Goal Achievement – Here’s Hoping For Helen!

Whenever the Olympics come around, it’s a chance to focus on the individuals involved. Some have been at many Olympics, some had not even tried their sport at the previous one, and that’s the case with the subject of today’s article…


Helen Glover.

Not a household name, but a real medal prospect at the London Games. All in just 4 years too!

I say ‘just’ 4 years, they have been 4 years of work, work, and more work, harder than most people would want to take on. I’ve written about the power of good old hard work many times, but in this article I want to concentrate on what can be done in a surprisingly short space of time.

Now, don’t get me wrong, Helen has always been sporty, I’m not saying she had never done sport before. She ran international cross country as a junior, and was part of the satellite squad for hockey. After studying sports science at university she became a PE teacher.

So, a firm sporting background, but that doesn’t necessarily make you a champion, and it was in 2008 that she was scouted as part of the Sporting Giants programme. That was part of British sport working out after many years that instead of waiting for potential talent to come to it, it could go out and talent spot athletes, which would develop a bigger talent pool.

Helen’s long arms and legs were well suited for rowing, so she was put in the rowing programme.

That’s when the work started, and carried on – have I mentioned the need for hard work before? She rose up the ranks in the pairs with her partner Heather Stanning, and as of summer 2012, go into the London Games as world cup winners and medal prospects, with gold being the target.

How exciting is that!

Long time readers will know I find stories like this simply inspirational, as they not only show the power of hard work, following a plan, and goal achievement, Helen’s story shows that you really can achieve amazing things in such a short amount of time.

I don’t know what your goal is, it may not be to compete in an Olympics, but whatever it may be, you can use Helen’s story to inspire you to get cracking – watch Helen Glover as she competes in London 2012, and ask yourself where goal achievement might take you by Brazil 2016!

As ever, let me know your feedback, and please share, like, tweet etc!

‘Til Next Time,
Health & Happiness,
Gordon
P.S. This is the kind of thing I write about in my motivational book ‘Transform Your Life in 21 Days!’ now at the cheaper Kindle price!
P.P.S. How about reading about another Olympic hopeful, Holly Bleasdale, who had not even tried her sport when the last Olympics took place! How High Can Holly Go?

Do leave a comment!

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2 Comments

  • Thanks for the inspiration, I have been reading about how fast you rise to the top and how much better everyone around you can be if you work in the area of your strengths. This sounds like one of those kind of success stories.

    Elisa

    • Hi Elisa,
      Yes, you make a good point about working to strengths. Helen’s best strength was unknown to her until the opportunity came looking for her- and within 4 years she is now looking at a medal, maybe gold, in her home Olympics! Not bad eh! It does also show that we habve amazing achievements inside us – I suspect lack of belief was never a problem for Helen with her back story, but it is a barrier for so many people!
      Cheers,
      Gordon