The 4 Secrets to Winning
Winning is dangerous.
Katie Ledecky won her first Olympic gold medal when she was 15 years old (a freshman in high school). At 28 she’s the most decorated female Olympian in history. She has 14 Olympic medals. Nine gold.
Success hasn’t hardened into nostalgia for Ledecky.
Clinging to past wins turns trophies into anchors.
Ledecky doesn’t defend her trophies. She defends her practice. These four habits keep her winning.
(Katie’s story: Just Add Water.)
The 4 Secrets to Winning
#1. Focus on the joy.
Don’t make winning your primary focus.
Ledecky said, “I wanted to win, yet I was still focused on the joy, the exuberance of doing the thing I loved most in the world.”
#2. Compete against yourself.
#3. Become your best self.
“My goal setting has never been I’m going to beat so and so or I want to break so and so’s world record. Instead, starting at about age seven, I set specific objectives for myself that I called want times.”
“The Olympic medals, the world records, those are incredible achievements. But I’m more gratified by how swimming has shaped me, how the pursuit has molded me into the best version of myself.”
#4. Pursue pretty.
“I’m not thinking about swimming fast so much as I’m thinking about swimming pretty.” Ledecky focused on fewer strokes while making them more efficient, for example.
Become exceptional in small ways:
- Improve how you run meetings.
- Tighten decision quality.
- Upgrade how you give and seek feedback.
- Refine your coaching skills.
Focus on the quality of your work. Success is a byproduct, not the aim.
Drop the Weight of Winning
- What behaviors and attitudes produced this win?
- What processes and procedures have lost their usefulness?
- What can we try that we haven’t already done?
- What are we learning?
What are your secrets to winning?
Which secret is most relevant to you?
