The “Bronze Medal Mindset” (and 4 More Surprising Habits From Olympians)

(29:27):

They honestly look kind of dry and disgusting. And the thing is, and he's making these videos where he is biting into it and he's making these faces and his face is covered in chocolate, and he's so enthusiastic about it that it makes you want a muffin. It makes you want to get on a plane and spend a month's salary to get yourself to Paris so that you can get your hands on one of these Olympic village muffins. That's how influential his enthusiasm is. And here's the thing, these muffins, this is not like a muffin that you would see in a beautiful cafe in Paris. Imagine you walk into a beautiful cafe in Paris, and I can't even talk, but whatever. And behind the glass on these beautiful kind of display wooden things, you've got beautiful muffins and you're like, oh, that looks so fancy and so beautiful.

(30:26):

I'm going to spend $8 on that muffin, and that's going to be like a molten chocolate lava explosion. I just know what this is going to be. That's not what these muffins are, you guys. These muffins are in a, what do you call it? They're in a cafeteria on a buffet. So if you've ever gone to a buffet at a grocery store and there's the metal trays and you've got a bunch of food in a tray and it's half picked over, these muffins are sitting in a tray on a buffet for thousands of athletes to eat. This is not like a special muffin, but here's the point for why enthusiasm makes you a winner. Henrik and his enthusiasm has made the Olympic chocolate muffin the most sought after piece of food in Paris right now. And why am I telling you this? Because enthusiasm is a lot like a Brian's metal mindset.

(31:32):

Enthusiasm is a way to go through life enthusiasm. I was researching this. It's when you expect the best, so you see some dry looking muffin and you reach for it, and you kind of peel back the paper and you bite in, you're like, wow. And enthusiasm is also working to make good things happen. And when you're somebody that brings enthusiasm to your life and you bring enthusiasm to the meals you cook and enthusiasm to your friendships, it's infectious. And I personally believe that enthusiasm raises your iq, and it definitely increases your luck because if you're enthusiastic, you're present, you're in the flow, your energy is vibing, and that of course makes you luckier. And so whatever it is that you are excited about, bring the emotion of joy to it. Bring silliness to it. Be enthusiastic. We're also worried about looking good and people thinking certain things about us that oftentimes enthusiasm can make you feel, am I being silly?

(32:43):

Am I being over? No. Be enthusiastic. People need it. They love it. When I watch Henrik, grab one of those chocolate muffins and lip lock the thing. It's like watching a 2-year-old eat their birthday cake. Have you ever seen that? Where they drop their face into it and it just reminds you that life is there for you to enjoy it. And even a stale, mass manufactured chocolate muffin is there for you to enjoy it. Whether or not you do is up to you. 

(33:42):

If you've got people in mind that have taught you something while you've been watching the Olympics or stories, I'd love to hear it in the comments or the reviews. And let's take a listen to our sponsors and stay with me. I'll be back after a very short break to explain why winners always quit. A, it's your friend Mel. And because you're here with me on YouTube, I took out my own ad because I wanted to say one thing. First of all, hit subscribe because that really helps support this channel helps me you bring your free radios. Second, make sure you take advantage of this free workbook that I've created as a thank you to you for subscribing to this channel. This workbook is going to help you answer the single most important question you could answer in life, which is what do you really want?

(34:24):

It's a surprisingly hard question to answer, but now it's not because you have the science back approach that I use in my work, in my marriage, in my life to help me get to the truth about what I actually want. This workbook uses silence. It is free to you. You can get your hands on this puppy in just a minute. Click the link below and it is yours as my thank you for being here and supporting this channel. Again, it's going to help you answer the question, what do you want? Because if you can't answer that question, there's no way you're going to get it. So use science and let me support you in answering the question and gaining the clarity and the courage that you need to figure out what your next move is. Alrighty, take advantage of this, Mel robbins.com/what. Hit subscribe and let's get back to the video.

(35:09):

Welcome back. It's your buddy Mel Robbins. You and I are unpacking some major lessons from the Olympics, and we've covered a bunch so far, but this one I think is my favorite. Winners always quit. I'm going to say that again. Winners always quit. And in order to teach you why winners always quit, I am going to tap none other than Simone Biles one of the greatest athletes of all time, correct, if not the greatest and the most decorated us gymnast in history. I mean, I could read you the number of medals and world championships and all this stuff that she's won, but I think it's really important to just focus on what happened in the last Olympics. So let's go back in time in order to learn this lesson that winners always quit in 2016. Simone wins gold medal all around. She is a force and holy cow, the Olympics when it came to gymnastics, Simone, Simone, Simone.

