The Advantage of an "Athlete's Mentality"

I've been out of the loop for a couple of weeks because I had to have some surgery. I have Crohn's Disease and after about ten years of battling it out, the disease finally won this round resulting in my having to have part of my small intestine removed. The surgery was a success, with no complications, but the side effects of the surgery were really challenging for me. I am home recovering now, and am glad to be out of the morphine haze I was living in at the hospital!

I've learned lots of things over the last six weeks, including the absolute importance of wonderful, supportive friends, but also the tremendous advantage having an athlete's mentality offers. I will never try to pass myself off as a true athlete, but I certainly have participated in my fair share of sports over the years. These days I enjoy the challenges of mini-triathlons and will always love playing, and watching, most all of the "standard" sports. Hey, back in the day, I even loved a good Jarts! match, before they outlawed them, of course!! What has really been emphasized to me lately is how having that driven athlete's mentality can really proper you forward. Let me give an example. I was told I would be in the hospital for about five days after the surgery. There would be many incremental targets that would need to be hit for me to get sprung on day five. Well, I am married to a wonderful guy and have two super sweet little boys at home - there was no way I was staying in that hospital one day longer than absolutely necessary, I was going home regardless of what it took. With abdominal surgeries, one of the most important, and crucial, things you have to do is get up and get moving. Trust me, it often hurts like hell to get up and get moving, but if you wanna bust outta there on time, you gotta do it. So, I did it. I started logging laps around my hospital floor. The first couple of laps were REALLY slow while holding on to my IV pole and my constant steadying force, my husband. From those first laps, the length of time I spent cirlcing that floor just increased. On day three, I logged over 2 1/2 hours of laps, all in an effort to get better and get outta there.

There was a young lady on my floor, twenty-eight years old and she had just had the Whipple surgery. This is a very complicated and involved surgery where they remove part of your pancreas and other parts of your digestive track. For her, this surgery was necessitated by chronic pancreatitis and was her last option for a good quality of life. Well, I picked her out of the crowd on the floor, because she was pretty much the only one remotely close to my age. If I saw her out walking the hall, I got out and walked the halls - she was NOT going to log more laps than me. I'm not sure I motivated her the same way she motivated me, but on Day 4 we ended up doing rounds together. I don't know her name, but I do know I wish her all the best in her recovery, and thank her for being the "competition" she never knew she was.

There is an instinct inside of most really good athlete's that does not allow for accepting failure or being beaten. No one is going to "one up" them. They will shoot hundreds of free throws a day; catch pass after pass; hit bucket after bucket of balls; run mile upon mile all in an effort to attain their goals, be the best and not let the competition get the better of them. Doesn't the same apply in business? Don't many of the really outstanding business leaders you admire have that athlete's mentality where they will dig in and do whatever necessary to prevail? Both of my parents have a "never say die" attitude and in my opinion, that has been as instrumental as any other factor in their going from where they were in 1976 to where they are today.

So, the next time the chips seem like their down, there's no way out, no way to win, take a deep breath, visualize where you want to go, strategize the plan for getting there, and then, most importantly, get back out in the hallways and do a few hundred laps. You will recover and be on the path to good personal, and business health, before you know it!

Until next time, have a SUPER weekend.