Business Success Tips : Meet Deri Llewellyn-Davies

Deri Llewellyn-Davies
The Strategy Man

Yes, business strategy and Mt Everest are connected. They’re connected via my friend, Deri Llewellyn-Davies. Why?

Well, he’s a business strategist, and he’s also an adventurer. He has recently returned from climbing Mt Everest, and he’s done loads of other ultra adventures too.

Deri uses his BGI Strategy on a Page framework to help small and medium businesses around the world focus on what’s important in their businesses.

What’s strategy? Well, we talk about that in our conversation. And don’t worry, I promise you Deri won’t have you writing a big fat business plan tome that then gets shelved. He’ll inspire you to write a one pager that you’ll review daily. It’ll keep you focused on your purpose and vision in your business. Easy peasy!! 🙂

And, if you’re planning some kind of big adventure, you can use the Strategy on a Page one pager to help you plan for that too.

I know you’ll enjoy our interview, and I hope you’ll be inspired to download Deri’s book (it’s a free resource) called BGI Strategy on a Page. The link to the book is here.

You can listen to the original interview with Deri Llewellyn-Davies here:

To connect with Deri Llewellyn-Davies:

www.bgistrategy.com

Adèle hosts an interview series entitled:

• Successful Entrepreneurs’ Stories : Adèle McLay Interviews…..
• Business Success Tips : Adèle McLay Interviews …..

…where she interviews successful entrepreneurs from around the world, asking them to share their entrepreneurial stories, and other business ‘subject matter experts’ who share business success tips. If you would like to be art of Adèle’s success community and receive the interviews and much more directly to your inbox, please click here.

Listen to more Subject Matter Experts and be inspired in the Business Success Tips: Adèle McLay Interviews….. YouTube and Podcast series:

Other articles on What Makes Successful Entrepreneurs:

Seven Secrets of Super Successful Entrepreneurs
Entrepreneurship vs The Meaning of Life
Mega Entrepreneur Defined!
Supercharge Your Profitable Business!
Leadership Qualities
What Makes Great Entrepreneurial Leaders?
All Work + Little Play = Boring!
Entrepreneurial Success without Fulfilment: Who Wants That?
Millionaire Mindset
NZ Entrepreneurship Success

Are you standing out in your niche? Be a Personal Brand!

Imagine this. You’re at a business networking event, and you say hello to someone and ask, ‘What do you do?’ And they reply, ‘I annoy burglars!’

Well, what are you going to say to that? Most likely, you’re going to ask another question. Perhaps you’ll ask, ‘Tell me more?’

And the other person may reply, ‘I’m a locksmith and security expert and my total focus for my clients is to ensure they, their families and their business premises are totally safe and secure at all times. At no time has a property that I manage ever been burgled or security compromised.’

Wow, what will you say next? More importantly, will you remember this person at some future time if you’re ever in the market for a security expert to assist you in your business or home? The chances are very high that you will, and if you’d swapped business cards at the networking event, you may well call and ask for their assistance. You might even recommend them to people in your world if the chance arises, just because they stood out when you met them all that time ago.

That’s the power of personal branding

Everybody’s heard of the word ‘brand’ and mostly we think about brands in relation to companies like McDonalds, Coke, Apple and Virgin. But think of those last two, Apple and Virgin, and the two people most associated with those companies; Steve Jobs and Sir Richard Branson. In his black jumper and steel-rimmed glasses, Steve Jobs never detracted from the Apple brand, he embodied it. The same is true of Richard Branson; he’s a walking entrepreneur, he never wears a tie, is awkward in interviews, and his whole being is on the pulse of what his customers want, need and never even imagined possible.

Okay, you may be thinking, but these are two of the most successful people on the planet in recent history. How is personal branding really going to make a difference to my life, career or business?

You must have a personal brand too

Regardless of whether you’re a small business owner, searching for a job, are an employee or even a student, it will benefit you to think about and own your personal brand. How would you answer that question right now, ‘What do you do?’ Because the reality is nowadays that when people ask that question, what they really mean is ‘Who are you?’ And it’s up to you whether your answer is a conversation starter or stopper.

