How do successful athletes think and train?

Here’s a story that illustrates just what it takes to rise to the top. A former pro cyclist I knew, retired but continued to do some pretty big pro races, and he was still very competitive. This is how he did it.

Mark Spitz, who in 1972 won 6 Olympic gold medals went to Indiana University, and his coach was a guy named Doc Counsilman, the greatest swim coach in America’s history.

The first day of practice every fall, they take all the guys going out for the swim team out on the swim deck. This is the first thing. They didn’t get in the water.

Hurt. Pain. Agony.

And there was a little banner that hung over the pool, and the banner only had three words on it; Hurt, Pain, Agony.

He said, “Okay, we’re going to spend a lot of time together this year, and if you want to be a part of this swim team, every afternoon, you have to come here for a couple hours and swim until you hurt.

But if you have higher goals and you want to be an NCA champ, you want to be a national champ, you have to come here every afternoon and swim until you’re in pain.”

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“If you have still higher goals and you want to be the next Mark Spitz, you want to be a world champion or an Olympic champion, you have to come here and train until you’re in agony.” He said, “So it’s your choice. Hurt, pain, agony.” He said, “All of you, I wouldn’t have recruited you unless I knew each and every one of you had world class potential inside of you.”

Here’s the interesting thing. Whether you choose hurt or pain or agony, by the time you take a shower and go to dinner, everything is going to go back to normal. So it’s how much are you willing to give in that 2, 2-1/2 hours every day that’s going to determine your destiny.

What’s it going to be?

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