How Olympian Michael Johnson Taught Me To Smash My Goals – It Works Every Time!

Here’s the number one technique that Michael Johnson taught me that I use to smash my goals and it works every time!

It was six months before the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games and Michael Johnson four times Olympic Gold medalist asked me, to ask myself two questions that made me work harder than I ever have before. These simple questions, I would repeat daily for six months, enabled me to smash my goals, test my endurance to the limit and do more than I ever thought I could.

I Got My Dream Job Working on the London 2012 Olympics

I was lucky enough to get a job working on the London Olympic and Paralympic Games. This was my dream job as the Olympics was the most significant training project in the UK and was right on my doorstep in East London. “Go big or go home right?”.

We Were Going to Train 40,000 Volunteers, The Gamesmakers How To Do Their Job at the Olympics

I would be working in the team that would train 40,000 volunteers, the Gamesmakers, how to do their job at London 2012. All of those people you saw in purple uniforms during the games were trained on how to perform their role at Hackney College, and I would be managing the training centre.

Hackney College, The Training Centre

The college was turned into a huge training centre where for 6 months prior to the games 40,000 people from all over the UK and some from all corners of the world would come through the college entrance and into a series of classrooms and be shown what they would be doing during the games.

What Jobs Did the Gamesmakers Do?

Some would go on to become arrow collectors in Archery, others handing towels to the Olympians, some following athletes after their events then leading them for drug testing. Others were looking after the press, or welcoming important delegates from the airport and driving them to their accommodation.

There were thousands of different jobs to do during the games and most were performed by volunteers, the Gamesmakers who had no idea what they would be doing until they arrived at Hackney College.

The Gamesmakers were such an important part of the games and each of them worked so hard to make London 2012 the success it became.

Speakers Event to Mark the 6-Month Countdown

Before Hackney College, I’d been planning the training events with the rest of the project teams in an office in Canary Wharf.  To mark the 6-month countdown to the games we all attended a massive event at the Excel Centre where guest speakers were to prepare us for the journey ahead and show us why our contribution over the next six months mattered and why it was important to stay focused on our goals.

The Guest Speakers

We heard from guest speakers, Boris Johnson the London Mayer at that time explaining what it meant for London.

Olympian four times gold medal winner Lord Sebastian Coe, the chairman of the London Organising Committee for the Olympic Games made a speach plus a few others.

Then it was Michael Johnson’s turn to speak.

Michael Johnson

Michael Johnson won four Olympic gold medals and eight World Championships gold medals. He formerly held the world and Olympic records in the 200m and 400m as well as the world record in the indoor 400m. Johnson was the 200m world record holder for 12 years until 2008 when Usain Bolt shaved 2 seconds off his winning time.

What It Takes to Be an Olympic Athlete

Michael Johnson explained what training for an Olympic event like the 200 or 400 metres feels like. How he spent four years working towards one goal and two events that would be over in a matter of seconds

He shared stories of early mornings, late nights, rigorous training, the sacrifices he had to make over four years to work towards his one goal to be the fastest man in the world at 200 and 400 metres.

Doing Your Personal Best

He shared how he would stick to his training plan and every day when he was too tired to train and had enough; he would ask himself two questions:

1. “Have I done my personal best today?”
2. “Have I done everything I need to do today to reach my goal?”

His sole focus was to do his personal best every day so that when he got to his moment at the Olympics and just before his events he would not be nervous or apprehensive but confident that he had done all he could do to perform at his best.

What Michael Johnson Asked Me To Do

He then asked me and 2000 permanent Olympics staff at the Excel centre that day:

“Over the next six months I’m asking you to do your personal best so that the athletes who have been training hard for four years for their event, for their moment at the Olympics can arrive at their event and do their personal best.”

He said, for the next six months ask yourself these two questions every day:

1. “Have I done my personal best today?”
2. “Have I done everything I need to do today to reach my goal?”

If you can answer “yes” then you have done the best job you can.

How I Used This Method To Smash My Goals

This was a powerful speech and it motivated the heck out of me. Over the next six months, I would set my goals and make a plan for each of them. Running a huge training centre is not easy and we had 20 new staff to train up and a million things to organise so I had goals a plenty.

While working towards my goals every day I would ask myself.

1. “Have I done my personal best today?”
2. “Have I done everything I need to do today to reach my goal?”

If I could answer “yes”, then I could be proud of what I had achieved and had done my personal best that day. If I knew I could do more then, I would do more. Could I work harder? Could I do five more minutes? Could I finish some planning?

I pushed myself to my limits and it felt really good to smash my goals!

What I Learned

There was little time for friends and family during that six months and lots of double shifts and grafting hard instead. I learned that I could do so much more and smash my goals if I ask myself these two questions:

1. “Have I done my personal best today?”
2. “Have I done everything I need to do today to reach my goal?”

I learned so many lessons during that beautiful summer. The best was from Olympian Michael Johnson who taught me that doing your personal best every day to try to reach your goals will enable you to do so much more than you ever thought you could.

Happy goal smashing and share with me your super goal smashing tactics below and if you try this one let me know how it works for you…

“YOU GOT THIS!!!”

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