When you pay attention to your personal brand, you create a vision for your future, and with your brand strategy a path of action with which to get there. The impression you make, the interactions you have, the products you create and whether you are truly authentic and consistent are all key ingredients of personal branding and hugely impact your success as a business owner or employee throughout your career.

It’s time to stand up, stand out and be counted

What do you want people to think of when they hear your name? Who are the people you want to know your name? What can you offer them that will make their lives better, easier or happier?
Reputation has always been a key to success and in today’s digital and social media age you have more opportunities than ever before to build your reputation through your style, presence, connections and expert content. And don’t think that content is only for ‘creative’ people. Whatever you do, in whichever field, people will always ‘Google you’ before they meet or employ you. What will they see?

With just a little knowledge and dedicated time and effort, you can begin to influence all of those impressions and build trust.

Excited? I hope so. Your future success in business depends on your personal brand. Go for it. Create a personal brand that people would walk over hot coals to work with.

Don’t leave your reputation to chance when you can easily be your very own brand guru.

Action: Do you have a personal brand? I’d love to hear what you have done to create your personal brand. Let’s get a conversation started. How about introducing yourself below, telling us about you?

Could some guidance from me be helpful to you? If so, please arrange a free 30 mins Skype strategy meeting with me. Here’s my calendar to book a meeting. I’d love to support you in some way to gain ‘seductive clarity’ in any aspect of your business or life.

What is Freedom?

I visited Gallipoli in Turkey recently with my father who’s from New Zealand. Gallipoli is a special place of remembrance for New Zealanders and Australians as so many of our young men (ANZACs) lost their lives there during WWI.

The beauty, tranquillity and peacefulness of the many cemeteries and memorial sites in and around Gallipoli belie the horrors of war over 100 years ago. Dad and I found the journey deeply moving and thought provoking.

And what were our young heroes fighting for? While that question could be answered in many ways depending on what side of the war you were on, it’s commonly agreed that they believed they were fighting for freedom. Our freedom!

Now on TV as we watch the war zones around the world, or observe the plight of the thousands upon thousands of migrants who are risking their lives to arrive in Europe, we know that relatively speaking, if we live in certain parts of the world, we live with freedom. But do we?

What is freedom?
What is freedom? That’s a question I’ve been asking myself for a while now.

For me, freedom is the ability to live as I choose. To act, think and do as I please. To be self-determining!

What does freedom mean for you?

Sadly, I meet people all the time who limit their personal freedom. They live small. Day to day, they live with little meaning or joy in their lives. They live in ‘victim mode’ or they live with regret. They live in a state of struggle at worst or simmer at best.

That’s not freedom, in my book. That’s like living in a prison.

Living BIG not small
Recently I felt I was living small too. I was struggling in some areas and simmering in others, rather than living a sizzling life as I usually do. I felt imprisoned, caged, and energy-less. I wasn’t sure why, as on the surface, there was so much going on in my life that was really exciting and I was happy. Yet, something was not right.

In times like that, I tend to ask myself better, deeper questions as I know the universe or my higher self is trying to teach and guide me. I look much more deeply at things in quiet reflection, often taking time out, walking and thinking, working things out.

When I make time to do this, the learning and discoveries are enormous.

True to form, my discoveries this time were no different. They were fundamental to me and the life I want to lead going forward.

I found I was imprisoning myself by my own small thinking, my own limiting beliefs and fears. My old nemesis, perfectionism, was also holding me back, as was the fear of failure and the fear of not being good or clever enough.

All those thoughts were holding me back from really owning and committing to the big vision that I’d partially created for the next phase of my business and personal life. It was as if I was telling myself that my vision was too big… and ‘little old me wouldn’t be able to do it’.

Talk about sucking the sizzle out of my own life! That’s the mind prison I was holding myself within. That’s why I wasn’t feeling a sense of freedom.

When I ‘got it’, I had a good old belly laugh at the irony of my situation, given I coach business owners, entrepreneurs and others to be high performing and to aim for the stars in their businesses and lives. Laughter is a great medicine. It puts things into perspective. 🙂

It was time to practice what I preach.

