Commit to Win

Some people are interested in reaching their dreams and others are committed to reaching their dreams. The key to success in life is going from being interested to being committed. Once you are committed you will produce results. At the point of commitment, you mentally “burn all the bridges” and you do whatever it takes to make it happen. THAT’S when you become unstoppable!

On the road to the Olympics, many athletes much faster than me quit along the way. There are only two reasons they quit; they either didn’t want it bad enough or they were not as committed.

Commitment is what makes success possible. If you commit to do whatever it takes (as long as it is moral, legal and ethical) to succeed, success will reveal its secrets to you. There are four different levels of commitment; I’ll try, I’ll do my best, I’ll do whatever it takes, and it’s a done deal.

“I’ll try” is completely worthless. Whenever someone tells you they are going to try to do something, don’t count on anything ever happening. People say “I’ll try” when they are afraid to say “I won’t.” Tony Robbins says that “I’ll try” is the battle cry of wimps. Whenever you say “I’ll try,” you have just guaranteed failure. Because saying “I’ll try” is in effect saying, “If there are ANY obstacles, I’ll have a way out and I’ll be able to quit.”

“I’ll do my best” is not much better than “I’ll try.” People that say “I’ll do my best” are looking for a way out. When they say they’ll do their best, they’re leaving a huge door open for excuses and justifications later. Remember when you asked your buddies to help you move to your first apartment? I know for sure that none of the ones who said “I’ll try to be there” or “I’ll do my best to be there,” showed up.

Winners say, “I’ll do whatever it takes.” If you tell someone you’ll do whatever it takes, you will produce or else you’ll lose face. Finally, the strongest level of commitment is when you say, “It’s a done deal.” When you say “It’s a done deal,” even losing face is not an option. When I was training for the Olympics I would not dare tell my coach I was going to try to do something. It was always, “It’s a done deal.”

Whenever we arrive at a new track, we walk the track with the coach. We make a game plan about the best way to drive the track. We visualize and mentally rehearse the ideal run, but sooner or later, we have to commit. Sooner or later, we have to hop on the sled and go down the mountain. We have to take those runs knowing that even with all the preparation, the first few times down that track are going to be pretty brutal. Is it scary? Sure, it’s scary.

But you have to pay the price if you want to enjoy the prize. You have to commit to do things that are beyond your current abilities. That’s the only way to grow. That’s how you get better and stronger. So attack your fears head on. Otherwise, you will be their servant for the rest of your life.

Take a chance. Act on faith. Put yourself in a position where you have to stretch and fight for something. It brings out the best in you. It is good for your soul.

Bouncing Back Quickly to Win

Karoly Takacs. You’ve probably never heard of him. However, in Hungary, he’s a national hero – everybody there knows his name and his incredible story. After reading his story, you’ll never forget him…

In 1938, Karoly Takacs of the Hungarian Army, was the top pistol shooter in the world. He was expected to win the gold in the 1940 Olympic Games scheduled for Tokyo.

Those expectations vanished one terrible day just months before the Olympics. While training with his army squad, a hand grenade exploded in Takacs’ right hand, and Takacs’ shooting hand was blown off.

Takacs spent a month in the hospital depressed at both the loss of his hand, and the end to his Olympic dream. At that point most people would have quit. And they would have probably spent the rest of their life feeling sorry for themselves. Most people would have quit but not Takacs. Takacs was a winner. Winners know that they can’t let circumstances keep them down. They understand that life is hard and that they can’t let life beat them down. Winners know in their heart that quitting is not an option.

Takacs did the unthinkable; he picked himself up, dusted himself off, and decided to learn how to shoot with his left hand! His reasoning was simple. He simply asked himself, “Why not?”

Instead of focusing on what he didn’t have – a world class right shooting hand, he decided to focus on what he did have – incredible mental toughness, and a healthy left hand that with time, could be developed to shoot like a champion.

For months Takacs practiced by himself. No one knew what he was doing. Maybe he didn’t want to subject himself to people who most certainly would have discouraged him from his rekindled dream.

