Aristotle said, “We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence then is not an act but a habit.” How true that is! If we make good habits, they invariably make us.
In the fall of 1996 I received a phone call from an unforgettable young man. He introduced himself as Matt Ghaffari, and went on to tell me that a few months earlier he had won the silver medal in Greco-Roman wrestling during the 1996 Summer Olympics. He said he wanted to stop by while he was in Chicago, and I said, “No problem. I’d like to meet you.”
A few hours later my receptionist called saying my guest had arrived. I walked to the lobby and there he was…6′4″ tall and 286 pounds of solid muscle. He had a huge smile on his face as we walked back to my office.
When we sat down, he said, “Mr. Anderson, I’ve come to thank you because you and your company have made a difference in my life.” Then he reached into his left pocket and pulled out a green felt cloth, which he then opened. And there it was, his silver medal. It was beautiful! Then he reached into his right pocket and emptied the contents onto my desk. Amid his change was one of the brass medallions that we had created at Successories with the words “Expect To Win.”
He said, “Mr. Anderson, I’ve had that medallion in my pocket every day for three years. For the past four years I’ve worked ten hours a day, six days a week to train my body to be an Olympic champion. But I knew the difference in winning and losing was not going to be training my body; it was going to be training my mind to think positive, powerful thoughts…to believe I could do it. And the products you’ve created at Successories have helped me to think like a champion.”
You see, winners like Matt Ghaffari are never complacent. That is why they’re winners. They understand the power of discipline. They understand one of my favorite laws in life- you cannot get what you’ve never had unless you’re willing to do what you’ve never done.
Are you willing to make the sacrifices required to make your dreams come true?
{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }
Its my first time to go through your site. each and every word is a master piece and i beleive that to change whole life “a single moment is enough”. For discipline You are 1000% right. Without discipline, nothing can be acheived. Just see sun, moon, light, plants, mountains, sea and everything in the universe is in discipline. So when we become disciplined, then our power is limitless.
Thanks for positive contribution to our lives!
this is an perfect example if anyone ever wants to become a professional athlete you have to dedicate your life to working at it.
i think its really cool that this man had a goal in mind and worked for it for sour years trying to acheive something he truely believed in and then came back tot he man who motivated him to go after those goals. i think its amazing that someone can have that much motivatioin and go after their goal and work that hard. its really cool to know that their are people like that out their!
I think this was a really inspiring story. You have to be willing to push yourself to achieve your goals. You must discipline yourself. “You cannot get what you’ve never had if you’re not willing to do what you’ve never done”- I belive that is very true and very inspiring.
i love this. this man has dedicated many years of his life for a life long goal and he completed it. he never gave up, he just kept going and going and look what it got him… a silver medalion. you have to push yourself not only physically but also mentally. it is very difficult to do but this man has done it.
You should always think win-win. You can do and win anything that you put your mind too. If you dont try something you will never win it. Always think positive, if you think negative it will just suck all of the positiveness out of you. Self-disipline lets you know what ayou are doing it punishes you.