Back on the freedom trail
So, now that I’ve gotten out of my own way, my energy and excitement has returned. I’ve created some big plans to support the vision I’ve created. There’s loads of work to do as the plans unfold, and it feels really exhilarating and achievable.

Yes, the perfectionist in me will be challenged as I’m bound to make a load of mistakes. Yes, the fear of failure is ever present – hey I’m human. 🙂 I’ll just manage that going forward… I’m not going to let it overtake me.

I’ve always said that when I’m 101 years, sitting in my rocking chair reflecting back on life, I want to be able to smile and have no regrets, and to have loved the life that’s gone before me.

Today I feel free again. I feel self determining. And I remain very, very grateful to those young men who gave of their lives long ago so that we may live in peace and freedom.

‘Their name liveth for evermore’.

ACTION: What is freedom for you? Are you living a life of total freedom or holding yourself back? I’d love to hear your thoughts, so how about leaving a comment below?

Business Success Tips : Meet Keith Dolby

Keith Dolby
Franchising Consultant/Adviser/Broker

I love entrepreneurship – no surprises there, right!?! I also know that many, many small businesses fail within the first five years of operation. That’s a hard statistic to stomach. Failures happen for many reasons, and some of them include lack of systems in business, and the owner not knowing how to ‘get’ customers.

Meet my friend, Keith Dolby. He’s a franchising expert and franchisee of two franchises in the UK. He’s also a franchising broker, working with people who want to be self employed and who explore franchising as a way of achieving the ‘self employment dream’.

I’m fascinated with the concept of franchising. Yes, we all know the names of massive franchises in the market (McDonald’s, for instance), and yes, we’ve all heard the good, bad and ugly stories about franchising. But did you know there are about 1,000 different types of franchises in the UK and over 4,000 in the USA. Wow! It’s a huge market, in those two countries alone.

In my interview with Keith, he offers lots of real insights into franchising in the UK and Europe, and how to mitigate the risk of buying into the wrong type of franchise for you, your skills and personality.

There’s no doubt about it, franchising works, but buyer beware! Do your research thoroughly and work with experts. Let them guide you so that you can live your dream of successful self employment.

Enjoy this week’s interview with Keith.

You can listen to the original interview with Keith Dolby here:

To connect with Keith Dolby:
W: www.matchpointnetwork.com/kdolby

YouTube videos about Matchpoint and franchising:
• An interview with Keith at the Franchise Expo show – London ExCel
• More about what Matchpoint do: MatchPoint Consultancy and MatchPoint
• Franchisors and franchisees talk about the importance of Making The Right Match

Adèle hosts an interview series entitled:

• Successful Entrepreneurs’ Stories : Adèle McLay Interviews…..
• Business Success Tips : Adèle McLay Interviews …..

Listen to more Subject Matter Experts and be inspired in the Business Success Tips: Adèle McLay Interviews….. YouTube and Podcast series:

Other articles on What Makes Successful Entrepreneurs:

You are extraordinary – believe it

The first, and one of the most challenging but crucial strategies for bolstering a sense of vitality in our lives, is to believe that as individuals, we are extraordinary people capable of great things. That sentence may make you wince, but I believe it. You are an extraordinary person. You are capable of great things.

Your past doesn’t equal your future
It doesn’t matter what we’ve done so far (or what we haven’t done). School grades don’t matter, nor do all the times we’ve totally messed up and gotten things wrong. We’ve all had embarrassing failures; we have all missed opportunities, said the wrong thing, or let ourselves down. None of that alters the fact that we are capable of much more than we are allowing ourselves to believe. I mean that in all seriousness.

Most of us resist the idea that there’s anything very special about us. We think our achievements should speak for themselves and anything else is blowing our own trumpet.

As children many of us were taught that showing off is bad manners, and many of us have internalised that to mean that self-deprecation (at best) or outright hostility towards ourselves (at worst) is the decent thing to do. I am not advocating that you turn into a raving monster of egotism – nobody likes them, for good reason. But there’s a lot of room between believing we are average at life, or even bad, and running around demanding attention and praise like a two-year-old.

