{"id":3459,"date":"2012-08-10T13:09:43","date_gmt":"2012-08-10T17:09:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/lessonsfromarecoveringdoormat\/?p=3459"},"modified":"2012-08-07T13:28:08","modified_gmt":"2012-08-07T17:28:08","slug":"learn-more-from-olympians","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lessonsfromarecoveringdoormat\/2012\/08\/learn-more-from-olympians.html","title":{"rendered":"Learn More from Olympians"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Last week I had a post called Lessons from the US Olympics Gymnastics Team<\/strong><\/a>, with how each of the Fab 5’s behavior taught something special. But there was an overall message among many Olympic athletes that can make a big impact in real life situations\u2014how to come back when life throws a curveball or you blow a big opportunity or you lose at something important or people just don’t think you can cut it or you or a special project you worked on for a long time gets rejected. When you have these setbacks, they often come with negative messages or direct comments from other people, such as:<\/p>\n

\u2022\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u201cMove on\u2014you see it didn\u2019t work.\u201d
\n\u2022\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u201cYou\u2019re losing you\u2019re stride so find something else to do.\u201d
\n\u2022\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u201cHave you considered that you might be too old to do this anymore?\u201d<\/p>\n

Or worse:
\n\u2022\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u201cYou\u2019ll probably fail if you try again.\u201d
\n\u2022\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u201cDo you like embarrassing yourself?\u201d
\n\u2022\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u201cYou must love disappointment!\u201d<\/p>\n

People can be ignorant. Maybe they think they\u2019re helping you avoid more negatives by discouraging you from trying something again. Often I believe they\u2019re not thinking at all. Or what they say reflects how they\u2019d feel in your shoes. But they\u2019re not you! And many Olympians had to learn to ignore those kinds of comments and pull from within to make a great comeback, or to at least keep going. I lost track of how many times someone won the gold and left doubters with their mouths hanging open in disbelief.<\/p>\n

We saw some succumb to a failure. Some of the gymnasts, especially the US men\u2019s team, had one mistake after another that were uncharacteristic for them. Letting failures into your head, believing what others say and either quitting or doing poorly from the pressure, is a CHOICE, not a sentence. It\u2019s only true if you choose to believe it. Michael Phelps came in second to Ryan Lochte in his first swim race. He didn\u2019t look so good and failed to win gold. People wondered if he was over, burnt, not in good enough shape.<\/p>\n

Michael is in the spotlight and could have let all the negatives get to him. They could have made him feel insecure, or feel a need to defend himself. But he chose to prove himself by going on to win four more gold medals and one silver. Watching him swim in the next races showed that he used all the doubts about him as motivation to show everyone that he’s still at the top of his game.<\/p>\n

Sanya Richards-Ross was favored to win gold in the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing but she left the blocks too quickly and was overtaken at the end, getting the bronze medal instead. It was a big disappointment and people didn\u2019t know if she could come back four years later. But she was determined to get the gold this time and did, for the U.S. in the women’s 400 meters. Failing didn\u2019t daunt her. She knew she could do it and did. Michael Phelps knew he could do it. That belief and determination helps you succeed!<\/p>\n

Oscar Pistorius from South Africa was denied a place because he has prosthetic legs. But he fought for his right. While he didn\u2019t make it into the finals, he considers himself a winner for being there and will continue to race. Many other athletes made big comebacks, despite poor expectations, because they believed in themselves and refused to absorb the doubt from other people. Doubt means nothing unless YOU doubt YOU.<\/p>\n

If you\u2019re trying to win at something in life, remember these Olympians. Practice, work hard, get really good at what you do, and build confidence from knowing you have it and owning your strengths. Shut out the naysayers who try to discourage you. I\u2019ve actually told people to keep anything but positive comments to themselves. People make great comebacks every day. You can too, if you CHOOSE to believe in yourself more than the memory of a failure or people\u2019s doubts. You can win your personal challenge by going after it with all that you have!
\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":"

Last week I had a post called Lessons from the US Olympics Gymnastics Team, with how each of the Fab 5’s behavior taught something special. But there was an overall message among many Olympic athletes that can make a big impact in real life situations\u2014how to come back when life throws a curveball or you…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":83,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,2],"tags":[470,474,475,471,473,472],"class_list":["post-3459","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-nice-people-can-finish-first","category-self-empowerment-confidence","tag-2012-olympics","tag-determination","tag-drive","tag-michael-phelps","tag-oscar-pistorius","tag-sanya-richards-ross"],"yoast_head":"\nLearn More from Olympians - 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\/learn-more-from-olympians.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Learn More from Olympians - Lessons from a Recovering Doormat\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Last week I had a post called Lessons from the US Olympics Gymnastics Team, with how each of the Fab 5’s behavior taught something special. 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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\/3459","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=3459"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lessonsfromarecoveringdoormat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3459\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3464,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lessonsfromarecoveringdoormat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3459\/revisions\/3464"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lessonsfromarecoveringdoormat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3459"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lessonsfromarecoveringdoormat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3459"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lessonsfromarecoveringdoormat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3459"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}