"It's All About the Dive"
If you're like me, you only watch sports like gymnastics and beach volleyball every four years during the Olympics. On Sunday, I watched synchronized diving just because it was on prime time and my kids like it.
The defending gold medalist is a Chinese athlete named Wu Minxia. NBC did an up close and personal documentary on her during her competition. One of the fascinating traits that she has that has made her a world champion is her intense focus. I've commented on Tiger Woods before in this newsletter; now let's talk about Wu Minxia.
Her philosophy centers around focusing on just the dive - not the results, the scoring, the next dive, or the judges. She has focused her entire concentration on just that one dive.
As a golfer, I know sometimes I get ahead of myself. Instead of focusing on the one shot in front of me, I will start thinking about the next three shots, or even the rest of the round. What happens is that my next shot ends up being mediocre because it wasn't my focus. Wu Minxia wouldn't be as perfect on her dive if she looked ahead at the entire competition, her opponents, or what she was going to do for dinner after the event. What can you learn from her?
When you are giving a presentation, do you focus on your "dive" or are you more concerned with the outcome - the sale, the evaluation, the judges, etc.? I know I've been guilty of this at times, especially when I've competed at Toastmasters speech contests.
We can all learn a lesson from Wu Minxia. The next time you have a sales presentation, forget about the result and concentrate on your presentation. If you do that, the sale will follow. If you are competing in a Toastmasters speech contest, focus on being in the moment, and the results will take care of themselves. If you are in a staff meeting and trying to get your point across, don't look ahead. Focus on your skills to communicate and watch the solution appear.
Here's the bottom line. If you commit to focusing on what you can control - you at that moment in time, then you will be a champion in presentations like Wu Minxia is in diving.
Focus on the dive...