The Olympic Games just gave us some totally mind-blowing and jaw-dropping moments as we watched the best of the best from around the world come together to fight for ultimate sporting glory.

And yes, who doesn’t know about Michael Phelps’ superhuman feat of 28 medals, including 23 gold in five Olympic Games! Or Joseph Schooling, a 21-year-old from Singapore who didn’t let Phelps win the last solo race of his career, the 100m butterfly final. And Usain Bolt, the fastest man on earth with gold medals in 100 metres races in three consecutive Olympic Games.

There have been many memorable moments, astonishing victories, terrifying injuries and heartbreaking defeats in Rio, but we are not focusing on the Games right now.

What we are going to do is to find out how these amazing men and women gracing the Olympic arena become champions. What is it that they do that makes them the best of the best in the world. The secrets of their success in their respective sports can be guidelines for lesser mortals like you and me to make our own mark in whatever we want to do in life.

respective sports can be guidelines for lesser mortals like you and me to make our own mark in whatever we want to do in life.

Here are some personality traits and habits of Olympic champions that give them the edge, besides natural talent and suitable physique, over so many others. Read on and follow these tips and there is no reason why you can’t become a champion too!

Set goals

“You have to set goals. Mine is to be one of the greatest athletes ever to do the sport. ”

— Usain Bolt

At the age of eight, Michael Phelps, the most decorated Olympian of all-time, had set his sights on the Olympic gold by creating a ‘goal sheet’ where he wrote, “I would like to make the Olympics”. And what made his goal sheet different from the kind that many of us have created at one time or the other is the fact that he was specific about what he wanted to achieve by writing down the timings in different forms of races. Even after being in the Olympics and getting his goals, Phelps continues to write down his goals “in the form of times for various races” and checks on them daily.

In the same way, set specific goals that are not just what you want to achieve but write a list of actions you are going to take to achieve your goals. And also set your goals high because, according to speed skater Dan Jansen who won Olympic gold in 1994, “The higher you set your goals, the more you’re going to work.”

If your goal motivates you or frightens you out of your comfort zone, only then you will move towards progress.

“I have my goals somewhere I can see them, so when I get out of bed I know I’m waking up to work on what I’m going to achieve. ” — Michael Phelps

Dan Jansen also adds, “When I was 16 years old, training for my first Olympic Games, my coach wrote all of my goal times down on the top of the kickboard I was using every day in practice. I couldn’t escape them, but the result, after executing the plan, was that I made the Olympic team.”

So pick your the pen and paper and write down your goals right now, and put it up where you can see it every day, reminding and motivating you constantly. It can be in front of your study table, or a reminder alert on your iPad/phone.

Practice

“Phelps trained 365 days a year for six years. For Christmas, New Years and birthdays.

Michael worked harder than (I’ve seen) anybody work in any endeavour. ”

— Coach Bob Bowman, said during an interview before the 2004 Olympic Games

Success and excellence demand hard work, perseverance and practice. Whether it is studies or sports, practice is what makes perfect.

Phelps is lucky enough to have an ideal swimmer’s physique but he couldn’t have amassed the 23 gold medals by just writing down his goals on a piece of paper when he was eight. From then, he went on to practice, and practice real hard, harder than we can imagine.

We have to push ourselves to our maximum capacity to bring out the best in us. And we all have it in us to excel, we just need to work hard enough for it.

According to sport scientist Allen Lim, Olympic-size success isn’t science. “It’s about practice,” he says. “It’s the application of will and sweat and pain and patience into the unknown.”

Visualise

“The brain is getting trained for actual performance during visualisation. It’s been found that mental practices can enhance motivation, increase confidence and self-efficacy, improve motor performance and prime your brain for success. ” — Researcher Angie LeVan

Visualise what you want to achieve. Mental imagery or visualisation is a mental practice that is as important as physical training for athletes. Psychology Today has reported in an issue that “studies have suggested that mental practice can be almost as effective as physical training.”

