I was supposed to fly back to Switzerland yesterday where I have been the Interim Senior National Team Coach. Instead, I tested positive for Covid. I have no symptoms but In am unable to fly back until I have a negative test. I am isolating up at my lake house so that I do not infect my wife. This has given me an unexpected opportunity to revisit some previous articles I posted. The beginning of January 2022 seems like the beginning of January 2021. Covid numbers on the rise. Restrictions on travel. Schools and workplaces encouraged to go remote. It makes you think- IS CHANGE POSSIBLE?
It is the time of year when many of us make our “New Years Resolutions”. We all start off with the greatest intention and then don’t follow through. It makes you wonder, IS CHANGE REALLY POSSIBLE?
Is change possible? A lot of people will tell you it isn’t- especially the ones who have had a lot of practice with failure. The biggest deterrent to sticking to a new training plan, conditioning program, or even, improving grades is the idea that we have failed in the past, and, hence we’re doomed to fail again.
Most people achieved their greatest success one step beyond what looked like their greatest failure….. “The fastest way to succeed,” IBM’s Thomas Watson, Sr., once said, “is to double your failure rate.” In recent years, more and more executives have embraced Watson’s point of view, coming to understand what innovators have always known: Failure is a prerequisite to invention and success. Although both companies and individuals may grasp the value of making mistakes at the level of corporate practices, they have a harder time accepting the idea at the personal level. Back in November of 2011 I posted a blog, “FAILURE, A PREREQUISITE FOR SUCCESS”. I want to reexamine some of those ideas. In that blog I asked all coaches to try to become a failure-tolerant leader. Above all else, failure-tolerant leaders push people to see beyond traditional definitions of success and failure. They know that as long as a person views failure as the opposite of success, rather than its complement, they will never be able to take the risks necessary for success. Coaches and teachers who, through their words and actions, help gymnasts overcome their anxieties about making mistakes and, in the process, create a culture of intelligent risk-taking that leads to sustained innovation and motivation.
Those who achieve success are not those who never fail; they are those who learn from failure and move on.
Every gymnast at some point has faced SERIOUS failure. I am not talking about just a bad turn or a bad competition. I am talking about when they failed and were ready to walk off the floor or hang up their grips. In 2004 at the Athens Olympic Games All Around Finals, Paul Hamm fell on vault nearly landing on the judges table. Many people would have given up at that point. Decide to just try to finish the meet and not get hurt. Paul fought back and won GOLD.
At 2021 World Championships, Marco Lodadio of Italy had a significant step on his Ring dismount keeping him out of finals. When another athlete pulled out he was put in finals and ended up with Silver. In the year prior he had had shoulder surgery and when the olympics were postponed he contemplated quitting.
There are countless others in business or politics who failed. Learned from their mistakes and set a new course in order to find success.
These are not people who said well, I tried, I failed, I think I will sit on the couch and feel sorry for myself.
They failed, and then they adjusted and changed.
This is the time of year when a lot of us would like to invite change into our lives. We’d like to clean out the cobwebs, suction off the fat, improve our grades and hit a new tumbling passes. But as much as we hope, forces align themselves with the same old same old. It is almost like an echo of the force of gravity.
If you do not make a change today how can you expect a different result tomorrow? Are you walking into the gym with the same attitude as yesterday? No one is asking you to change everything overnight. Just approach each day willing to make some small changes. Just try to get one day better! Maybe change 1%? Pretty soon Everything will be different.
And with that is the realization – We are not stuck in the dead on winter – we are just 10 short weeks from the start of spring! We still have time to make some changes but we need to get going!
Research from the University of Sheffield in England tells us that if you can stick with a new initiative, whether it is for grades or workout, for 5 short weeks it will become habit.
The habit of STRONG.
The habit of LEAN.
The habit of CALM.
But to attain this mastery use another phrase, Forgive and Forget. We tend to think this means forgiving others- but the sins we most need to forgive are OUR OWN. They stand in the way of achieving true greatness. So, if you can, try to accept the lesson and discard guilt.
Change isn’t just possible; it can be achieved by the time the first flowers poke through the ground here in the north.
In our sport change is necessary. If we didn’t accept change we would still be competing on horse hair mats instead of a spring floor. The Beam would still be wood and the bars close enough to beat your hips on.
– Be NOT afraid of going slowly, Be afraid only of standing still.
WHAT CHANGES WILL YOU MAKE IN THE NEW YEAR?
Share your thoughts with GYM MOMENTUM.
