LESSONS LEARNT FROM TEAM GB

I loved watching all the interviews, especially listening to all the gold medal winners and their coaches. Most of these were late in the night and I was intrigued to find out what made them so successful, what new ideas could I steal and apply in my life. I listened attentively to find out their secrets. Normally it came down to two things.

1. Hard graft every single day seven days a week, at least 50 weeks a year

2. Doing the basics every single day

There is so much we can learn and take away from our heroes and the GB team. .

Here are some examples

1. As Mo Farah stated it is just hard graft every day. One thing I have learnt in my 21 years as a business owner is that there are no short cuts. It is hard graft every day 10 to 12 hours a day, sometimes, six, seven days a week, 45 weeks a year. Working when some people are sleeping and maybe even playing. Travelling through the night and doing the things that unsuccessful people do not want to do.

2. In listening to the interviews, I learnt that all medal winners go through rejection and disappointment in their lives. They all remembered times when they were feeling low, maybe through injuries or poor performance. In fact it was encouraging to learn on how many occasions when they were ready to pack it in, they were influenced by someone who
encouraged them to try again. They got their mojo back.

3. Olympic winners train every day even when they don’t want to, even when they don’t feel well. They do the basics every day length after length in the pool, round after round in the boxing gym, looking all the time to better themselves.

4. I also learnt that the best athletes never stop learning and are always seeking the edge. My favourite interview was with David Brailsford the British Cycling Coach as he explained how they all look and seek out ideas and concepts that will make them just 1% better than they are now. For example, there are even rules on how the cyclists must wash their hands, to improve their hygiene and thus avoid illnesses. The attention to detail was truly amazing.

5. Lastly Olympic winners take responsibility for their own results and never make excuses if they finish second or third. They make tremendous sacrifices in their own lives to the pursuit of their goals and objectives and are constantly willing to expand outside their comfort zone; in fact some of them don’t even have one. In this way successful dental owners take massive action every day to promote and grow their business, they don’t believe in hope and prayer, unlike some. For me, watching the Olympics in the UK has been life changing and I have taken many lessons away. From the opening ceremony, which I thought was brilliant, to the games itself, it reminded me how great our athletes are and how well we did for such a small nation. We really do punch above our weight and it made me truly proud to be British again.

Don’t forget the last two weeks. I hope you enjoyed the Olympics as much as I did. I also hope that you will consider it as a wake up call to the fact that maybe you are merely scratching the surface of your true potential. Maybe we can all improve and achieve more in our lives. Look at what you can do to raise your game, the game of your team and take stock.

What can we do better today than we did yesterday? How can we raise our performance by 1% today?