Along with millions of other viewers last night I was glued to the TV cheering on Team GB in the Hockey final.
It was clear that both teams were at the peak of fitness and skill. The momentum of the match swung between GB and the Netherlands, and to be honest for much of the match I thought the Netherlands had the game won.
Like all great Champions GB refused to give up and kept on fighting back. They never once accepted defeat during the match, however neither did the Netherlands.
So what separated them in the end?
Preparation, coupled with skill, self belief and reputation separated the two teams.
Preperation was that of Maddie Hinch the goal keeper. She keeps a log of her opponents and how they take penalties. Not only does this give her self belief but she gives her team mates self belief.
This gives them the courage to trust their skill during the penalty shoot out.
GB had beaten Netherlands twice recently in penalty shoot outs, Maddie saved a penalty during the match. Therefore the Netherlands knew Maddie’s reputation, this gave her the advantage already.
This win did not come out of the blue, it came from 4 years of preparation, practice and hard work. All that work came down to a few moments where the team had to believe they were going to win and expect their opponents to falter.
If you want to succeed you have to have a clear goal you want to achieve, spend a lot of time visualising what achieving that goal would look like and feel like. Once you have that image clear in your head, you need to prepare your route to success. You will need to set yourself short term goals to help you in the planning process. Be prepared for false turns and short term failures. Do not be disheartened, keep your long term goal in mind and adjust your plans to ensure your goal is still achievable. You will achieve you will have your Gold Medal moment if you are prepared, practised and have belief in your ability.
Not everyone achieves because they do not spend enough time refining there goal therefore struggle when faced with the initial failure.
The most successful achievers, whether they be athletes or captains of industry use coaching in one form or other to help them remain focuses on their goal when faced with adversity.
Connected Coaching 