Convince yourself
I’ve struggled with this concept in my life too. I’ve finally come to realise that it’s only me that I need to convince of my fabulousness. You are the same. Just focus on convincing yourself. Sadly, we are our own greatest enemies. In all honesty, we have nothing to prove to our friends on Facebook or our families or anyone else. I’m not asking you to get all “braggy” with other people, only to big yourself up to yourself. It’s called self belief.

And this is not based on the idea that only mega-achievement counts. You are extraordinary because everyone is! For me, extraordinary doesn’t mean ‘a person who will win the Nobel Prize for Physics’ or ‘a person who will become president of the board’. It means ‘someone who knows what their passions and values are and lives in accordance with them.’ That is not the preserve of geniuses. It’s available to every single one of us.

We can do great things. We can go way beyond the limits we’ve created for ourselves. The world is full of people little different from you or me who have done it. The only difference between them and anyone else is hard work and persistence, laced with self-belief.

You are talented – practice it
‘Ah, but what about talent?’, I imagine you might be thinking. ‘Some people are just more naturally gifted than others. We can’t all win Olympic gold.’ Well, yes and no. For starters, we don’t have to win Olympic gold in order to be extraordinary. And secondly, although innate ability is a factor in outstanding success, it is way smaller than most people believe, even in physical disciplines such as sport.

In his fantastic book, Bounce, Matthew Syed debunks the myth of talent and draws on scientific research to demonstrate that success comes via the power of practice. The book is filled with the stories of supposedly ‘talented’ people who are exceptional not because of natural-born brilliance, genetic make-up or social background, but due to the huge amount of time they have dedicated to mastering their discipline.

Talent is nurtured, not heaven sent, which means that it is open to us to be as talented as we are prepared to make ourselves. We just need to get used to the idea that we’re way more talented than we give ourselves credit for, and then we must practice whatever we want to excel in, be it the guitar, stand up comedy or business.

Your potential, your joy
Don’t cut yourself off from your potential, your joy. We all have the right to be extraordinary – it’s not just for geniuses. And don’t feel you need to do anything at all in order to be special. You already are!

ACTION: What are your thoughts on this blog? Load of rubbish or does it resonate with you? I’d love to hear your comments, either way. How about leaving them below?

Generosity in Life

I think generosity is one of the most attractive of all personal qualities and one of the strongest drivers of a life that is brimming with sizzle and vitality.

What is generosity?

Many people’s first thought is that it implies money, giving it to others in need. That’s definitely a major aspect, but generosity is much more than simply donating money. It’s being generous with our resources, our time, knowledge, expertise, and perhaps most importantly, being generous with our spirit.

Generosity is about kindness, about being fully present and alive for others. If I’m with someone who gives me their full attention when we’re speaking, for example, I feel truly heard. It creates a virtuous circle of positive energy that we pass between us. It makes me want to give back to them in all sorts of ways: my own attention, my time, my support for a project or a monetary donation.
There are innumerable ways to be generous but the cornerstone is to approach every encounter in a spirit of open-hearted readiness to give of ourselves.

What can I give?

It’s the difference between going into the world thinking, ‘What can I get?’ and ‘What can I give?’ If this sounds a little bit New Age, let me tell you, I’ve seen enough to believe that it’s true what they say about what goes around comes around. There is a strong correlation between giving more and receiving more.

If you’re a grasper or a taker, in the end people notice and they don’t respond well. The opposite is also true. At its most basic, this is the principle on which networking is built. If we give, give and give some more without expectation, the most wonderful things happen.

Sometimes, when I advocate that a client practices generosity, I encounter resistance. The client tells me they fear that being generous will lead to people demanding more of them. They don’t want to be taken advantage of. Or sometimes their core belief that money is always in short supply means they are resistant to giving even very small sums.

It’s always useful to check our assumptions around any of the strategies we’re exploring on our journey to sizzling success. If something feels uncomfortable, pay more attention, not less. Explore what’s bothering you. Push yourself a little to experiment with what I’m proposing. See what happens and how it makes you feel.