In the spring of 1939 he showed up at the Hungarian National Pistol Shooting Championship. Other shooters approached Takacs to give him their condolences and to congratulate him on having the strength to come watch them shoot. They were surprised when he said, “I didn’t come to watch, I came to compete.” They were even more surprised when Takacs won!

The 1940 and 1944 Olympics were cancelled because of World War II. It looked like Takacs’ Olympic Dream would never have a chance to realize itself. But Takacs kept training and in 1944 he qualified for the London Olympics. At the age of 38, Takacs won the Gold Medal and set a new world record in pistol shooting. Four years later, Takacs won the Gold Medal again at the 1952 Helsinki Olympics. Takacs – a man with the mental toughness to bounce back from anything.

Winners in every field have a special trait that helps them become unstoppable. A special characteristic that allows them to survive major setbacks on the road to success. Winners recover QUICKLY. Bouncing back is not enough. Winners bounce back QUICKLY. They take their hit, they experience their setback, they have the wind taken out of their sails, but they immediately recover. Right away they FORCE themselves to look at the bright side of things – ANY bright side, and they say to themselves, “That’s OK. There is always a way. I will find a way.” They dust themselves off, and pick up where they left off.

The reason quick recovery is important is that if you recover quickly, you don’t lose your momentum and your drive. Takacs recovered in only one month. If he had wallowed in his misery, if he had stayed “under the circumstances,” if he had played the martyr, and felt sorry for himself much longer, he would have lost his mental edge – his “eye of the tiger” and he never would have been able to come back.

When a boxer gets knocked down, he has ten seconds to get back up. If he gets up in eleven seconds, he loses the fight. Remember that next time you get knocked down.

Takacs definitely had a right to feel sorry for himself. He had a right to stay depressed and to ask himself “Why me?” for the rest of his life. He had the right to act like a mediocre man.

Takacs could have let his terrible accident cause him to become permanently discouraged, to take up heavy drinking, to quit on life alltogether, and maybe even to end his own life. He could have acted like a loser.

But Takacs made the DECISION to dig deep inside and to find a solution. To pick himself up and to learn to shoot all over again. Winners always search for a solution. Losers always search for an escape.

Next time you get knocked down, DECIDE you will act like a winner. DECIDE to act like Takacs. Get up quickly, take action, and astound the world!

You Have More Choices than You Think

Most people go through life making decisions based on just a fraction of their available options. They hold themselves back because they allow circumstances or other people’s opinions limit their perceived choices.

My grandmother grew up in a very small town in Argentina where everyone thought they had only two career options: working at the dairy bottling factory, or working at the farm raising milk cows. Grandma was more adventurous. Rather than stay in her native town, Grandma took a chance, moved to a big city, married a restaurateur, and lived a much more interesting life than the rest of her family and friends who stayed in the dairy town all their life.

My dad was a chemical engineer in a small oil town. In 1968, when economic conditions started to worsen in Argentina, rather than stay there, he took a chance and moved with my mom, my brother, and I to the U.S. Leaving his friends and family in search for more opportunity was a risky and scary move, especially since he didn’t speak much English back then, but in the long run it really paid off.

The Jamaican bobsledders did the same thing. When they didn’t qualify for the Summer Olympics in track and field, they got creative. Deciding to take up the bobsled was sheer genius. They didn’t just take the road less traveled. They paved a new road where there had been no road before. Everyone who makes fun of them has no clue about what it really takes to succeed in life.

I’m amazed when people ask me how someone from hot and humid Houston can compete in the luge. It’s really pretty simple. I came to the realization that what city I live in has NOTHING to do with what sport I can compete in. When the first cold front hits Houston, I fly out to the luge tracks. The luge tracks have never come or will never come to me.

Start looking outside your immediate surroundings for ways to realize your dream. Don’t limit your options to what’s obvious. Get a little creative, take a chance, and do something different. Chase your dream. Your dream will not land on your lap. You have to go out and get it. When you start getting bold and unconventional, your life will become an adventure and you’ll be a lot more successful.

Whatever It Takes!

Why do some people pursue their dreams while others bury their dreams?

