I’m not a big figure skating fan, but I do love the Winter Olympics. I’m a huge fan of anything that has to do with high performance, and Olympic athletes, wherever they come from and whatever their events, epitomize high performance.
United States figure skater Jeremy Abbott had an unfortunate thing happen during a recent performance this week—he fell. Of course, as you would expect an Olympic champion to do, he got back up and finished his routine, but scored accordingly.
I always wonder what these elite athletes must feel like after this kind of disappointment—I also saw a skier wipe out during one of his runs down hill.
All that hard training, for years and years, and all your dreams of one day being good enough to make it to the Olympics. And then you finally get there . . . and wipe out.
I love what Jeremy Abbott did (and whether or not he wins any medals, I’m still calling him a champion because of how he responded)—a couple days later, during his next performance, HE NAILED IT!
Five minutes of wonder. Without hesitation, he attacked his performance, and his jumps. And ends up scoring a 99.86. Amazing.
Again, I don’t know anything about skating, but he seemed to have his routine filled with the same spinning-and-jumping technique that caused him to previously fall—in fact, if I understood the commentator correctly, these jumps were even more difficult!
It’s like he stared failure in the face and mocked it.
When tough times hit, how do you respond?
Getting knocked down--sometimes getting flattened by a freight train--is part of the deal. It’s not fun, it’s often painful, sometimes excruciatingly so. We do what we can to live in a smart way and avoid these episodes as much as possible.
Nevertheless, you will get knocked down . . . just don’t stay down.
You may be down for awhile. You may need time to lick your wounds, heal, and recover. That will be necessary at times.
An athlete with a knee injury can’t just jump back into to the game.
A prize-fighter who gets his face caved in by his challenger will need to let his body, and his spirit, heal and recover. It’s part of the process. No fights for awhile for our champ.
But don’t stay down. Get back into the game as quickly as possible.
We’re talking here about “bounce-back” ability, or RESILIENCE.
My definition of resilience is making optimal adjustments to changing conditions (I talk more about this in my free e-Book available at the top of this page).
How is your bounce-back ability? How resilient are you?
Are you like that supple Maple leaf in Spring, that has flexibility to it, or like the brittle Maple leaf at the end of Fall, that crumbles in your grasp?
Being resilient is a quality, based on a set of skills. If you don’t yet have this skill-set adequately developed, get busy developing it. Be preventative. Your day will come when you need this resilience.
Of course, we all need to be resilient, in smaller ways, on a daily basis. Things often unfold, in these smaller ways, counter to our plans and expectations.
None of us can afford to avoid developing our resilience.
And when we’ve developed it, we can be like Jeremy Abbott, recovering from our fall, and nailing our next performance.
Go watch this great athlete’s awesome performance (link below). Even if you don’t like figure skating, take a few minutes and appreciate a champion.
And then go be like Jeremy.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hOdtYN9qeVU
--Sean Cox, Chicago