Happy New Year and welcome to my personal blog.
Ever since I was a young girl I had a burning desire inside of me to want more, to be more, to dream more and to expect more than others think is possible or realistic. This burning desire, hunger for success and an extra-ordinary quality of life has driven me to the point where I am at now.
The beginning of the year seems like a perfect time to kick off my personal blog and start sharing valuable insights that I have learnt throughout my time as an elite figure skater and now as a coach. The focus of this blog is sports psychology and the champion mindset required to achieve your goals. To sum it up I am going to share with you what it takes to win in sport, business and in life.
This time of year is a really important one as it gives us an opportunity to reflect on the previous year and re-focus for the year ahead. I spent the best part of December reflecting on all the great wins of 2011, the things that maybe didn’t go so well, the goals that were achieved and analyzing the areas that I need to improve on for 2012!
I cannot tell you how much value you can add to your life and accomplishments by taking the time to do this. IT IS NOT TOO LATE! New Year’s resolutions are HUGE at this time of year! According to “the project” on Channel 10 last night, 45% of Australians will fail to see their resolution through to the end of January and 92% will fail before the end of 2012! Now, that’s SCARY!
So what can you do to ensure that you do not fall into the trap that 92% of Australians do?
THE ANSWER: GET A ROAD MAP & STICK TO IT WITH EXTREME INTENSITY!!
Over the past decade, I have set some pretty major goals that at the time seemed well beyond my reach and to be honest a couple of them where. But I can tell you straight from the horse’s mouth, I have achieved some of my dreams that I never thought possible just by having a road map and the passion and energy to get off my butt and achieve it!
You have to make your road map clear from the beginning and you have to make a commitment to yourself to stand by it. People will come by and try to pull you away from what you are trying to achieve all the time, so the road map is critical as it is the one thing that will bring you back to what you need to focus on – the end result!
You also need intensity and a real desire to achieve it. Nothing great is ever achieved without hard work, if anyone tells you otherwise they are lying. It takes courage and a huge amount of desire to put a goal out there that seems impossible at the time and really go for it! Focus is everything.
To give you an idea of the focus and intensity that you will need to achieve your major goal or New Year’s resolution, I strongly recommend you take the time to watch the movie Conviction. I suggest that you put yourself in the shoes of Hillary Swank and really look at the intensity and the obstacles that she has to overcome in order to get her brother ‘Kenny’ out of prison. That is the type of intensity that you need to have when going after your dreams and goals for 2012! It is not going to be easy if you have set a goal that is really worth fighting for, but it will be worth it in the end!
I know this type of intensity might seem crazy, but I promise you this stuff works. One of my greatest accomplishments was stepping out on the ice as the first New Zealander to ever compete at a Synchronised Ice Skating World Championship. This was achieved in April 2006 and the main reason it was achieved was because I had a clear road map, I had the intensity of Hillary Swank in Conviction and no matter what everybody else told me I just keep pushing through each obstacle until I got there!
So when you are going after your big goal for 2012, make sure you enjoy the process, keep the road map close to you at all times and go after it with the intensity of Hillary Swank in the movie Conviction.
All the best!
Aleisha