It comes down to belief and desire. Whether you believe it’s possible, whether you believe YOU can do it, and whether you want the dream enough to do whatever it takes.

Let’s say you believe it’s possible and you think there’s a good chance you can pull it off … now, what steps do you need to take to make it happen?

Step number one is the willingness to take the risk. Many people are able but few are willing. You see, you always have to give something up in order to get something better. Most people are not willing to give anything up. They are not willing to make any sacrifices. They expect success to just fall on their lap.

That’s just not how life works. There’s no free lunch. Not only do you have to be willing to go for it, but you have to be willing to do whatever it takes.

Let’s break that last sentence down.

You have to be willing. Willing means that you are open minded. Open minded means you are not judgmental. It means not making any excuses. It means you are open to doing whatever might be required.

Whatever it takes is a level of commitment. Being committed means you have made a decision that you will continue to pursue your goal no matter what the consequences.

When you have a clear objective and are committed, you’ll naturally start doing the things that will move you towards your objective, and you’ll naturally stop doing the things that move you away from your objective.

When you have a dream you are willing to fight for, the process takes care of itself.

Whatever it takes is not just a level of commitment. It’s a HIGH level of commitment. And, believe it or not, it’s the lowest level of commitment that will guarantee that you will realize your dream.

Let me explain. If reaching your dream, whether it be to become financially free, or to buy a new car, or to be able to take your family to Disneyland for two weeks, or to get your PhD…no matter what your dream is, you have to be willing to do whatever it takes.

Here’s why. If realizing your dream involves 64 items, 64 things you have to do, you have to be willing to do all 64 of them. If you’re only willing to do 63 of them, but not #64, then #64 will be your undoing and you can kiss your dream goodbye.

It’s an attitude thing.

Life will seldom ask you to do all 64 things. But you don’t know which ones you’ll have to do, so you’d better be willing to do all 64. The “whatever it takes” attitude will help you do the required items so well that success will be assured.

The trick is to be willing to do whatever it takes with no guarantees of success. Only then is success possible.

How to Condition Your Mind to Succeed

Top achievers in every field understand that words have the power to condition the mind to succeed or fail.    Whenever you say something, your mind tries to build a case for it. If you call yourself “stupid” the mind does a subconscious “Google search” on the word stupid and pulls up a list of every stupid thing you’ve ever done in your life. Armed with that list, you have the proof that you are stupid and you start acting that way. If you call yourself a winner, your mind pulls up all your winning moments. And you start acting like a winner.

In fact, if you are not getting the results you want out of life, it can probably be traced to your self talk. My friend Pete Hinojosa of www.APurposefulJourney.com, teaches people that “What you say to yourself will influence what you think. What you think influences what you do. What you do all the time becomes your habits and your habits determine your results and ultimately, your destiny.”

That’s why you have to be very careful with whom you associate. You don’t want to get any “second hand” negative talk from the people you hang around with.

At the Olympic Training Center, they will not tolerate anyone bad-mouthing themselves. They want to create an environment conducive to achieving peak performance; an atmosphere where success is in the air. If they catch you bad-mouthing yourself, it’s pushups time. Why do you think Olympic athletes are in such great shape?

Sometimes, even Olympic athletes forget to watch their self-talk. My worst luge crash ever was a result of negative self-talk.

One year before the Salt Lake City Olympics, we were in St. Moritz, Switzerland training for a world cup race. We were training in the morning and the Italians were training in the afternoon. At the time, the Italians were the best. So that afternoon, I went to the track to watch the Italians train. I wanted to see what lines they took down the track. I wanted to learn from the best.

I went to the fastest point of the track, curve thirteen. Watching the Italians rocket down the track at over eighty-five miles per hour was unbelievable. Every time an Italian luger went by I would mutter to myself, “I can’t believe I do that.” Another sled would barrel down the track and I’d say to myself, “I can’t believe I do that.” For two hours, I said it over and over.

Up to that day, I had not had any major problems at that track. I was just looking for a way to take my abilities to the next level.

