As I watched the Olympians receive their medals on the podium, I couldn’t help but think of the extraordinary number of hours it took to get there.
You see inspiring story after story of families waking up at 4am to go to the ice rink or kids moving away to train. These athletes and their teams are committed to winning.
Joe Paterno, football coach at Penn State, said that most of us are committed to win; we are not committed to the preparation to win.
Preparation is usually not as much fun as winning. It takes time, hard work, research, practice, sacrifice, trade-offs and commitment. It is easy to get distracted and go off course.
Having a bigger vision in mind reminds us why we are preparing. Passion and desire are the fuel to keep us moving forward.
Any winning athlete, lawyer or business person knows that being committed to preparation will exponentially increase your ability to win.
It is a pretty simple formula: Practice + Passion = Podium