Olympic Training: Life or Death Motivation

One of the few Olympic sports that uses judges to determine scores that I enjoy watching is gymnastics.  The process of determing a winner still frustrates me but those gymnasts are amazing athletes.  What guy wouldn't love to snap his fingers and have the muscles that the olympic guys have?  To be able to do what they do on the rings is amazing.  But, this isn't about one of the guys.  It is about one of the women.  Yes, I said "women", not girls.  Most Olympic "women" are 16-21 years old and they are pretty old at 25.  But, there was one woman that was representing Germany that was 37 years old.

Oksana Chusovitina is the only female gymnast to compete in 6 Olympics and she began performing internationally in 1989.  Many of the girls she was competing against this year weren't even born at that time.  What has motivated Oksana to continue so long in a sport ruled by teenagers and 20 year olds?

Well, in 2002 her son was diagnosed with Acute Lymphocytic Leukemia and the best option for his survival was for Oksana and her family to move to Germany where he could be treated.  Oksana depended on prize money and relationships in gymnastics to help fund the treatment.  Her son's life depended on her not just doing gymnastics, but doing it well enough to win. 

What do you do for a living?  Could you do it better if your son's life depended on you being the best?  Truett Cathy, the founder of Chick-fil-A, often asks if we are giving our best effort and if we aren't he asks, "why not... why not.... why not?"  Does it take a life and death situation to motivate us to do our best?  Should it?

Colossians 3:17 - And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.

Colossians 3:23 - Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men,

Matthew 5:16 - In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.
       

   

Olympic Training: Gold Medal Leadership

I love watching the Olympics!  Not because I like all the "sports" (ping pong, trampoline and horse dancing?  But that is another blog of some sort).  I like hearing the stories of how the Olympians got to the level they are at. This often includes overcoming personal challenges as well as intense training.  Sometimes the story is just as much about the coach, parent or mentor.

One story was about Michael Phelps.  We've seen him win just about every event in the pool.  We've seen him on Wheaties boxes and endorsing all sorts of stuff.  We've seen him interviewed by everybody.  But, how did he become the dominant swimmer he has been?

Of course, his training included lots of weights, a proper diet, practicing specific techniques, etc.  His coach also pushed him in other ways.  When Phelps was swimming his coach took his goggles and stepped on them so they wouldn't keep water out and made Phelps continue swimming with water filled goggles.  I bet Phelps didn't like that.  I bet he wasn't happy with his coach at that moment.  But, during a swimming final in the Olympics Phelps had his goggles come lose and allow water in.  I'm far from an Olympic swimmer but I imagine having your goggles fill with water can be a bit distracting and these swimmers separate themselves by thousandths of a second.  Phelps showed no sign of problem during the race but when he finished you could see him take his goggles off and water empty from them.  Oh, and he won by a fraction of a second.

His coach had prepared him to overcome challenges not just by training him to be the most fit and having the best technique.  His coach forced Phelps to encounter challenges and learn to overcome them.

As a leader, are you preparing those around you to overcome adversity or do you seek to prevent them from encountering it?  Do you care enough about your team to step on their goggles?

Proverbs 27:17 - As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another.