{"id":3450,"date":"2012-08-03T12:01:20","date_gmt":"2012-08-03T16:01:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/lessonsfromarecoveringdoormat\/?p=3450"},"modified":"2012-08-01T13:17:49","modified_gmt":"2012-08-01T17:17:49","slug":"lessons-from-the-us-olympics-gymnastics-team","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lessonsfromarecoveringdoormat\/2012\/08\/lessons-from-the-us-olympics-gymnastics-team.html","title":{"rendered":"Lessons from the US Olympics Gymnastics Team"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>I love the Olympics and try to watch at least some of it every day. I confess that gymnastics is my favorite event and am proud of the US women\u2019s team for winning the gold medal. Watching the team finals, I learned some great lessons.<\/p>\n

There was a lot of pressure on the US women\u2019s gymnastics team. The US hadn\u2019t won the team gold medal since 1996. Everyone was talking about this team. Our men\u2019s team was also heralded as having great potential but they chocked in their first time out. Some of the greatest members made mistakes and none looked confident. So the women\u2019s team had a lot on their shoulders when they began the team competition<\/p>\n

Nerves were showing in some of the women. But the US team focused on their ability and training instead of letting it hurt their performance like some of the Russian women did. McKayla Maroney<\/strong> knew that she was on the team to do one event she excelled in\u2014the vault. And she delivered in a huge way as she flew high above the apparatus and landed superbly. Her skill gave her the confidence to prevail over her nerves. The commentator said Kyla Ross<\/strong> has had some blips in per performance from nerves but she rose above them to focus on what she\u2019s trained for over years. The lesson is that confidence in your ability can overcome nerves.<\/p>\n

Too often we mess up because we\u2019re so focused on being scared of doing what we know we do well. Singers forget the words to a song they\u2019ve known since childhood at a big performance. Someone who is well prepared for a big work presentations can succumb to nerves and stammer when they speak instead of doing what they normally do so well with confidence. Nerves can really hurt us if we let them!<\/p>\n

Jordyn Wieber<\/strong> missed out on being eligible for the individual all-around medal when her nerves caused some small mistakes that added up to a lower score than two of her teammates. People were concerned that it would be such a let down that it would affect her participation in the rest of the events. But she said she was going to do her best for the team, and did! Many would be so disappointed they\u2019d give up.\u00a0 Or they\u2019d let those mistakes lower their confidence for the future. That can so easily happen. After making a mistake, your choice it to succumb and let it make you feel like you\u2019re not good enough, or you can rise above it like Jordyn did and focus on your skills so you can succeed.<\/p>\n

Gabby Douglas<\/strong> had the world watching her. Her family sacrificed a lot to get her to the Olympics, relocating far from home to train. She had a lot riding on her performance in all four events. Instead of letting that pressure push her nervous buttons like many of us do, Gabby focused on getting it done. And she did\u2014with flying colors\u2014she literally flew breathlessly through the air during some of the events. Gabby showed what can be done when you let your self-confidence override nerves.<\/p>\n

The best lesson came from Aly Raisman.<\/strong> She was calm and collected as she approached the balance beam. But what struck me most was a discussion about her. They said people do different things with nervousness. Some people push it aside and try to ignore it. Aly changes how she perceives it. She feels the nerves as excitement, not something that can hurt you. And excitement feels good, so it motivates you in a positive way.<\/p>\n

We all have choices just as the \u201cFab Five\u201d team did. You can let nerves control you or you can CHOOSE to control your nerves. When you\u2019re prepared for what you have to do, it\u2019s easier. But you also have the CHOICE to feel the nerves in a positive or negative way. You can let nerves create what ifs?\u2014potential reasons for you to mes up\u2014or like Aly Raisman\u2014feel it as excitement, which helped enhance her performance instead of triggering mistakes. The five young women are role models for letting confidence in yourself help them rise to the top of their game. You can too–if you CHOOSE to!
\n***************<\/p>\n

Take the 31 Days of Self-Love Challenge<\/strong><\/a>–a pledge to do something loving for yourself for the next 31 days–and get my book, How Do I Love Me? Let Me Count the Ways<\/a><\/strong> for free at http:\/\/howdoiloveme.com<\/a><\/strong>. Read my 31 Days of Self-Love Posts from 2012 HERE<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Please leave comments under my posts so we can stay connected.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I love the Olympics and try to watch at least some of it every day. I confess that gymnastics is my favorite event and am proud of the US women\u2019s team for winning the gold medal. Watching the team finals, I learned some great lessons. There was a lot of pressure on the US women\u2019s…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":83,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14,2],"tags":[466,465,464,468,467,462,469,463],"class_list":["post-3450","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-positive-mental-attitude","category-self-empowerment-confidence","tag-aly-raisman","tag-gabby-douglas","tag-jordyn-wieber","tag-kyla-ross","tag-mckayla-maroney","tag-olympics","tag-us-womens-gymnastics-team","tag-womens-gymnastics"],"yoast_head":"\nLessons from the US Olympics Gymnastics Team - Lessons from a Recovering Doormat<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lessonsfromarecoveringdoormat\/2012\/08\/lessons-from-the-us-olympics-gymnastics-team.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Lessons from the US Olympics Gymnastics Team - Lessons from a Recovering Doormat\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I love the Olympics and try to watch at least some of it every day. 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Let Me Count the Ways, a She's appeared on hundreds of TV and radio shows, including Oprah, Howard Stern, and Good Morning America and has been quoted in dozens of publications, including the New York Times, Chicago Sun-Times, Cosmopolitan, Redbook, Marie Claire, and Men\u00b9s Health. After being a consummate People Pleaser who felt unworthy of getting her own needs met for many years, Daylle found a path of self-love that enabled her to build her self-esteem and reinvent herself into a dual career. She learned to get taken seriously without being overtly assertive when she became one of the first women to start an independent record label (on a dare!) and learned to play ball nicely and successfully in an industry dominated by men. To help independent musicians empower themselves, Daylle writes music business books for Billboard\/Random House, including the very popular Start & Run Your Own Record Labe and I Don't Need a Record Deal! Daylle's books have been translated into over 10 languages and are popular around the world. She speaks for colleges, organizations and corporations. Through her company, Project Self-Empowerment, Daylle creates programs and materials to help people empower themselves. One goal is to raise the money to self-publish her book, How Do I Love Me? Let Me Count the Ways and give it away for free in colleges and through organizations, to give thanks for all her blessings. Daylle uses her writing and speaking to help others find the kind of contentment and empowerment that she has.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lessonsfromarecoveringdoormat\/author\/dschwartz"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lessonsfromarecoveringdoormat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3450","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lessonsfromarecoveringdoormat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lessonsfromarecoveringdoormat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lessonsfromarecoveringdoormat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/83"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lessonsfromarecoveringdoormat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3450"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lessonsfromarecoveringdoormat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3450\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3455,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lessonsfromarecoveringdoormat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3450\/revisions\/3455"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lessonsfromarecoveringdoormat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3450"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lessonsfromarecoveringdoormat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3450"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lessonsfromarecoveringdoormat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3450"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}