Sharing my gold medal moments with a double Olympic champion

 

 

I was delighted to accept an invitation to present alongside Alex Gregory at a recent event in London hosted by Stanton House. Alex was part of the record-breaking rowing team and won gold at London and Rio in the coxless fours.

The presentation topic was focussed around sustaining peak performance with Alex drawing on his personal experiences and learnings from the world of sport and with myself applying some of my learnings and experiences from a business context.

I was aware that Alex would be bringing along his 2 gold medals to show to the audience which initially made me feel a little anxious about my own successes, especially in the business where successes are invariably less tangible and less impactive.

He explained that  his gold medals represented his immense achievements, his unwavering commitment and his emotional sense of pride. They acted as a permanent recognition and reinforcement of his successes and achievements and a trigger for his associated emotions.

It got me thinking about success and influenced me to stop and reflect on my own achievements  – something that many of us find a challenging task to do.

Success is relative and will mean different things to different people. We all have successes , big and small, personal and professional, that we should be proud of and celebrate,  however not  all of us will have a gold medal or an accolade to show for them and as a result they can be easily forgotten, pushed to the backs of our minds and mentally discarded.

Don’t lose sight of your gold medal moments  –  achievements and successes that mean something to you. Recognise them , embrace them and continually acknowledge them and find ways to tie them into your thinking and to reinforce positive emotions. Success breeds success and can significantly influence a positive mind-set from which personal confidence can grow and lead to  greater success and achievements.

I followed on from Alex’s inspirational story of success and achievement and I began my presentation with my gold medal moments –  highlighting some of my professional and personal achievements and their significance to me.

I then posed the following  questions  to the audience :-

What are your gold medal moments?

What are the future gold medal moments that you are currently working towards?

Coaching, whether sports or business related, helps to build confidence and self -awareness  and aims to support you to recognise and enhance your strengths and successes in order to continually improve personal and business performance.