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Self Help: Break from the Pack

In 1979, Canadian speed skater Gaeton Boucher decided he was going to win a gold medal at the 1980 Olympics.

He said, 'My improvement between 1975 and 1976 was so great that I started to dream more. I decided I would make it slowly to the top in 1977 and 1978. Then I would win in the World Championships in 1979. My dream was to win 5 golds at the 1980 Olympics.'

That summer, Gaeton went to to train with U.S. skating star Eric Heiden. It was in this training that he got the biggest surprise of his career. He recalls:

'Heiden started with a 10,000 metres warm-up of skating imitations. I had never seen skating imitations before. You run in a skating position (bent over). Ten thousand metres is 25 laps.

He was warming up and he was going fast!

I stopped after 20 laps. My legs were hurting, and that was just a warm-up. Then he did a 5000, 1500 and 1000 all at maximum speed, just like a race.

We took 5 to 10 minutes of rest to recover a little bit and he said, 'Okay, I am doing a 5000.'

I followed him and I stopped after 3000 metres.

At this point, something dawned on Gaeton. In his own words:

'I thought, 'I cannot beat him, he is going to win,' because his training was so much harder. I thought I was training as hard as I could, then I saw this guy train even harder...that gave me the idea I could go beyond.'

Boucher was right. Eric Heiden went on to win 5 gold medals at the 1980 Olympics.

But Boucher soon fulfilled his own dream: in 1984 he won two gold medals in speed skating, become one of the finest athletes Canada has ever produced.*

Self Help: The Lesson of Quality Training

Until Boucher trained with Heiden, he had not grasped what quality training really was.

This is the norm. Most people are working at 60% capacity and think they are working too hard.

It's only when we spend time with a person who is genuinely challenging himself--and his comfort zone--do we question our methods. This is what quality training is: deliberate, impressive effort towards our goals on a daily basis.

Self Help: Mental Toughness Exercise

Take out a blank sheet of paper. Write down your most important goal in life right now.

Then, write down 5 ways you could improve your skills, knowledge, or results.

Include thoughts on how you could challenge your comfort zone and dramatically expand your abilities. Then, do something from your list each day, and watch your performance soar.

I'll talk to you again soon.

Your friend,
Lisa B.