Can Olympic Athletes Help You Live a Better Life?

The winter Olympics are almost here and I cannot wait! I am one of those people who tries to watch every single event. I just can't get enough. I wish they happened every year - though that would probably take something away from the achievements of the athletes. They are more special when they only happen every four years. The triumphs and upsets mean so much more when participants have to wait four more years to defend their titles or make a comeback.

This year I am really looking forward to watching snowboarding, especially women's snowboarding. I met pro snowboarder, Elena Hight, at the espnW Women and Sports Summit last fall and was really inspired by her. We did the Surfset Fitness class together and she was incredible. Her core is so strong! One word describes her, INSPIRING! Want to learn more about her and snag a sneak peak of her awesome workout? Pick up the latest issue of Oxygen magazine. She is the cover model for the February issue and she rocks it! 

Olympic athletes are the most dedicated individuals. They train for years, and in most cases the majority of their life, for one chance to show the world that they are the best. They train for themselves, for family members, and for their country. The Olympic legacy spreads across centuries and with each new games, new stories of triumph and belief in what the human body and spirit are capable of is born. 

We can't all be Olympic athletes, but we can all have the heart of an Olympic athlete. Olympians are strong, fierce, dedicated, devoted, focused and confident. I have listed the top seven things I have learned from watching the Olympics and meeting Olympic athletes. If we could all apply these things to our lives the world would be a better place.

• Never settle for ordinary or for second best. Keep your hunger to constantly strive for improvement. 

• Failure is never final. Get up and try again. Everyone fails, but it's the ones who get back up that become champions.

• Get a team around you that supports you. They will be your biggest ally in victory and in defeat.

• Watch what you eat. When your body feels good you will perform better. Just because you aren't an Olympic athlete doesn't give you a reason to treat your body poorly. 

• Working out is a daily activity. It is a year round commitment. Olympians don't only train during the season, they train to maintain all year round. If you want to feel better about your body, feel stronger and get sick less, EXERCISE daily!

• No matter what your dreams are, no matter who tells you that you won't make it, you make your own destiny. Practice makes perfect. Follow your dreams. 

• Fame is temporary. A gold medal only provides temporary joy. It's what you do with your ability after the glory is over that makes it all worthwhile. Make sure you give back to your community. We all have the power to make a change and make the world a better place. 

The Olympics offer a platform for inspiration. In the coming weeks I will laugh, cry and cheer on athletes to victory. I believe in what they are working towards and the goals they are trying to accomplish. They are pushing the boundaries of what has been done and what can be done. What if we all strived to achieve more than we did yesterday?

Failure is a Choice

Every day people fail and the fact is, if you aren't prepared to fail you aren't really living. Failing is something that you should never be comfortable with, but it will always make you stronger and better equipped to handle failure the next time it knocks on your door.

I have chosen to look at failure as a choice. To truly fail I would have to give in to the moment where I didn't succeed. I would let it affect me in a negative way. I watched the NBA Finals tonight and they recapped the last three years for the Miami Heat. In 2011, they failed to win the championship. They came up short. It was devastating for a team that wanted to win so bad. They had the expectations of the nation on their shoulders.

But did they really fail? In my mind they used that experience to push them and drive them to practice harder so that in 2012 they would be the champions, no questions asked. Yes, they failed to win one championship, but that failure was on their journey to win two consecutive championships in 2012 and 2013. Without that first failure, they may not have had the drive to get a win the following two years. Fighting against the odds, the Miami Heat won a battle today. They won and in my mind that is what failure is, a stepping stone to success.

You have to learn from mistakes, from missteps, from missed shots. Life won't hand you success, you have to work for it. Failure will never stop me from pursuing my dreams. Whether it be in the races I compete in, training, job hunting, or working for something better, I will always keep reaching for my dreams. The word failure only takes meaning if you accept it as defeat, if you don't learn from it and choose to change your path.

