Don Macnaughton Performance coaching and NLP training for personal effectiveness

A Top Performance is an Inspired Performance

“This was the most splendid team performance”
Lord Sebastian Coe, after winning the Olympic bid

No one gets to the top of their game on their own − not even competitors in solo sports! Behind every Olympic athlete, there’s a whole team of significant others; coaches, physios, trainers, nutritionists…the list goes on. Lord Sebastian Coe, Chair of the London 2012 Olympic Committee, knows a thing or two about team work and the inspiration that each and every one of us can find in other people. We are all connected, and in all areas of life, Olympic sport included, it’s an undeniable fact that top performances are inspired performances.

Seb Coe was inspired to become an athlete by watching athletes from his local area competing in the 1968 Mexico Olympics. John and Sheila Sherwood won bronze and silver medals that year, and all of the pupils in Coe’s school crowded round an old black and white television to watch them perform. Coe said, “By the time I got back to my classroom, I knew what I wanted to do and what I wanted to be.“ Of course, it was not only Coe’s dream to become an athlete, he made it his goal to become a champion athlete; a goal he passionately pursued and achieved by winning two gold and two silver medals in 1980 and 1984. In fact, he is the only man to have won 1500 metre gold twice.

Having been inspired by Olympic champions, Coe himself then became the Olympian who inspired another champion, Dame Kelly Holmes, who became a double gold medal winner in the 2004 Athens Olympics. That’s quite a ripple of influence, 1968 all the way through to 2004, but it’s a ripple that continues as Holmes continues to inspire today’s young athletes.

We can all be inspired and inspire. During his athletics career, Coe was coached by his father, Peter, his “greatest inspiration” and now in his political career, he is determined to inspire a nation, and the world, by achieving his dream of making the 2012 London Olympics, “the Games for everyone.” He hopes the Games will inspire people to challenge themselves to do things they might not have considered doing before, volunteering for example. “People inspired me in my sport when I was running cross-country; the people who were prepared to stand out on a course for six hours in sub-zero temperatures marshalling kids. Looking back, I would never have been able to do anything I have done without the volunteers.”

As part of the preparations for the 2012 London Olympics, an entire building will be dedicated to kitting out the Team GB athletes, and a special ceremony will be held to recognise the athletes becoming Olympians. It’s all part of director of sport Sir Clive Woodward’s master plan to inspire a “One Team GB” culture and team spirit across all 1300 members of the team − not just the 550 athletes but also all of the behind-the-scenes staff and volunteers. Behind every champion athlete, there’s a champion support team, and each individual in the team feels passionate about doing their best in their role to allow the team as a whole to achieve a best performance. When you find your passion, you find your inspiration, and you find your motivation to be a champion performer in whatever it is you do. Who or what inspires you?

Don is taking on individual clients in January for an individual, one year coaching programme based on his Amazon best selling book “The 12 Hidden Laws of Performance” email freyja@zonedinperformance.com if you think this is the programme for you in 2012.