want to succeed at, you must get yourself in the position to do so. If you want a different job or career, what are you doing about moving in that direction?

If you want to be less emotionally reactive to things going on around you, what are you doing each day to change that?

If you want less stress in your life, what are you doing to both reduce stress inducing situations and learning to handle stress differently?

These things and more are common things people complain about, but do little to change.

Are you in position to succeed?

What is getting yourself in the position to win? Being in the right frame of mind with your attitude and your thinking. Being the kind of person that does, is or has what you want. Doing the things that successful person does.

Just doing more reading ‘about’ the dilemma will only help to make you more aware of it, not change it. You must DO things each day to effect change in your life, just as an athlete must train every day. Just like an athlete cannot get good at their sport without continuous practice, you can’t get good at life!

Whatever it is that you want to work on in your life to change for the better, you must pay attention to daily. Make time to think about it, contemplate it, ask yourself discovery questions, and notice when and why you do the things you want to change. Make it your intention each day to notice doing these things, analyze your thoughts and behaviors and plan how they can be done differently.

Once you have decided how you can do it different, begin to. Thinking about what you want is definitely important, but taking appropriate action is critical. The thinking part is the preparation and helps keep you going, but you must take action. Not just any action, but purposeful action — the right action.

Don’t quit too soon!

You don’t need to get it all done perfect at first, again like the athlete it takes time and repeated effort. Another good analogy from the Olympics is the ice dancing pairs. The American couple, Tanith Belbin and Ben Agosto, who have been skating together for one year, are considered a new couple. The well-established highly successful pairs have been together for several years, some 10 or more.

The idea to get from this is — don’t expect perfection after your first tries at change. It takes time, just keep at it. It is an ‘all your life’ activity not a one shot quick fix.

This cannot be done once in a while, I’m sure you’ve already tried that. Most of us have.

Developing a successful life is an everyday thing, continuous self-improvement!

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Look for more articles here on self-improvement addressing topics like motivation, goal setting, self-confidence and living a purpose driven life.

Grow, discover, and thrive,

John

John Halderman, a writer, speaker, and trainer intent on helping you get real results from your personal growth efforts.

He supports methods, tools, and knowledge that bridge the gap between information and effective results.

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