Congratulations to Lewis Hamilton (#lewishamilton) – World F1 Champion – great achievement
Whilst this is the pinnacle of his year, you can’t forget the twists and turns that made this an exciting season for him. Engine failure in the first race left him trailing in the rankings right from the start. This was to happen again, because of various different circumstances and he found himself with a 20 point deficit for the Championship lead three times. How did he respond? Lets hear from Hamilton in his own words: “I really thought for the following days and turned my focus to a different area. I came back to the races with a slightly different approach. I won’t explain exactly what I did, because I need to bring it to the races next year, but I did tweak my approach throughout the weekend.” (source: BBC News).
There is a saying – when the going gets tough, the tough get going (for those of you who are old enough, it was also a Billy Ocean hit record) and in the words of the great stunt rider, daredevil and showman Evel Knievel “If you fall during your life, it doesn’t matter. You’re never a failure as long as you try to get up.” Despite all of the setbacks and challenges this is what we saw from Hamilton, he never gave up, he just came back with a different approach until it worked. In other words he just kept standing up… He also went much further than this. When reflecting back on past seasons he said he reacted more positively to the setbacks this season, than he would have done in previous years. The rewards are testament to this.
So what does it mean to think like a winner? Two words immediately spring to mind. Focus and persistence. Focus – is about the motivation and drive to achieve your goal. Persistence is the desire to keep going no matter what. Do you think like a winner? Do you keep standing up when the odds seem stacked against you? We can’t all be F1 Champions, but we can all pursue our goals with focus, persistence and more importantly, passion. You don’t know what you can achieve until you try and often the biggest obstacle in the way is ourselves. Louis found a way… so can you.
If you don’t have any goals, where are you headed and what are you trying to achieve? If you do have goals, are you really progressing them with determination and passion? If you can answer yes to both questions, what a great place to be. If you can’t, are you going to do something about it? Nothing could be the right solution for you… but if Louis had done nothing, would he be standing on the winners podium?
Christmas is coming and is a time for reflection. If you are not headed in the direction you want to go, take some time out and plan some course corrections. If you need help… why don’t you give me a call? Coaching is a great way in which you can take stock and re-focus on those things that are most important to you. Do you really want to miss out on the life you could have…?
This post was originally posted by Peter Duffell on LinkedIn.