(36:15):

Now let's roll the clock to the Olympics in 20 20, 21, right in Tokyo. And there's all this pressure. I mean, when you are the top dog and you're coming back into the game, like all eyes are on you. And so there's this intense pressure for her to win again. And you'll probably recall that she started having all kinds of problems during the warmups, and she was warming up, for example, back in 2021. And when it was during the big team competition and during the warmups, she tried to do some of these moves that she could normally just boom, stick the landing because why she's done it so many times, it's recorded in her procedural memory. She's trying to do this two and a half rotation, flip, move thing, and she can only do it 1.5 times. She tries again, she can't do it 2.5, she can only do it 1.5 and almost falls out of the sky because she can't find the floor.

(37:24):

This is I guess, a condition. I had never heard of it until this happened. It's a condition that gymnasts call the twisties, and it means that your body and your mind become disconnected as you're trying to execute on skills. And what gymnasts say is that you feel lost in the air. You feel completely disconnected from your body. And the only thing that's ever happened to me in my life where I felt like that is I had really awful postpartum depression when our daughter, who's now 25, Sawyer was born. So this was a long time ago, but I didn't have the twisties, but I did feel completely disconnected from my body. I felt like I was up above my body watching myself, and I had no ability with my thoughts to make my body move. It was terrifying. And so here she is, the returning gold medalist.

(38:27):

She is warming up for the team competition. She is experiencing this disconnect between her brain and her body. She nearly falls out of the air and injures herself. And what does she do? She withdrew citing mental health concerns due to the twisties. And then she went on to withdraw from every single event at the 2021 Olympics except for the balance beam, she competed in the balance beam. Interestingly, she won a medal. Can you guess which one? The bronze. And she says to this day, it is the best medal she's ever won because it symbolized her putting herself and her safety and her health first. It's the only event she competed in. Now, this became huge news. And by the way, I didn't even stop to pause on the fact that when she first withdrew, this is in the middle of the team competition. So imagine the pressure.

(39:47):

It's not just you quitting, it's you quitting on the team. But this is what winners do. This is so hard to do in life if you've ever broken up with somebody that you love and you have to quit the relationship because in your heart it's not the right one for you right now, that is hard. But winners always quit when they have to. If you've dropped out of school, if you've quit a job, if you've even told your boss who's super demanding, I can't work this weekend, and they've threatened to fire you if you've called off an engagement, if you've dropped out of school, these are all decisions that winners make when you make the decision, knowing this is the best decision for you. There's a very big difference between running away from your problems and running away because you're afraid and choosing to quit something, one takes courage.

(40:55):

That's why winners always quit. They make a decision that requires courage, and that's how you know it's the right decision. Losers run when they're afraid. That's a very different dynamic. That's not what we're talking about here. We're talking about the courage it takes to make the right call. And of course, when the news broke, oh my God, the world exploded. She's a quitter. She quit too early. They were racist, they were sexist. They then started saying that she was a drug cheat because she had an exemption for a DHD medication. Like the whole thing blew up. And what did Simone do? She focused on herself. And that's what you have to do when you find and tap into that bravery and that courage to make the right call. Now, here's something else that's really interesting. She came back. She came back this year, man, and talk about the pressure.

(41:47):

She's that diamond that gets created under pressure because she's just unbelievable at the Olympics right now. I don't even know how many gold medals she's won. In fact, we were just about to start taping and somebody's like, oh, she just won a silver. She's just boom, boom, boom, boom. And there's another takeaway here. Do you know what she did the morning that she won gold at the Olympics this year at 7:00 AM the morning of that massive all around team competition. You know what Simone was doing? She was not eating a chocolate muffin, that's for sure. She was talking to her therapist, why? And this is another takeaway. Your mindset is a muscle 

(42:50):

Life is a mental game. And knowing that she started the day at 7:00 AM getting her head in the game, making sure she was mentally well, just like you would warm up your muscles, she's warming up her mind. She's getting herself focused. That is available to you to train your mind. How cool is that? And I want to also give a little bit of a backdrop here because I don't know if you've seen it, but it's really fantastic. There's this documentary special called Simone Biles Rising, and they're following her at the Olympics. And here's the other thing that most people don't realize, so let me give you the timeline. 2016, she destroys the Olympics. Holy cow, gold medal. Simone, Simone, Simone, Simone. What happened two years later in 2018, Larry Nesser, who was the former team doctor of the US gymnastics team was sentenced to 125 years in prison.

