Hello <<First Name>> 
Watching the Olympics has been incredible. So many Medals won by our wonderful athletes and such evidence of dedication and determination that has inspired us as a nation and as individuals. The hard work, the sacrifices and the energy they engender is awesome and it has been enthralling and entertaining to watch. Early on in this year’s Games, when Champion swimmer Adam Peaty won Gold and retained his 100m breaststroke title, the whole country was thrilled. I was in tears!
Adam Peaty’s success reminded me of the time I was sharing a motivational speaking stage with Duncan Goodhew. I am sure many of you will remember Duncan as the ‘star swimmer of his day’ in the ‘70s and ‘80s, and I will never forget what he said in his speech.
His first Olympics was in Montreal in 1976 where he came 7th in the 100m breaststroke. Over the next four years he won no less than four Silver medals at other international events but his ultimate goal was to win Gold at the Moscow Olympics in 1980. He had trained excruciatingly hard and yet, so far, had only achieved Silver. What made it even worse was that when he combined the time by which he had lost out on Gold at all four of these events, the total time difference was less than one second!
He said, “I didn’t know what to do. I’d trained so hard up to that point but it wasn’t enough. Then, in desperation, I decided that on the days I didn’t feel like training, I would train for twice as long!"
In 1980, at the Moscow Olympics, Duncan Goodhew fulfilled his dream and won Gold!
I am telling you this story as I think we can all learn from it. We all have days when we feel tired or can’t be bothered to go for our walk or do our exercises but, when we do make the effort, we feel so much better mentally as well as advancing our endeavours toward better health and fitness. So, the next time you are thinking of giving your exercise a miss, just think about Duncan Goodhew – though we are not asking you to do twice as much!
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