Michael Phelps Success Principles - Be Like Him

He said he would win eight gold medals and he did. It was that simple. He wasn’t arrogant, he wasn’t overly confident. He was just matter of fact. It was something he set out to do and as the world watched every stroke and every plunge, he did it to rousing applause and the screams of the commentators as they articulated their disbelief in more than 100 different languages. The world stood still for a moment and watched the machine called Michael Phelps take command of the cameras simply by doing.

Nike might have the tagline, but this man should be the new poster child for the ‘just do it’ revolution. Now all of us want to be like him, and this is no easy task. Not many of us can say ’this is what I want to achieve’ and get it. But why not? What is the difference between him, people like him and the rest of the world? All of us want to know Michael Phelps success principles and be like him in everything we do. Swimming, sports, work, life and play - these are the areas where we would like to excel in and I think just by looking at Michael Phelps can we understand what it is that drives him. Drive.

Ambition; it burned like a fire even through those goggles as the camera panned to his steel-like vision of confidence and focus. He did not waver and he did not shake but swam. He just did because his hunger was so great; his need to prove himself so surmounting that it cancelled out the rest of the world and made him a singular machine out to get the gold medal everytime he appeared on the grandstand on the edge of the Olympic swimming pool. Behind the story is a tale of hard work and months of countless training.

If you want something badly enough, you will do everything in your power to get it and Michael Phelps trained like he never trained before and out of the blue he became a success story like no other set against a historic event. Humility is also one of the principles you should have. No matter what you think, there may be someone out there better than you, faster than you, smarter than you and you can never measure your own personal successes in absolutes. This outrageous swimmer was no cocky sportsman after his victory; he acknowledged the need to further improve himself.

To be a success you have to recognise that sometimes, enough is never enough and that keeps the fire burning within you. While I may not be positive, and there may be more, I think these are the core principles that he kept close to his heart and made him such a success. These are the examples that we can follow, timeless advice that will apply to whoever we are, however old we may be and will give us the edge to success.