Wisdom from an Olympic coach

This week, at my favourite Hague networking group, Connecting Women, (www.connectingwomen.nl) we had the pleasure of meeting Frank Heckman, who coached the Dutch Olympic team and is the author of The Hero’s Journey (Reis van der Held). Frank summed up the skills you need for achieving your goals in an inspiring and accessible way.

First, you need to know your direction and have a sense of who you are, how big you dare to be and what you want to achieve.

Second, you need to connect with others and to know who your allies are.

Third, you need to recognise the abyss, the set-back and know that ‘where you fall, treasure lies.’

Fourth you need to know how to be in flow, in the zone and to give yourself up to the process. It is only when you are in flow that you the process will unfold itself and things will come together.

Fifth and finally, after you have succeeded you need to go home, to go back and share your stories, to inspire others and to give back.

In this way your starting point is to know your direction, while your ending point is to go back to where you began.

Inspiring stuff.