i wrestled in high school. it wasn’t my life but it was a great thing for me in many ways.

one thing i vividly remember is a coach who was surprisingly experienced + shared this with us. his career had been cut short due to injury and he turned his focus to teaching the one thing he was passionate about. it came through loud + clear.

though a large guy with a ton of brute strength he wasn’t one to necessarily use it. he was as much about the head games as he was about the physicality of the sport.

in particular i remember his story about dedication + what it takes to succeed. he told us about a former opponent of his, russian i think, who later went on to train for the olympics. wanting to be an olympic champion he realized he had to think like a champion.

he would go to practice with the rest of the olympic team – twice a day for 3 hours each time. but, he reasoned, his opponents wanted to be champion’s as well so they probably put in another hour after their team practice on their own. so he did the same.

as he thought about this though, he realized that he as only one among many potential champions. if they all did an extra hour then they were all potentially equal. his solution was to practice yet another extra hour, alone on his own.

the key to success is hidden under the alarm clock – ben franklin

This entry was posted on Friday, January 15th, 2010 at 07:21 and is filed under inspiration, work. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.