Generosity rewards you

Generosity will reward you in thousands of ways. They add up to the difference between a thin and grudging existence and a sparkling openness to the world.

In my opinion, generosity is a sub-set of happiness, as being generous adds to our own happiness. While the smile, the giggle, the ‘thank you’ from the receiver of our generosity is always good to receive, just giving generously without expectation fills our own hearts and adds something – a feel good factor – to our quality of life. I like that.

ACTION: What are your thoughts on generosity? Is it something you regularly practice in your life? I’d love to hear your thoughts, so how about commenting below?

Choosing Happiness Now

In my experience, happiness is a decision we make; it is not derived from an event, nor is it dependent on somebody else. Happiness is not a stroke of luck. Too many people say, ‘I’d be happy if I had a boyfriend,’ or, ‘I’ll be happy when I make partner.’ When I hear this, I get a bad feeling about their chances of happiness. It’s perfectly legitimate to want to be in a loving relationship or to make partner, but pinning our happiness on something that has yet to come to pass is a sure-fire way to miss the happiness available to us in the here and now.

Money isn’t the answer

A huge amount of research has been carried out into what makes people happy. One of the inescapable conclusions is that the answer isn’t money. Being poor makes people very miserable but more money only makes them happier until they have just a bit more than the average income for their country. After that, there’s no correlation between more cash and more happiness. Much more reliable indicators are the strength of a person’s links to friends or family and their ability to focus on the positive rather than the negative elements of their situation.

Success comes after happiness

Positive psychology has demonstrated that we can learn the happiness habits, chief of which is flipping our belief that being successful will make us happy. In fact the opposite is true. You are much more likely to be successful (however you define it) if and when you are happy.

What is happiness?

Despite the mountain of wonderful books that have been published on how to be happy, there’s still a lot of misunderstanding about happiness. Many people associate it with the euphoria of falling in love or getting a new job. Or they think of it as something a bit more modest but still connected to an external activity: a night out with old friends, say.

We often assume that happiness is the preserve of extroverts who always have exciting weekend plans, or it’s a by-product of having kids or being able to buy a new dress every week. It’s contingent on others, external events, and the acquisition of ‘stuff’.

The problem is this makes happiness incompatible with the bulk of our experiences, which are not that high-octane. Some of them are downright unpleasant, dull, sad or painful. It also puts us in a position of powerlessness, just waiting for something or someone to come and light up our lives.

I think that’s a terrible idea.

Finding our own happiness

We will never live a life of sizzling success unless we make a deep emotional commitment to creating our own happiness, every day, no matter what’s going on in our lives.

That doesn’t mean faking positivity. We shouldn’t expect ourselves to be cheerful in the face of financial crisis or a deep disappointment, much less the death of someone who was dear to us.
A better approach is to seek out the lesson in the challenge we’re facing or, if we have suffered a loss, to grieve it with all of our heart and soul.

Setbacks do not rob us of our happiness unless we are stuck with the definition of happiness as a hedonistic whirl or constant success. Unhappiness is not the enemy, so long as we know how to face it, learn from it, process it, and then leave it behind.

Get the happiness habit

I practice choosing happiness every day. The first thing I do after I’ve woken at 5.30am, washed and dressed, is go for a brisk power walk. I look for things that will boost my sense of peaceful joy in the world. This is a quiet kind of happiness that is always available to us. And it doesn’t depend on anything fabulous happening, or on anyone else. Happiness is my decision, and that puts me in control.

In life, bad things happen. Hard thing happen. And to everyone! But if we can accept that fact and continue to search for meaning during those moments in time, if we can maintain our sense that however low we may go, we will come back up, then we give ourselves a much better chance of coming through sadness, disappointment and grief, and living with peaceful, calm happiness as a constant state.

Personally, I like living like that. Plus it puts me in control of my life, and I like that even more!

Action: What are your thoughts on happiness as a decision and as a constant state? I’d love to hear them. How about sharing your views below?

Don’t Die With Your Music Still In You

The world lost a great teacher last weekend with the passing of Dr Wayne Dyer, internationally acclaimed self empowerment writer and speaker. He inspired millions over his lifetime through his teachings.

