I must admit that I never heard of Evan Lysacek prior to the 2010 Winter Olympic games and am not typically a fan of men’s figure skating. But Mr. Lysacek has caused me to do an abrupt about-face and take notice of his compelling story. Not so much because of the typical Olympic storyline of heroic athleticism, though he certainly has such a story. But because of what each of us can learn from his example of laser-like focus and determination.
Though World Champion, Lysacek was considered the longest of long shots to capture America’s first Olympic Gold since Brian Boitano in 1988, for two, closely related reasons. First, he does not perform the all-important quad, a four revolution jump that every Olympic champion has executed since 1998. And secondly because the reigning Olympic champion, Evgeni Plushenko, a master of the quad came out of retirement especially for these games.
Conventional wisdom told Lysacek that he simply could not win without the quad. Now here’s where the story gets really interesting and relevant to the rest of us mere mortals.
Rather than overreaching what he was capable of doing in response to such “wisdom,” Lysacek instead chose to focus on doing what he does better than anyone else. He executed triple jumps flawlessly. He tied his routines together with style and grace. He was smooth and seamless. He was the absolute best Evan Lysacek that he could be.
It was more than enough. He handily beat Plushenko, who ridiculed him prior to and after the event for his lack of a quad. After all, he said, “men must do the quad.” The head games did not work. Lysacek’s focus and determination paid off in pure gold.
What a powerful take-away for anyone who wants to excel. Do not worry about what others can do that you can not. Ignore the wisdom of convention. Instead, maximize your strengths and skills to be the very best “you” that you can be.
Thank you for the lesson in excellence, Evan.