Cancelled...

Millennium Cargo

Imagine spending your whole life training for one moment.

Getting up early, grinding every day, pushing your body and your mind to the extreme so you’re at peak performance when your time at the Olympics comes… only to have a pandemic cancel the competition at the last minute.

The Tokyo Olympics should have taken place in 2020, but thanks to Covid it got postponed. What’s the big deal? I hear you say… They could just compete next year?

But it’s not that simple. Achieving peak performance and getting to the top of your game is incredibly difficult. Maintaining that level of performance for another year is almost impossible.

But despite this, many of the world’s top athletes rose to the challenge. They kept training, stayed focused and came back this year faster, stronger and more determined than ever.

And it showed.

There were some inspiring, heart-wrenching and truly amazing moments.

There was the Dutch 1500m runner, Sifan Hassan, who was accidentally tripped by another runner. She hit the floor and found herself far behind. But she got back up, gave it all she had and still managed to cross the finish line first.

There was the skateboarder, Sky Brown, who became Britain’s youngest ever medalist, winning Bronze at just 13 years old.

There’s Gianmarco Tamberi and Mutaz Barshim, the high jumpers who, instead of going to sudden death when tying, opted to share the gold medal between them.

Then there’s Simone Biles who made the incredibly courageous decision to drop out of the Olympics when her mental health put her performance - and therefore life- at risk.

Whichever stories you followed, whichever events you watched, one thing is for certain: we can learn a lot from our 2021 Olympians.

These guys faced challenges like no others. They trained in difficult and distanced conditions. They persevered through an additional 12 months of gruelling preparations. They performed in almost empty stadiums.

Their resilience and determination are second to none.

These athletes spend a lot of time training their bodies, but I bet you they spend some serious time training their minds too - you don’t win gold at the Olympics without a killer mindset.

As business owners, we face our own challenges and gruelling conditions every single day. We too need to be resilient, determined and persistent. Mindset matters.

So how much time do you spend training your mindset? And how do you do it? I’d love to hear about it…