Olympian Ian Crocker visited with my daughters’ swim team yesterday.
At eight-years-old, Crocker didn’t even know what the Olympics were.
By 18 he was on the winner’s podium.
Now, he has three Olympic golds, and a couple of others.
And he’s world-record holder in the 100m. butterfly.
Still.
Even after that other swimmer took all those golds.
So.
He’s pretty good.
And you know what he attributes it all to?
Not muscles, or luck, or getting up early, or fancy coaches, or grit, though all those things no doubt helped.
He says it’s all about goal setting.
Kinda simple, huh?
He asked the kids to set goals — not just in swimming, but in school and in life.
He talked about short term goals, long term goals and dream goals.
And then he signed their swim caps, got ’em in the pool and put ’em through their paces…
Lovely post, Liz.
Not only are his words inspiring, but it makes big things seem doable.
Okay, I’m glad Tammi found this inspiring too, because here I was thinking I’m the one big ole sap who would get a wee bit emotional over something an athlete says to a bunch of kids. I like the three different kinds of goals too. Always something to reach for.
Very cool! And a good reminder about the importance of setting different kinds of goals.
Interesting. I just returned to “to-do” lists, and they are helping me gets stuff done.
When I coached swimming at UF, we had a stable of Olympians who came to speak to the kids. It was always great for them to hear how even the greatest swimmers started out small.
hokgardner