Go ahead, make a mistake, as long as you're pushing forward and learning from each time you don't get the result you want, you haven't truly failed. As long as you are living, as long as you are breathing, failure is a choice. You can choose to let it end your journey or to pick yourself up off the floor and become a success.

What will you choose?

Motivational Monday

Kara Goucher wins US Half Marathon Championship!

My favorite runner, Kara Goucher, won the US Half Marathon Championship in Duluth, MN this past weekend. She is my absolute favorite runner and I was excited to see her win and set a course record! Since that race I have been looking for some great quotes to pump me up for training and inspire me to run faster and stronger. Here are my favorites:

"I've had to learn through experiences not to be afraid to fail. You don't know what the future holds for you. You can hope your dreams come true, but you have to be fearless. I don't want to look back and think, What if?" -Nastia Lukin

"Our greatest glory is not in never failing, but in rising up every time we fail." -Ralph Waldo Emerson

"Like the marathon, life can sometimes be difficult, challenging and present obstacles, however if you believe in your dreams and never ever give up, things will turn out for the best." -Meb Keflezighi

Have a dream, make a plan, go for it. You'll get there. I promise." -Zoe Koplowitz

Do you have a favorite motivational quote that you would like to add? Shoot me a comment below. I would love to read it and add it to my list!

Blood, Sweat and Tears

Dreams aren't born of nothing. They are made of blood, sweat and tears. It takes discipline, faith and a little bit of luck to truly reach your grandest and most challenging dreams. The beauty of having and maintaining a dream is that there is always the chance that that dream will come true. Don't give up on your dreams, never let them go because you never know when you may get a chance to pursue exactly what you have been dreaming about.

No one ever achieved success without failing a few times first. Steve Jobs was asked to leave the company he founded and he did. But he came back even stronger, he never gave up hope and never gave up on his dreams. He had every right to just walk away and forget about his company, but he didn't give up - he believed.

Michael Jordan was cut from his high school basketball team. H didn't give up, instead he went and practiced, believed and worked. He would not give up on his dreams and it paid dividends for him. He became arguably the best basketball player of all time and has an entire brand at Nike named after him (Jordan Brand). Not too bad for someone who wasn't even considered a good enough player to be on high school team.

Everyone falls, everyone fails, everyone has dreams. The difference between success and failure is how may times you get back up. To fail is to experience life. There is nothing to be afraid of. In fact, we should embrace failure, because with failure comes success.

I don't want to live someone else's dream. I want to live my own dream and that means traveling into uncharted territory, charting my own course and having my own failures that will lead to my ultimate success. I have been turned down by Nike a few times, which is my ultimate dream company to work for, but I won't ever stop trying, because each of those failures have taught me about myself and helped me to learn more about the company I admire. When the opportunity presents itself, I will be ready to embrace my dream, because I will know that I have put in the hard work and I deserve to be successful and live my dream.

A motivational video to give you some inspiration.

Failure Brings Success

Jubilation, determination, motivation, whatever you call it, when you achieve something in sport it is an amazing feeling and something that is hard to repeat. I can't think of many other things that can bring about such heartache and such joy. Having the drive and the discipline to work towards that incredible feeling of accomplishment is a gift in itself.

In my tennis match tonight I kept getting ahead in the game and then giving away crucial, game winning points. It was frustrating and I couldn't figure out why. That's when it struck me that even professional athletes suffer setbacks and heartaches, sometimes by as little as losing a race by 1/100th of a second. But that is what makes them become great, learning from those failures, remembering those failures and using them to push themselves in their next big event. It's those moments of failure that give them the strength they need to find a way to get to those moments of pure joy.

I may fail, I may not always put my best foot forward in a match, but as long as I get out there and keep taking those steps to make myself better and learn from my mistakes, I will get to that moment of pure joy, that moment where I achieve great things. It may not be in front of a large crowd, or any crowd for that matter, but that won't change my achievement or take away any of it's power.

I've learned to embrace failure, to let it become a part of me. Failure seems to breed success and if that is what it takes to become the best that I can be then bring on the failures and frustrations because I have learned how to turn them into success.