Do you have a Vision? a Dream?
Do you have someone that you admire, emulate? “I want to be like that when i grow up”, “Wow, this person inspires me, I want to work towards that”, “I want to best that record”, “I want to win an Olympic gold medal”, etc.
Are you someone who has an idol? Has a vision? Has a dream?
The New York Times headline screams “Somebody finally beats Michael Phelps”!!!
That “somebody” is none other than Joseph Schooling, a young swimmer who at the age of 13, met Michael Phelps who was in Singapore attending a US training camp before the Beijing Olympics 2008. That brief encounter inspired Schooling to be like Michael Phelps (who already won 6 Olympic gold medals at Athens 2004), to compete in the Olympics, and win a gold medal.
With a very clear vision, coupled with driving ambition and perseverance, Joseph Schooling, with the strong support from his parents packed his bags at age 14 and moved to the US to train and focus on his achieving his dream. His unwavering ambition and resilience, saw him improving steadily and progressively, and winning competitions at increasingly higher levels.
2009 His parents contacted Sergio Lopez to be his coach in the US. (Sergio, 1988 Seoul Olympics breaststroke bronze medalist, is a master coach)
2011 South East Asian Games (Indonesia), he won two gold medals
2012 London Olympics, qualified for the 200m butterfly, but did not make it past the preliminaries.
2014 Commonwealth Games (Glasgow), he won a silver medal in the 100m butterfly
2014 Asian Games (Korea), he became the first Singaporean man in 32 years to win a gold medal in swimming
2015 Swimming World Championship (Kazan), he won a bronze medal for 100m Butterfly
Last Friday 12 August 2016 (in Rio), he finally achieved his dream. He not only won an Olympic Gold Medal, he set a new Olympic record, and he also beat a very strong and talented field, which includes his idol, Michael Phelps.
What an achievement!
Congratulations Joseph Schooling!
Looking forward to Tokyo Olympics 2020.
Talk to PAL Solutions about goal setting and performance management.