Focus – A simple lesson from Usain Bolt

Do you ever struggle with people expectations of you?

I sometimes find peoples’ expectations of me hard to meet.  As a coach they sometimes expect me to be infallible – I’m not allowed to have an off day which is why I like blogging and other social media.  Instead of the response “well you’re the coach – don’t you have the answer?” I can tap into a very supportive community.

Well as a client focused coach of course I know the answer – it is within me.  What is sometimes lacking is the challenge and questioning that a coach offers.  Monday morning was a typical example.  I remember lying in bed not quite wanting to get up because one of my weaknesses was playing on my mind and getting in the way of what I needed to do.  The radio was on and they were talking about Usain Bolt and his recent Olympic success.

Usain was discussing the fact that he had been worried about his race start – its his weak point, however at the point he won gold he’d decided to stop worrying about what needed improvement and just concentrate on what he does best which is finishing the race.

“I was slightly worried about my start, I didn’t want to false start again. So I think I sat in the blocks a little bit, I don’t think it was the best reaction in the world, but I executed and that was the key.

My coach said stop worrying about your start, the best of your race is at the end, that’s where you rule. So I stopped worrying about the start and I executed, so it worked.”

 Usain Bolt

It was just the words of inspiration I needed and a valuable lesson to many of us.  Work out what we’re good at and concentrate on that – the rest just happens.

What do you need to do to achieve success?

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