Success Demands That You Train Like A Champion [Special Announcement]

CeCe Clark

[note background=”#F6F6F6″] This is a guest post by my friend, entrepeneur and author CeCe Clark. There is a special event announcement in the end which I highly encourage you to pay attention to. [/note]

I met Kumar last year when I joined a St. Andrews Toastmaster’s public speaking club.  We both have enjoyed serving the club in various capacities since then.

Success Demands That You Train Like A Champion - CeCe Clark

When Kumar offered me the opportunity to share a message with his community on this blog, it felt appropriate to share a message that I heard recently from Ryan Avery, the Toastmaster’s 2012 World Champion of Public Speaking.  

To achieve this goal, Ryan had to compete and excel over more than 30,000 people who competed in this International competition.  What an amazing accomplishment!  During our conversation, Ryan shared with me that it was never his goal to become the World Champion for Public Speaking.  Especially I remember he saying , “..but my goals was always to TRAIN like one”.  

Those words resonated with me deeply.  And today, I am excited to share with you three tips on how we too can train like a champion.

1. Success Lies Outside Of Your  Comfort Zone

Success lies outside of your comfort zone.  That is the location of any success you are looking to achieve. When training like a champion, the first thing to recognize is that you will feel uncomfortable because you’ll be required to operate outside of your comfort zone.  This could be in terms of the intensity that you have to keep up, the routines that you’ll have to adopt, the activities you’ll have to undertake or the new ideas you’ll have to consider.  In training like a champion, you’ll have to be open to new activities and ideas that will take you outside of your comfort zone. 

For example, Ryan shared that in his regular life, he would come home from work and spend 3-4 hours having dinner, playing video games and watching television to unwind.  In his ‘training like a champion’ life, that time was spent sharing his speech with another Toastmaster’s club (he delivered the same speech over 200 times!), researching new techniques to improve his delivery and practicing his delivery under water to help him understand where he needed to breath while speaking.  Wow! 

Training like a champion is uncomfortable.  Accept it, plan for it and keep moving forward. 

 2. Invest, Invest, Invest

When you are training like champion, it will cost you three things:  TIME, MONEY, RELATIONSHIPS.

Dr. Eric Anders from the University of Florida conducted research to affirm that it takes ten thousand hours of practice in order to become a master in a particular area.  While training like a champion, you will be required to invest the hours necessary to get to your 10,000 hours of mastery.  Investing time is necessary to train like a champion.   

What’s important to you shows up in your check book.  Said another way, you always invest money into the things that are most important to you.  Ryan invested thousands of dollars in his speaking education, in speaker coaching as well as investments into the proper tools and equipment he needed.  Whatever you are pursuing, be a master in that area and invest in the things that bring you success.

Finally, you will invest in strategic relationships.  When you’re training like a champion, you will develop strategic relationships with your coach, teammates, investor partners, mastermind group, etc. which will help explode your growth.  You may have to spend far less time with your old buddies and for many, this is the most challenging part of training like a champion.  We all have relationships with people that are near and dear to our hearts.  However, when we are training like a champion, we often have to put these relationships on the back burner in order to cultivate and nurture more strategic relationships with the people who are in direct alignment to our goal.

3. Intense Focus On Your Goals

We must be 100% focused on the particular goal that we have set for ourselves.   We might be able to do other things well, but while training like a champion, we are only focused on that one particular goal.

Ryan said that while training for the World Championship of Public Speaking, he would often practice his speeches during the lunch-hour on the sidewalks in downtown Portland.  “I wanted to make sure that no matter what happened around me, I remained focused on my delivery and that nothing would interfere with that.”, he said.  That’s championship material! 

If you make it your goal to integrate these three characteristics into your life:

  1. Getting outside of your comfort zone
  2. Investing your time, energy and resources
  3. Focus on your goals

 

Over To You For Thoughts/Questions

Did you enjoy the nuggets CeCe shared in this post? Please share your appreciation in the comments section. If you have any questions with regard to the Passion.Platform.Profit workshop, please post them in comments as well and CeCe will be very happy to answer your questions.

Click here to visit comments section. Thank you kindly!

CeCe Clark

Posts Twitter Facebook

CeCe Clark is an entrepreneur, speaker and author of the upcoming book "After the Fall: Creating Success in the Face of Failure". With a strong background in sales, marketing, process improvement and personal development, CeCe works to empower new and aspiring entrepreneurs to profit from their passions while utilizing their talents to create a life they love.

13 Awesome Thoughts So Far, Add Yours Now...

  1. I look forward to meeting you CeCe. Thank you for sharing these three key pointers of success. I look forward to the workshop.
    Regards,
    Snigdha

    • Hi Snigdha. Thank you for sharing. You are welcome! I'm glad you found the information useful. I look forward to meeting you as well! See you in a few weeks!

  2. Hi CeCe,
    I wish I were in Dallas. I feel like people in Dallas have an unfair advantage 🙂
    Thank you for the three tips for achieving success. I truly enjoyed this article.
    Good luck for the workshop event.

    • Hi Kumar!!! Dallas IS a great place with a lot of cool folks! Come for a visit! I’m am so glad that you enjoyed the post. It was definitely one of my favorites to write. Thanks for your well wishes!

  3. Santosh Ravi

    Sir ji – I am not sure if I can make it into the event because of the distance between where I live and where Dallas is, but this post is super! Thank you CeCe for this. I needed to read this particularly today.

    • Hello Santosh! So glad you enjoyed the post and thank you for your comments! I’m glad to know that my work has served you today.

  4. Very good post :)! I could add that at first you need to decide to be a champion!! Decide deep in you heart to become the one and then get to work!

    • Great thoughts Aistis! Thanks for adding value!
       

    • Thanks Aistis! You are absolutely correct! Making that decision is an important first step. It will determine if you are willing to live life outside of your comfort zone, make the necessary investments and sustain the focus you need to be successful. Thanks for the comment!

  5. Great blog CeCe! I think giving myself permission to invest in myself has been the biggest obstacle for me to overcome. But now that I have – I know the sky is the limit for me in business and life!

    • Thanks for sharing Nikki! Absolutely. You are WORTH the investment. Congrats and let’s soar!!!

  6. Hi Cece,

    Its really an inspiring read. I enjoyed it. And I will use your tips in my daily chores for sure.

    Thanks for sharing.
    Ankit

    • Thanks Ankit! I appreciate the feedback. I’m glad that the you enjoyed the post! Enjoy the pursuit of your passion!

Please Note: My goal is to host interesting conversations with caring, honest, and respectful people. Therefore, I reserve the right to delete comments that are snarky, offensive, or off-topic.