(43:49):

There are 265 victims that we know of at this point in terms of victims that he touched, inappropriately molested, like horrible, horrible, horrible. So this was happening in the background two years after the 2016 Olympics. And in the Netflix documentary, Simone reflects back on this and says, there's no doubt that when she got to the Olympics in 2020 and 2021, this was on her mind. This was triggering PTSD. Well, of course, I mean here you have this huge case. She was one of the victims in the case. Now you're on the biggest world stage in the Olympics. No wonder if you're suffering from PTSD. You would have this sort of thing happening to you. And then you want to know what else happened is that right after she withdrew from the Olympics, there was this huge Senate judiciary Committee meeting in September of 2021 after the Olympics where all of our women on the US gymnastics team then went and testified before Congress talk about traumatizing.

(44:56):

And I say that because I think it's really important to highlight the fact that past experiences absolutely impact you mentally. And it's why, just like you need to repair a muscle that is torn or some part of your body that's in pain, you have to do the same thing with your brain and your nervous system. And that's why mindset is a muscle. It's a muscle that you stretch. It's a muscle that you strengthen. It's a muscle that you repair. It's a muscle that you take care of. It's a muscle that needs rest. And I love that she is teaching us that winners always quit when they know it's the right thing to do. That they find the courage and the bravery to take care of themselves. And that winners also treat their mindset as a muscle. They work it. And that is 1000% available to you and me too.

(45:55):

And that's what I hope you get a lot out of as you listen to the Mel Robbins podcast. Last but not least, we're going to talk about something that every single Olympic athlete shares. You want to know what it is. They're very clear about what they want, and you can only go after something if you know what it is you want to go after. And if you're feeling stuck in life, if you're feeling a little lost, I guarantee you it's you don't know what you want. And until you get clear about what you want, you're not going to change anything. You're not going to go anywhere. Being able to answer the question, what do you really want? That gives you a sense of direction that helps you define your goals. 

(48:14):

Simple question. She told him she wanted to learn how to run and to do something meaningful with it. Now, let's just pause on that. She didn't say, I want to be a Paralympian. She didn't say, I want to be an American record holder, which she now is. She said, I want to learn how to run. Let's just start with the basics. I'd like to use this and learn how to use this to run. And then she said, I'd like to do something meaningful with this. That's all you need. If you don't know what you want, oftentimes just start by improving yourself. That's all she was doing. I'd like to learn how to run. I'd like to do something meaningful. Did she say what the meaningful thing was? No. And that's all you need to know. That one question. What do you want to do with your running blade?

(50:12):

It's so true, isn't it? And here's an insight that I want to share with you. Having coached people for more than a decade, having researched and written all these books, having hosted this podcast now for almost two years and hearing your feedback, I can boil down the two ways that you become your own obstacle. There's only two. You either stop yourself from going after what you want, or more likely you've never taken the time to be honest with yourself about what you really want. And that last obstacle, you've never taken the time to truly ask yourself, what do you really want?

(51:19):

Faida was lucky. She had somebody ask her the question, what do you want to do with this running Blade that you just won? And she answered it. And so I'm going to ask you, do you know what you really want? It's kind of a hard question to answer honestly, because it's easy to just kind of keep going after the next thing that seems like the right thing and just go through the motions. And it's how we all climb the ladder. You just kind of go from high school to college, and then you get your job, and then you get the next job, and then you find the person, and then you get in a committed relationship, and then you get married, and then you got to get the apartment, and then you have the kids, or you don't have the kids. And then next thing you know what, you want a better kitchen.

(52:07):

But then it just is like the next thing. And then, but what do you really want? If we borrow? What we're learning from all these amazing Olympic and Paralympic athletes is they're very clear about what they want, and they are laser focused on chip in away every day and doing the work to get there. So I want to help you answer that question. In fact, I'm really excited because the very next episode that you're going to listen to on the Mel Robbins podcast helps you answer this question. The entire episode uses this scientific method called The Five Whys. I'll tell you all about it in this episode that's going to come next, that will help you get to the truth about what you really want at this exact moment in your life. And this is the perfect time to ask yourself that question. You've been watching the Olympics, you're so inspired.