In reflecting on his passing, I re-read some of his very well known quotes, and several of them resonated with me today:

“Don’t die with your music still in you.” – Dr Wayne Dyer

Dr Dyer certainly didn’t die with his music still in him. He shared his thoughts, his talents, his gifts with the world. He was passionate about ‘living his bliss’ as he called it.

Are you living your bliss? Are you sharing your talents, gifts, skills with the world? Are you living the life you want to be living?

I asked myself those questions a couple of years ago. And in listening to my heart, I couldn’t honestly answer “yes”. At that point, life was good, but it wasn’t great. It wasn’t exciting enough for me. It wasn’t purposeful enough. Life wasn’t sizzling. In all honesty, I felt like I was letting myself and my talents down. I am not one to live with regrets, so something had to change…..

And it did. A little while later, I resigned from all the work I was doing and took time to re-evaluate, to stretch my mind.

“What we think determines what happens to us, so if we want to change our lives, we need to stretch our minds.” – Dr Wayne Dyer

And I have. I’ve reset my personal vision for the next 50 years, and it’s enormous. I’m totally out of my comfort zone as I work towards achieving the massive goals I’ve set… and yes, it’s a really challenging place to be. Thankfully most of the time it feels good, because what I’m doing is right for me and my life, and it will have a positive flow-on effect for those I love. At present, the ride is bumpy, filled with lots of twists and turns. Everything is totally unpredictable, but hey ho, that’s life, isn’t it?!?

My new future is unfolding. It’s exciting, it’s challenging, it’s scary – the fear gremlins kick in from time to time as I ‘put myself out there’, doing the work and living the life I am now creating. I’ve always had a fear of failure… but in the last few years, I’ve let that go (or at least I’m working on that too) as it’s wasted energy.

Oh, and as for the learning and the mistakes… there are many. But that’s OK too. They are lessons. I’m where I’m meant to be right now, learning, progressing and contributing every day. Now, I’m failing forward and enjoying the journey.

“Our lives are a sum total of the choices we have made.” – Wayne Dyer

I’m so excited about the new choices, the new decisions I’ve made and the work I’m doing. I’m definitely NOT going to die with my music still in me. I’m going to play my music on every musical instrument I can lay my hands on – regardless of how it sounds. 🙂

So, how about you? Are you living your life on your terms? Where’s your music?

Regret is one of the saddest emotions in life. I’ve seen too many people living with regret. It’s heartbreaking, especially when it’s experienced near the end of their life.

I will live the rest of my life continuing to sizzle and playing music according to my values of love and trust, happiness and gratitude, health and fitness, family and friends, learning and teaching, entrepreneurship and generosity, creativity and curiosity, courage and optimism, travel and adventure, collaboration and conversation.

I hope to hear your music loud and clear too. Let’s rock it out of the park together!

RIP Dr Wayne Dyer.

“You’ll seldom experience regret for anything that you’ve done. It’s what you haven’t done that will torment you. Therefore, the message is clear. Do it!Develop an appreciation for the present moment. Seize every second of your life and savour it.” – Dr Wayne Dyer

ACTION: Have you been a follower of Wayne Dyer? I’d love to know what impact his books and teachings have had on your life. How about telling me in the comments below.

Business Success Tips : Meet Martin Brooks

Martin Brooks
Impacttologist and Communications Expert

You’re probably thinking, “What’s an Impacttologist?” I asked the same question when I met Martin the first time.

Martin is a communications expert. He studies the world’s leading communicators in all fields – not just business – working out what stands them apart from the rest, and then he teaches his clients how to be the best communicators too.

In our interview, Martin shares loads of tips on how to make a real impact when we speak, whether it’s on a stage, in a sales presentation, or just talking to people where we want to get across our message.

It’s all about engaging with our audience. In this cluttered world where we are bombarded with ‘noise’ – emails, YouTube videos, podcasts, how do we stand apart from our competition?

Often it’s about doing lots of things just one percent better, rather than focusing on doing one thing 100 percent better. Doesn’t that sound do-able?