“I thought I’d be content to be an Olympic champion and achieving my goal. But right now, I’m kind of looking forward to the next step ... to try to be the world record holder in that event and breaking Michael’s world record. ”— Joseph Schooling

What happens during the visualisation process is that our brain gets trained for the actual performance because, according to Andre Obradovic, a personal and endurance athlete coach, “Visualising a performance in our mind, like giving a speech, can prepare the brain in a way that it actually enhances the real performance. However, there are three things we need to think about when we practice visualisation: It must be correct, it must be precise and it must be repeated.”

You can also keep visualising what you want to do and how you are going to do it. This will help you during your progress and keep your focus firmly fixed on your goals.

Focus

“The mind guides action. If we succeed in regulating our thoughts, then this will help our behaviour. ”

—Sports psychologist Antonis Hatzigeorgiadis

At the start of the 200-metre butterfly final in the 2008 Beijing Games, Michael Phelps’ goggles broke. It was like going almost blind, but he raced on and won by setting a new world record! The ability to stay focused made him mentally fit for any obstacle.

The ability to keep unwanted thoughts away and remain focussed on the task at hand is critical. If you are studying, try pushing away other thoughts that come into your mind. You will have to make an effort to do it at first, then after sometime you will become better at stopping your mind from wondering away from the task at hand.

The Olympians’ ability to prevent un-resourceful distractions is a key to their peak performance.

Stay motivated

“I do a lot of self-affirmations:

I am strong, I am capable, I got this. ”— Angeli VanLaanen, US freeskier in 2014 Sochi Olympics

Instructional and motivation self-talk also give athletes an edge on the competition, and according to a study published in Perspectives on Psychological Science, “instructional self-talk (‘Keep your leg straight,’ ‘Use your core strength here’) helped athletes to improve specific techniques or skills, while motivational self-talk (‘You know you can do this!’) helped them to succeed in strength and endurance-based tasks.”

“Practice creates confidence, and confidence empowers you! ” — Simone Biles

Don’t let fear, self-doubt and feelings of unworthiness crowd your mind when you are doing something important. Having an optimistic attitude is associated with success both at the Olympics and everyday life as such people don’t give up or get bogged down. Optimistic people actively search for solutions to problems while pessimistic people think that it is no use to make any effort.

You don’t want to be a pessimist, do you?

Self-awareness

Optimism is not useful without self-awareness. Accurate self-awareness helps people realise their shortcomings and then work to overcome them. Everyone has faults and fails at different things. Knowing where one can fail helps in working to improve yourself in that area.

Like if algebra is your weak point in math, realising this will make you ask your teacher or tutor for guidance and regularly practicing algebra will help you eventually crack and conquer it.

Routine

“Perhaps the most important strategy for success, especially when it comes to achieving a long-term goal, is having a routine and adhering to that routine even in the face of chaos. ”— Sport psychologist Daniel Gould

Medallists tend to be on an automatic mode during their big performance and not get distracted by the crowd, nervousness and other factors. This is because they have established routine and they stick with that routine which helps them concentrate. Routine involves a lot of different things, like sleeping on time, eating the right food, sticking to practice and pre-race preparation routines.

“There are always things to motivate you. There are a lot of different events in track and field, and you can always aim to go faster by improving a few things. ” — Usain Bolt

So establish a proper routine, especially during the weekdays so that you are in the right frame of mind and body at school and not losing focus due to lack of sleep, fatigue, etc. Have food on time and follow strict study routine even when you don’t have tests or exams if you want to be a top scorer.

You can be anything and do anything in life if your commit yourself to pursuing it relentlessly, doing everything in your power to reach your goals. Even if you don’t reach it, you would be further than you would have been if you have not tried your best. Winning the race feels good, but what is important is taking part in the race, giving your best, whatever the result.

Don’t get disco­uraged by failures or setbacks. Face the challenge, that’s what Olympians do and that’s how winners are born.

Published in Dawn, Young World, August 20th, 2016