When you submit to the incredible pressure of an Olympic training regime, the biggest struggle
is to understand yourself. You must embrace honest thought and act with integrity to find suc-
cess. You can’t lie to yourself, believing you’re stronger or weaker than you are. You need to
understand what motivates you, what chance you have of winning, and what you’re willing to
give—or give up—to accomplish your goals.
There’s a lot of sacrifice. Most of your work is done outside the public arena of competition.
You spend little time “playing” your sport or experiencing the thrill, joy, and excitement people
see when the cameras are rolling. The majority of your time is spent repeating monotonous
tasks and skills until peak performance is achieved. Feeling sick? You show up. Tired? You
show up. Is it a holiday? What’s a holiday? Grit and professionalism are what powers you into
the opening ceremonies and onto the podium.
Like Olympic athletes, successful professionals are internally motivated. They choose to exist
in an environment that rewards effort and tracks performance. They’re self-reflective. They’re
committed. They show up.
That doesn’t mean they don’t struggle. All of us suffer from grass-is-greener syndrome to
some extent. When I was training for the Olympics, I constantly dreamed about jobs that
seemed more purposeful, more lucrative, more flexible. I still confront these gremlins in my
present line of work. After all, what motivates a motivational speaker? (I wish there was a
punchline here, but there isn’t.) All I can do is tell myself the following: You chose this career.
You could have picked something else, but you didn’t. And you worked very hard to get here.
Your skills, talents, interests, and values guided you to this place, and now your job is to make
your job a little better. Building your professional skill set is now your purpose.
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32 CPABC in Focus • July/August 2018
I can say with confidence that making small,
consistent improvements has helped me stay
engaged in and passionate about my work.
The idea is simple: Focus begets skill; skill
begets passion. The more focus we place on
a skill, the more skilled we become. And the
more skilled we become, the more passionate
and successful we become. In effect, we create
a positive feedback loop fed by a drive for
improvement. If you dedicate yourself to do-
ing your best work, you will find invaluable
fulfilment, and that fulfilment will motivate
you to keep doing your best work.
If I’m not feeling motivated but I’m still
committed to my goals, simply showing up
will often show me the way forward. I know
that energy is fluid and always returns. I let
myself find motivation in other activities—I
take on a new volunteering role, I work at
becoming a better cyclist, I master a video-
game. Eventually, if I keep showing up to
work on my primary goal, one of two things
will happen: progress will be made, or I’ll re-
alize that my primary goal isn’t productive
and I’ll stop. But until I make a conscious
decision to stop, I’m going to keep showing
up. And when I show up, I’ll do the best I
can in that moment.
In Olympic training, you learn to be com-
pletely in the now. This is one of my favourite
aspects of rowing, and it’s what keeps me active
in the sport to this day. You observe your body
and the sensations it produces. You observe
your blade and the path it takes in and out of
the water. You observe the position of your
boat in relation to the other boats. You try to
catch them to beat them, and to maintain focus
if they get away. You lose yourself in the work.
We all create energy in our being, and the
power within you should be used to the best
of your abilities at any given moment. If you’re
stuck in a rut, that’s okay. It’s way worse to be
in a rut about being in a rut. Be in that rut, but
keep showing up. Do your best, and eventually
you’ll find a way forward—or you’ll decide
you no longer want to pursue that goal, and
you’ll stop so you can refocus your energy.
Ultimately, professionalism is a choice, and
its traits can be learned. Embrace the traits
of Olympic athletes—keep practising, keep
building your skills, and keep showing up.
Work hard and take pride in your work. You
will reap the benefits, both personally and
financially.