You’ll learn from the master of communications with this interview. I hope you’ll be inspired to re-think how you’re communicating with the people you want to engage with. Enjoy!

You can listen to the original interview with Martin Brooks here:

To connect with Martin Brooks:
W: www.theimpacttologist.com

Apps W: www.miasapps.com

Adèle hosts an interview series entitled:

• Successful Entrepreneurs’ Stories : Adèle McLay Interviews…..
• Business Success Tips : Adèle McLay Interviews …..

Listen to more Subject Matter Experts and be inspired in the Business Success Tips: Adèle McLay Interviews….. YouTube and Podcast series:

Other articles on What Makes Successful Entrepreneurs:

What can we learn from the Athletics World Cup?

Don’t you think it’s a special privilege observing someone pushing themselves to their limits to achieve a goal – big or small, and to share in the elation and excitement of their achievement? I certainly do. I’m a bit of an achievement junkie and get huge vicarious pleasure in observing the achievements of others.

So it was fantastic to sporadically hook into the TV over the weekend to watch the massive achievements of so many athletes at the Athletics World Cup championships in Beijing. Despite athletics being in chaos due to ongoing doping scandals, the ‘clean’ athletes were awe-inspiring in their achievements.

The highlights for me were:

• The marvellous Mo Farah winning the 10,000m race.
• The multi-talented Jessica Ennis-Hill winning the Heptathlon world title.
• The legendary Usain Bolt retaining his 100m world title – by a whisker!

They struggle too

The thing is, while Mo, Jessica and Usain are known to many of us as magnificent athletes with phenomenal achievements behind them, often we don’t know their back stories, the struggles they’ve had to get to the level they’re at now.

While Usain Bolt is the undisputed fastest man in the world, by all accounts, he’s had a very unpredictable year this year. Injuries, average performances on the track, the swirl of drugs allegations affecting his sport (there is no suggestion he’s a drug cheat) have all taken their toll on him. Usain stumbled during his heats race too… and risked not being in the final. He certainly wasn’t the favourite to win this 100m final. Twice convicted drugs cheat Justin Gatlin was, so that added to the pressure.

Jessica Ennis-Hill took a couple of years away from her sport after the London 2012 Olympic Games to have a baby. She’s only recently returned and wasn’t sure until a couple of weeks ago whether her performances in the lead up to Beijing were good enough for this event. As she says, she’s a mother first and an athlete second. These world champs are the first time she’s had to be away from her young son, and her heart has ached as a result.

Mo Farah’s coach is under investigation for supplying a number of athletes with performance enhancing drugs. Mo is not implicated in this scam, but the accusations against the man who has been a major influence in his life and athletics career have certainly taken their toll on Mo.

What can we learn?

Quite simply, to never give up on the dream! Regardless of how hard it gets on the journey, if the dream, the vision, the goal is important enough to us, we can find a way! We will find a way. If we believe we can achieve it, we will.

Focus and determination in the face of challenge and difficulty is key to success – for everyone – not just elite athletes or ‘other’ people. Steely focus on the goal is critical.

Going the distance (excuse the running pun) by doing the work is fundamental to achieving the success we want. Yes, there are times when we’ll be on the wrong path and we’ll have to turn back or turn left or right to get back on track… that’s just another way of going the distance.

I love Shakespeare’s quote: ‘Nothing comes from doing nothing.’ We need to continually take action. Movement propels us forward. While it may take a while, if we want it enough, if we are determined, we will achieve our goal.

Our own gold medal

What’s on offer when we get through the challenge, the twists and turns, the struggle? What’s on the other side of pushing through our own lack of belief that at times will attempt to limit and control us?

Our own success! Our own gold medal! Our own jubilation, joy and satisfaction at a job well done! Now, that’s something to behold. That’s something to keep striving for.

“A dream! A belief! An action! That’s all it takes to create the life you want.” – Adèle McLay

ACTION: I’d love to know if you’ve been inspired by the very many sporting heroes who are competing around the world at present. What inspires you the most about their journey, successes, failures and achievements? How about letting us know in the comments below?