Every champion knows the taste of defeat. What separates the greats, however, isn't just how good they are at their best, but also their response to adversity.
In the 2008 Beijing Olympics, Michael Phelps was on the brink of etching his name in history. Seven gold medals had been hung around his neck, each a token of his relentless pursuit of greatness. One more, and he would achieve what no Olympian had before: eight gold medals in a single Olympic Games.
The 200m butterfly was all that stood between him and immortality.
But as Phelps hit the water, disaster struck. His goggles cracked and began to leak. Within moments, his vision was obscured, leaving him to navigate the pool blind.
This scenario, as catastrophic as it seemed, was something Phelps and his coach, Bob Bowman, had already anticipated. And they hadn鈥檛 just thought about it, they鈥檇 planned for it. They had meticulously planned for every conceivable mishap, including goggle failure.
During training, Bowman would sometimes snatch Phelps's goggles away at the last second and smash them against the side of the pool, forcing him to adapt.
The lesson was clear: if you can't rely on your vision, count your strokes.
Phelps swam the 200m butterfly blind but undeterred. He counted each stroke with precision. He moved on muscle memory. Executing Plan B was just as effortless as sticking with Plan A. Phelps touched the wall first. He won that 200m fly. He won his historic eighth gold medal. He would go on to win 15 more throughout his career.
This is a blueprint for navigating life's uncertainty.
Most people only focus on the best case scenario - but do you know what you would do if the worst were to happen? Have you planned how you might adapt? Is there a backup plan you can boot up at a moment鈥檚 notice?
This doesn鈥檛 mean you need to have a work husband on the side in case the father of your children gets boring. And it also doesn鈥檛 mean perpetually playing things safe and defaulting to Plan B as an avoidance scheme for being brave and taking bold action. The key here is visualising the hurdles ahead and preparing meticulously to overcome them.
If you have investments, are you diversified enough to survive if the market tanked tomorrow? If you have a job, do you have an emergency fund, and a skill you could lean on to make money if the market was difficult? What happens if your presentation goes awry? Or you get a curveball in a job interview?