(53:04):

I mean, you want to do something exciting, right? Well, here's your chance. Couple times a year I launch a podcast episode that's more like a cool, inspiring workshop, and it has a free download that allows you to take what you're going to learn even deeper. And you can right now, just go to mel robbins.com/what? W att a t right here, mel robbins.com/what. And you can download the workbook right now. And that workbook is going to use science and it's going to walk you through all these prompts, and it's going to force you to sit down and get really clear about what you actually want at this moment in your life. And this is so good. It's a surprisingly hard question to answer. In fact, not a day goes by when I don't receive dozens of emails in the inbox@melrobbins.com asking this question. Mel, I don't know what I want, Mel.

(54:01):

How do I figure out what I want, Mel? I dunno what my purpose is. How do I know what my purpose is? How do I figure out what my goals are? I'll tell you how you listen to your friend Mel Robbins, because I'm going to help you answer this question. I don't care how successful you are. I don't care if you're stuck, if you're just cruising through your life, if you're an Olympic athlete or you're just an Olympic hopeful like the rest of us taking a moment and asking yourself the question, what do I really want at this moment in my life? What do I really want? Gaining the clarity about what you want and why you want it. It will launch you forward. It will give you exactly what you need to apply everything that you've learned today from all these amazing Olympians and Paralympians, and apply the bronze metal mindset and start chipping away at it.

(54:52):

Start working toward it. Because once you figure out what you want, you know what you can do, you can visualize. You can feel yourself doing the work to make it happen, but not until you're clear about what you actually want. And in the very next episode, guess what question I'm going to ask you? What do you really want? And more importantly, in the next episode, I'm going to walk you through this extraordinary research back scientific method that will help you get to the root of what you want with a level of honesty and bravery you probably have never had. And when you get to the root cause of what you want right now in your life for you, you will have the roadmap to going and achieving it. And I think you'll be astonished by what you can accomplish and how free you feel knowing what you're working toward.

(55:52):

And because you're listening right now, you can get the free download that goes with this next episode right now. Just go to mel robbins.com/what? WHA mel robbins.com/what? Get the download. The very next episode I'm releasing is this amazing. You're going to cry, you're going to laugh. You're going to just have these profound insights. You're going to have your download and you're going to be listening with millions of people who are getting clear about what they want. And then you better believe your friend Mel Robbins, is going to be there every step of the way to put my hand on your back and empower you to keep on moving forward. Because once you're clear about what you want, all you need to do is wake up every day and chip away at it. And if you can do that, I am certain you can achieve extraordinary things.

(56:40):

So thank you for listening and allowing me to go on and on about the Olympics. Thank you for letting me give you this gift. Just go to mel robbins.com/what. Please share this with your friends and family. This is a game changer. Share this with them, and I will be waiting for you in the very next episode to help you get very clear about what you deserve, what you want, and why you want it. Awesome. Alright? In case nobody else tells you, I'm going to tell you I love you. I believe in you, and I believe in your ability to be enthusiastic about chocolate muffins and have a bronze metal mindset. And in the next episode, I believe in your ability to get very clear about exactly what you want. I'll see you there and you for being here on YouTube. I love you. I believe in you.

(57:35):

I believe in your ability to create a better life. And by the way, boom, this is what that download is going to look like. And with all downloads, you can do it in paper. There's a color version, there's a friendly printer version that has a lot less color, so it won't suck your ink dry. There's even a digital fill version. Why? Because I love you and you know what you could do to tell me how much you love me because I'm constantly showing up here every day with free videos. Hit subscribe. It takes you two seconds, and it really supports this channel, and it also allows me to know what you enjoy. It allows me to continue to bring you not only new videos every day, but free programs with free downloads that help you apply the science and everything that you're learning to your life. So please hit subscribe. Get your workbook, mel robbins.com/what, and the next episode, I'm going to be waiting for you. And you and I are going to be going through this and I'm going to be asking you the question, what do you really want? Because it's time that you answer it. And in the meantime, I know you're like, okay, what do I do now? You go right here.