The next day, on my first run, as I reached Curve thirteen, my mind reminded me, “That’s right, Ruben, you CAN’T DO THAT!” And I froze; forgot to steer and had a horrible crash.  I broke my foot, broke my hand, and totaled my sled. End of season.

That was the lowest point of my luge career. At that point I didn’t know if I would be able to go to the Olympics. I was hurt, I could not afford another sled, and it was all because a couple of hours of negative self-talk.

I had a pity party for a couple of days but eventually, flying back home from Europe, halfway over the Atlantic, I got my head straight. I took a piece of paper and wrote, “This has been the worst year of my life; the most stressful and frustrating. I am being tested. I will pass the test. I have an opportunity to make an incredible comeback and show what I’m made up of.” Then, I started saying to myself, “There is always a way. There is always a way. There is always a way. I will find a way, because there is always a way.”

Repeating the phrase, “There is always a way,” over and over, when you are facing obstacles, puts your mind in a solution-finding state. It helps you shift your focus away from the problem and into finding a solution. 

And I did find a solution. I could not afford to buy another sled, but maybe I could borrow a sled. I started calling some of my best luge buddies and my good friend Adam Cook of the New Zealand Luge Team, loaned me his sled to qualify and race in the Salt Lake Olympics.

Watch what you say to yourself, and remember, there is always a way.

Probabilities and Possibilities

I finish my speeches by saying, “What are the chances that someone like me was going to make it to the Olympics? I wasn’t a great athlete, I didn’t get started until I was 21 years old, and to top it off I live in hot and humid Houston and I chose to compete in the luge for Pete’s sake! What are the chances? One in a million? One in ten million? I probably had a better chance to win the lottery!”

“I was just an ordinary kid with an extraordinary dream. I wasn’t a big shot. I was just a little shot that kept on shooting. And that’s something you can do too. If you make a decision to become a little shot who keeps on shooting, the world is yours.”

Believe it or not, the secret to creating an extraordinary life is right in those words.

Most people look at their dreams and start calculating the odds of them ever happening. They can tell you the probabilities and that number keeps them from even getting started.

They don’t understand that the probability at any one time has nothing to do with success. Because if you don’t even get started, the probability of success is zero, zilch, nada.

They don’t realize that they can change the probabilities.

Every time you take action in the pursuit of your dream, you’re increasing the probabilities of reaching it. It’s all up to you. You have control over the probabilities.

Once you buy into that, it’s easier to make a decision to take massive action.  Understanding that makes it easier to commit to your dream. Once you commit to your dream, burn the bridges, and make a decision to do whatever it takes for as long as it takes, the probability of success increases dramatically. Why? Because 99% of the people will NEVER do whatever it takes!

When I called the people in Lake Placid to ask for help in getting started in the luge, the guy on the phone laughed at me. He said I was way too old to get started. He said, “If you want to do it at your age and in only four years it will be brutal. Nine out of ten people quit!” When I heard that, I got excited. I got excited because I could see the opportunity. And I simply decided that quitting would not be an option for me.

Once I made that decision, all I had to do was to outlast everyone else! The guy on the phone saw my probability as one out of ten. But I saw it as 100% (as long as I was willing to outlast everyone else). Four years and a few broken bones later, I was competing in the Olympics (it wasn’t quite that simple, but focusing on the possibility got me to do what I needed to do to become an Olympian).

Stop focusing on the probabilities. Focus on the possibility. Ask yourself, “What is my dream? Is it a dream that takes my breath away? Is it something that excites me and gives meaning to my life?” And if it is, ask yourself, “If it is possible, then why not me?”

Don’t focus on the probabilities. Focusing on the probabilities will kill your confidence. Once you lose your confidence, it’s easy to quit. And stop hanging around people that talk about being realistic. Realistic people are mediocre. They live lukewarm lives and NEVER do ANYTHING with their lives.

Start hanging around winners. Hang around achievers. I have NEVER heard a real winner talk about being realistic. Realistic stinks! Think about three people you truly admire. I guarantee you that they did not get where they are by being realistic!

Focus on your dream, listen to your gut feeling, and follow your heart wholeheartedly. Ask yourself, “Why not me? Why not now?” and, “What can I do right now to get me closer to my dream?”

