Career excellence - Going for gold

Going for Gold in your Career by Midgie Thompson

Imagine yourself walking into every situation with confidence, knowing with absolute certainty that you are strong, powerful and have the unwavering confidence.

Now, see yourself achieving a major personal goal. You feel that sense of pride and achievement swelling throughout your body, as you realize that you've been the best you can be.

Perhaps you won a gold medal for athletics or perhaps it was a different kind of sport? Perhaps you were the very best in the corporate arena.

Whatever your field, you can use the same mental preparation strategies and techniques of gold-medal winners to help you be the best you can be.

In our chosen career and in our favorite sports, the first rule of performance is to set clear goals. Once these are set, we must plan our preparations, put in place foundations for our success, and mentally prepare to perform. We must learn to keep motivated and self-disciplined. By the time our big day arrives, we must have learned how to turn it on to give our best performance. And then we must learn from our experience.

So, let's take a closer look at these gold-medal steps.

Set clear goals . Athletes clearly identify their goals, what they want to achieve and how to measure their successes. They even know what they will feel like, see and hear when they achieve their goals. So, what are your goals and what are your measures of success?

Have a plan. Athletes have a detailed road map to achieve their goal. They know what they have to do and when, and they know what resources are required to support them. What does your road map include? What are the activities and resources you need to achieve your goals?

Put foundations into place. Athletes ensure they have strong foundations. They look after and tune their bodies with healthy foods, balanced exercise and ensure a healthy balance between work and play. What are the foundations for your career and personal success? What do you need to do, and what resources are required?

Prepare mentally to perform. Athletes mentally rehearse their entire performance to ensure they realize positive outcomes. In your career, you are probably performing much of the time: by making a presentation, conducting a meeting or having an important discussion. And you can improve your performance by mentally rehearsing the interaction from start to finish. In your minds eye, imagine (and direct) the movie of your performance. What is your best performance? Make it real. Make it positive. And rehearse your very best outcome.

Motivation and Self-Discipline (by knowing WHY). Athletes keep motivated and disciplined by knowing WHY they are pursuing a particular goal and what it will mean to achieve it. They may have to make compromises and they do this more easily because they know exactly WHY. In your career, remind yourself WHY: What are all your reasons why you are going after your goal? What benefits will you get from achieving it and what difference will it make to your life?

'Turn it on' for the best performance. So it's the big day. Time to turn it on for the very best performance. Athletes learn how to get into that peak performance zone and just do what they've trained themselves to do. They learn to deal with nerves and distractions and remain focused and 'in the zone'. You too can benefit by using similar strategies for peak performance in your career.

Review and learn. It goes without saying that we all learn and grow from our experiences. The best athletes take this very seriously, and take time to review, reflect and plan for the next performance. They identify what they want to repeat, and also what adjustments could be made for the next time, to taking their performance levels to even greater heights. In your career, what can you learn from your experience and performance?

Finding the Top of Your Game

When it comes to high performance and strategies for success, there are striking similarities between sports and career contexts. The list below illustrates this typical performance issues related to both athletic and career performance:

  • Learning how to get into the peak performance zone more often
  • Developing strategies to increase focus and concentration
  • Cultivating self-confidence in ones abilities
  • Replacing the internal critic with positive self-talk
  • Improving motivation
  • Setting goals, and developing and implementing effective plans

Whether you are a sporting athlete or a corporate athlete, you can use similar Go For Gold approaches to help you go for your personal best in your career and personal life. Keep working at it, going for gold is worth it!

About the author

Midgie Thompson is a Mental Performance Coach and inspires excellence in individuals and teams. She helps them develop their mental skills to achieve peak performances in their sport and in their lives.

She is also a recreational marathon runner and triathlete. You can see her profile by clicking here.