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Those Who Do

Those Who Do

Submitted by Ryan Woodruff on Sat, 05/29/2010 - 00:24
in

Here's an excerpt from Dara Torres' book Age Is Just a Number: Achieve Your Dreams at Any Stage in Your Life

"When I was training for the 1984 Olympics at Mission Viejo, a sociologist named Daniel Chambliss watched us practice nearly every day.  Chambliss then wrote a book called Champions: The Making of Olympic Swimmers.  That book totally captures the details-matter mind-set... swimming is sort of like one of those Impressionist paintings made with millions of dots.  Sure, a dot is a dot.  What's the big deal? But if you care enough to make each dot the exact right size and the exact right color in the exact right place, something amazing occurs."

She goes on to say:

"The truth is simple: Most swimmers choose every day not to do the little things.  They choose, in effect, not to win...In some sense everyone 'could' win the Olympic Games, but 'could' doesn't count.  The gold medal is reserved for those who do."

I couldn't have said it better myself... the gold medal is reserved for those who DO.

Not those who dream.

Not those who wish.

Not those who want.

THOSE WHO DO.

 

Comments

Could not agree more.

Submitted by marcrandell on Sun, 05/30/2010 - 08:48.

Thanks for the post Ryan.  I could not agree more.   A while back I wrote an article.

"Is it possible that abstract instructions such as “you have to concentrate” could actually help swimmers swim faster?"  In the article I tried to capture the importance of DOing or Executing.

 

"In order to actually improve at anything you have to take specific actions.  You have to execute.  To steal from Nike, you have to "Just Do It". That succinct expression is brilliant.  It sounds so simple, yet hardly anyone can "Just Do It". "

 

 

 

Similar theme

Submitted by Ryan Woodruff on Sun, 05/30/2010 - 10:16.

Marc,I did like that post of yours.  As a teenage distance runner and swimmer, I devoured everything Nike - the "culture" of their advertising, their products, etc.  I was a major fan, and was disappointed to see them discontinue use of the slogan - it just became cliche.  Still rings so true, though!

Ryan Woodruff
ncacheadcoach@gmail.com

Coporate Jargon

Submitted by marcrandell on Mon, 05/31/2010 - 08:22.

It's funny (and a little annoying) that a big corporation got it right.  I wonder if when Just Do It was conceived, they actually realized the importance of these three simple words.  Definitely a bit cliche, but when you think about all of the dreamers, and how few people actually execute on their dreams, it is really timeless.