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!

What’s Holding You Back?

Whether your dream is to lose weight, or to buy your dream home, or to double your income, or to learn the ins and outs of soccer so you can coach your daughter’s soccer team, you will find that there are things that hold you back.

Ninety five percent of people look at their obstacles and all they see is a reason why they can’t make their dream a reality. They look at the obstacle, get discouraged (they lose heart), and they quit. Winners look at the obstacles, get mad and then become determined to overcome them.

When I decided to take up the sport of luge and train for the Olympics four years away, I knew I had two major obstacles to overcome. Two things that HAD to happen or else I would be watching the Olympics on TV: first, I had to be ranked in the top 50 lugers in the world to qualify. In order for THAT to happen, I would only have only two luge seasons to learn how to slide, because the last two seasons I needed to race internationally to work on my world ranking.

Here’s the rub… since I was pioneering the sport of luge for my native Argentina, in order to race internationally, I had to get the Argentines to create an Argentine Luge Federation, and have that federation be recognized by both International Luge Federation and by the Argentine Olympic Committee. How do you do that when: one, you live in Houston, TX (10,000 miles away from Argentina), two, you have not lived in Argentina since you were 6 years old, three, you have absolutely no credibility since you are just now taking up the sport, and four, they could not care less about the luge because Argentina is a soccer-crazy nation?

If you really want to know, the rest of that story is in “The Courage to Succeed.” What’s more important than the rest of the story is how YOU can develop the mental toughness to look at an obstacle and become fired up and excited about the challenge ahead.

Many times all you have to do to overcome your roadblocks is to simply learn some new skills. Other times, you might have to refine some skills. You might have to enlist the help of other people. I did! Big time! You might have to create a team. Most of the time the roadblock is internal – lack of belief and doubt that you can pull it off.

The roadblocks are not a bad thing. They are simply road signs that tell you what you need to work on next. Where your focus needs to be. Your roadblocks help define what your goals need to be.

What’s keeping you from realizing your dreams? What’s the one thing that’s slowing down all your progress? Your job is to identify the roadblocks and focus all your energy on doing whatever it takes to remove them. Once you do that, your dreams will be there for the taking.

How to Rebound from Setbacks

When I was 21 years old, I made a decision to take up the sport of luge and pursue my lifelong dream of competing in the Olympic Games.

Many people tried to discourage me. I was told that I was too old, that I would break bones, and that nine out of ten people who took up the luge quit along the way. 

Instead of getting discouraged, I got excited. You see, nine out of ten people quit everything. Nine out of ten people quit sales, they quit medical school, they quit on themselves, and worst of all, they quit on their dreams. I knew from the start that it would be a challenge, but as long as I didn’t quit, I would have a chance.

Four years and a few broken bones later I was competing in the Calgary Olympics. I went on to compete in the Albertville Olympics and in the Salt Lake City Olympics – at the age of 39!

You will experience challenges and setbacks on the way to your dream as well. That’s just part of the game. But if you want something badly enough, and you are willing to persevere, success is there for the taking. Success is a choice.

* Go All The Way

When you make a decision that quitting is not an option, before long you will be in the top 10% in your field because 90% of your competition will quit. Your motto needs to be, “Every day in every way I’m getting better and better, stronger and stronger, closer and closer to my dream!”

* Create a “Dream Team”

Ninety percent of success in determined by whom you associate with. Create a “Dream Team” of people who believe in you and will encourage you through tough times.

* Give Yourself a Pep Talk

It’s easy to get down when things are not going your way. After a bad luge run, sometimes I have to walk up and down the track for 20 minutes giving myself a pep talk. “I can do it, I’m going all the way, I will make it cause there’s always a way!” 

When you get down, pick yourself up, dust yourself off, and give yourself a pep talk. 

* Believe in Yourself and Learn from Your Mistakes

High achievers believe that they are destined to accomplish great things. They believe that the challenges they experience are there to teach them the lessons they need to learn in order to complete their “mission” in life. They believe there is no such thing as failure. They either get the desired outcome or else they learn something that will help them win in the future. By thinking this way, discouragement can’t get a foothold in their mind.

Most successful people fail their way to the top. You could say I crashed my way to the top! 

* Recover Quickly

When winners experience challenges, they don’t waste time whining. They keep their eyes on the dream, and then do whatever it takes to recover quickly so they will not lose their momentum. When a boxer gets knocked down, he has only 10 seconds to get back up. If he gets up in eleven seconds, he loses the fight. Remember that the next time you get knocked down.

Next time you get knocked down, decide you will act like a winner. Get up, take action, and make your dream a reality.

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.