When you ask yourself the right questions, focus on the possibilities, and hang around like-minded people, your confidence will soar and you’ll be on the road to realizing your dream.  

Do that, and at the end of your life you will be able to look back and say, “I lived a magnificent life!”

The Power of a Mentor

Have you ever had someone tell you that you were destined to do great things in life? Did you buy into their belief in you? Sometimes we have to rely on someone else’s belief until our own belief kicks in.

When Bob Mathias was young, he was an anemic, sickly kid. His love for sports drove him to get involved in track and field in high school. Over time Bob developed into a solid all around athlete but he was not national level in any one event.

Four months before the 1948 Olympic Games his track coach Virgil Thomas believed in Bob so much that he told him, “Bob, you have four years. If you got started right away, you could possibly make the 1952 Olympics in the decathlon.”

Coach Thomas’ belief in Mathias was incredible because Mathias had never run the 1500 meters, he had never pole-vaulted, he’d never thrown a javelin, and he had never even heard of the decathlon. To top it off, Mathias was only 17 years old!

Coach Thomas belief was so strong, that Mathias bought into it and started training right away. One month after he started training, Mathias competed in his first decathlon. Incredibly, he won first place! Two weeks later he entered the U.S. Decathlon National Championship. He won again! Six weeks later, he was competing in the 1948 Summer Olympic Games. He had beaten his coach’s prediction by four years!

Now Mathias was competing against much older and seasoned decathletes. The best in the world. Mathias amazed the world by becoming the youngest Decathlon Olympic Champion at the age of 17!

Mathias went on to win his second Olympic Decathlon in 1952. None of this would have been possible if his coach, his mentor, had not seen his greatness, believed in him, and encouraged him to pursue his dream.

When somebody compliments you, they have just seen a glimpse of your greatness. They have seen something about you that sticks out like a sore thumb. But it’s so natural to you that you discount it.

Next time someone compliments you, thank them, and start using your outstanding gift to reach your dream. Surround yourself with winners, find a mentor who believes in you, and win the Olympic Gold in your personal and professional life!

Success is Pretty Simple…

 

It all comes to finding an arena you’re suited to play in. That’s fancy talk for finding something you’re good at. Something that fits you. Shacquille O’Neil is a great athlete but he’d make a lousy horse jockey.

Once you find your arena, you have to have the courage to jump in. To take action. To risk looking like a fool.

The courage to take action comes from believing that your dream is possible. Most of that you’ll be learning in this blog will be how to get yourself to believe that you are capable of realizing your dream. Once you believe, taking action is easy.

Once you get started, I guarantee that you will encounter obstacles. So you will need the courage to endure, to not quit. As long as you don’t quit you’ve still got a chance to win.

The courage to persevere comes from your desire. How bad you want something will determine what makes you quit. I’ll teach you some techniques Olympic athletes use to fuel their desire.

Finally, you have to have a winning attitude. You need to have the attitude that you are willing to do whatever it take for as long as it takes.

Success is simple but it’s not easy. It takes mental toughness. And that’s what we’re going to talk about in this blog. How to become so mentally tough that you are like a guided missle that has it’s coordinates and will not miss.

Stay tuned…

The Courage to Succeed

Dad always said to me, “If you read about the lives of people you admire, you’ll learn what works and what doesn’t work in life because success leaves clues.”

That was some of the best advice I’ve ever had. Over the years I’ve read hundreds of biographies, always looking for clues that would help me achieve my dreams and ambitions. Along the way I learned that successful people think differently. They have conditioned their minds to always focus on the possibilities instead of on the obstacles.

Successful people think big and then they make some very wise choices. Because when it comes down to it, success is a chioce.

Winners have two types of courage. The courage to take action and the courage to endure – to persevere.

You can learn how to think and how to act like successful people do. Once you start thinking big, you’ll start succeeding big and that’s what I want to help you do with this blog.

Once you start winning battles on the way to your dream do me a favor. Shoot me an email and share your victories with me. Your victories will fuel my victories because a rising tide raises ALL ships.