Have you been watching the Olympics in Paris the past week?
Most evenings we've been gathering as a family to watch and cheer on the athletes.
Last night we were amazed by how close the Men's 100m Final race was. By looking at the photo below, can you tell which runner won the Gold medal?
If you said the runner in lane 3 or 4, you'd be wrong.
The winner of the Gold medal is the runner in lane 7, Noah Lyles.
That's because it is the runner's chest crossing the finish line that determines the winner.
The Silver and Gold medal winners were separated by just .005 seconds - and all of the runners were within just .09 seconds of each other.
It brought to mind the scripture, "By small and simple things, are great things brought to pass." (Alma 37:6)
Each of the competitors have spent thousands of hours, over years, for something that takes less than 10 seconds to complete.
I doubt that they tell themselves that their effort doesn't matter or that it isn't important to reach for their best.
Here's where The Small and Simple Principle gets tricky....
Does it mean that you should apply Olympic-Sized efforts to your goals?
And that you should be hyper-focused on perfecting your actions?
Maybe.
Focusing more on the byproduct of your efforts rather than the final results will make the biggest difference.
In every day life, Consistency is more important than Control.
And Commitment beats Perfection.
Humility and Awareness will take you farther than Comparison and Over-analyzing.
Every time.
I recommend this small and simple practice:
Notice negativity
Acknowledge your brains' efforts to protect you and
Reassure yourself that you can or will find a way to handle any problems.
Make that the pattern you focus on and repeat it at every opportunity ... And don't worry, your brain will give you plenty of opportunities.
It is not always an easy practice, but it is possible. Many things that were once thought to be impossible are in fact possible. Just look to the Olympians as evidence of that.
What you are striving for does not have to be impressive enough to be televised and awarded with a medal.
But it will still feel golden.
Xo,
Meredith
P.S. I'm presenting a workshop on Navigating Internal and External Conflict for the Mesa County Women's Network on August 13th from 6-8pm. If you're interested in attending, you can register at www.mcwn.us/events
I will teach the webinar online in September, stay tuned!
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