The Olympics are finally here after a year-long COVID delay. The Olympic Games are incredibly inspiring. These men and women give a clinic on Peak Performance for twelve action-packed days.

There will be thrilling victories, world-record-breaking performances, and soul-crushing defeats. But everyone competing will be showing you what peak performance looks like.

As inspiring as the Olympics can be, they can also be discouraging.

You can easily adopt one of the key peak performance catalysts by watching and listening to Olympic athletes.

In almost every interview with an athlete, you will notice they are smiling. Not in the fake way so many celebrities do in red carpet interviews. These smiles are enormous. You can feel their enthusiasm halfway across the world!

If you listen, you will also notice that almost every Olympian spends part of the interview expressing their gratitude.

Gratitude can be your catalyst to peak performance. Olympians aren’t grateful because they made it to Tokyo. These athletes made it to Tokyo in part because of their gratitude.

Studies have shown that gratitude rewires your brain. Gratitude makes you more resilient. While others quit, those with gratitude for their opportunities work harder to learn from their failures.

Gratitude makes you happier and can make you physically healthier, too.

If you are serious about being the best you can be, if you want to push past your current limits, strive to emulate these Olympians. Be enthusiastic about what you’re doing. Be grateful for where you are and how you got there.

You may not ever have as many gold medals as Simone Biles, but you can learn to be as grateful and happy as she is as you become the best you possible.

I want to share with you one of my personal rituals for practicing the Glad To Be Here® Mindset. Every morning I take a few minutes and go through these Three Simple Steps:

PRESENT: I start my day by being grateful for the present moment and what it entails…being alive, in good health and everything that surrounds me.

PAST: I reflect on the last 24 hours, it’s events and all of the people who I was surrounded by and relive the day from start to finish.

FUTURE: I start planting seeds for the upcoming 24 hours. I think about the people and events within my day and ask myself, how can I help them or what can I personally do to help them.

Give it a try and watch how it transforms the way you start your day.

Written by John Foley Inc