
I spent this weekend in Amelia Island at our Chamber conference. The closing session keynote speaker was Shannon Miller, the most decorated U.S. Olympic gymnast in history. She's 31 and looks amazing and just stepped right up and told her story and it was loaded with lessons and inspiration for all of us in the audience.
Hearing her talk about her journey from a 5 year old demanding to go the gym with her big sister to standing on the podium and receiving her Olympic medals was really amazing. I thought I'd take a moment to share my 3 biggest take-a-ways from Shannon's presentation with you.
(1) Prior to the Olympic trials, Shannon injured her elbow and opted for surgery. When she showed up at Olympic trials, she felt different than she'd felt at any other competitions ... people were staring at her. Finally, she asked her coach why? He told her, when you were injured, they thought you were done and that one of their girls had the chance to take your spot. In this moment, she described a competitive spirit that said ... oh no they're not and she went to work to be sure that she made the team.
Sometimes, I don't think we remember that our jobs are "spots on the team." We get comfortable and complacent. We feel entitled to our spot. I think that on any given day - no matter what your title - that if you didn't make your workouts, didn't come with a good attitude that you could sit the bench and if someone else outperformed you, you'd have to earn your spot back, we'd have a lot less personnel problems in the workforce.
Also, it would keep us challenged. For Shannon it might be doing some daring dismount off the high beam to stay out ahead of the competition. For us, it means that we always have to keep learning, keep growing, keep practicing ... doing what it takes to be the very best.
(2) Another favorite part of her speech was hearing her talk about how difficult life was for her after winning gold. She said that prior to retiring at age 19, she was committed to working on short term goals that would help her reach her long term goal of winning gold at the Olympics. Then, the moment she retired, she no longer had goals that she could communicate. She didn't know what she wanted to do with her life. So, what did she do? She did just what her coach had always made her do. She found an index card and on one side wrote down her long term goals and the other her short term goals. And, she reminded everyone that you needed to keep it close, or else you'd get busy and distracted from your goal.
Now, we all know that we should write down our goals and look at them every day. But how many of us truly do this? If you're reading this, comment ... let us know your process or lack thereof for goal setting.
(3) "Stop looking for the opportunity to fail and look for the opportunity to succeed." These were from Shannon's mother on a phone call after her daughter had called crying about her fall on the vault at the Olympics. This was the night before Shannon took home the gold medal on the balance beam.
Shannon said she thought about those words all night long. And, on the next day, she said that she made peace with herself. She knew that all the world and the coaches could expect of her was to give it her all - 100%. And, finally, she decided to accept this, too. All she could do was give it her all and if she did that, no matter what happened, she would be ok with it. So, with this new mindset, this gold medal winning routine is the only one she remembers. Why? She let herself experience it. She did not block out the audience, the cheers, the flashing cameras ... she took deep breaths and she took in all the sights and sounds. And, she did her routine and she was present the whole way through. And, when she finished, it felt great! She didn't know her score, but she knew in her heart it was the very best she could do.
And, for all of us who are high achievers, I think we should remember this story. Shannon said that this was the only time ever in competition that she allowed herself to experience the routine and her surroundings. Let us all be at peace with the fact that all we can expect of ourselves is to try our very best and don't let the trying to reach the goal interfere with experiencing all the great things along the way.
And, one last thing, when Shannon won her first international gymnastics competition, she wasn't really sure of how the medal ceremony would go. She won first place and two girls from other countries won 2nd and 3rd. After she was given her flowers and her medal, she wasn't quite sure if she should step down off the podium or what? Then, our national anthem began to play and our flag became visible to her and in that moment, she realized that only the winner's national anthem was played. She said that moment was the moment that she knew that she wanted to win gold at the Olympics. She wanted to wear red, white and blue and have a Gold medal around her neck and hear our anthem and see our flag. She was so proud of representing our country.
And, you know, we were all so proud of her, too. It was an honor to hear her tell her story.