Are you living your life to the fullest and pursuing your dreams? Are you going after what you want with everything you’ve got or are you just trying? Most people just try. They lack the vision, belief, focus, and perseverance necessary to propel them to greatness.

Scott Dixon was the winner of the 2008 Indy 500. His winnings totaled $2,988,065. Vitor Meira finished in second place and received $1,273,215. The difference in prize money between 1st and 2nd place was a whopping $1,714,850. While Scott Dixon’s effort and focus was probably just a fraction stronger than that of Vitor Meira’s, his reward was over double that of his closest competitor.
Tiger Woods is probably the greatest golfer the sport has ever known. As such, his net worth is probably about 4 times that of any other golfer. He does one thing really, really well and is rewarded handsomely for his effort.
How much greater is his effort? I can’t say for sure but I would imagine it’s just a little. In fact, the average margin of victory for the last 25 years in all major golf tournaments combined was less than 3 strokes.

Perhaps no event in the world better demonstrates maximum effort and commitment than the Olympics. The 2008 Summer Olympics was a multi-sport event show casing the very best athletes in the world. These people understand what it takes to pursue a goal with total conviction. How much extra effort does it take to win a gold medal? Surprisingly, just a little, in some instances.
You can’t mention the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics without thinking of Michael Phelps. Michael brought home eight gold medals, shattering Mark Spitz’ long-standing record of seven gold medals, previously the most gold medals ever won in a single Olympics.

Michael’s eight medals consisted of 5 individual medals and three team medals. In reviewing his individual performances, this is what I found:

Men’s 400m Individual Medley – Final – Sunday, August 10, 2008

Michael Phelps (USA) 4:03:84 World Record
Laszlo Cseh (Hungary) 4:06:16 Difference +2.32

Men’s 200m Freestyle – Final – Tuesday, August 12, 2008

Michael Phelps (USA) 1:42:96 World Record
Taehwan Park (Korea) 1:44:85 Difference +1.89

Men’s 200m Butterfly – Final – Wednesday, August 13, 2008

Michael Phelps (USA) 1:52:03 World Record
Laszlo Cseh (Hungary) 1:52:70 Difference +0.67

Men’s 200m Individual Medley – Final – Friday, August 15, 2008

Michael Phelps (USA) 1:54:23 World Record
Laszlo Cseh (Hungary) 1:56:52 Difference +2.29

Men’s 100m Butterfly – Final – Saturday, August 16, 2008

Michael Phelps (USA) 50.58 Olympic Record
Milorad Cavic (Serbia) 50.59 Difference +0.01

Michael beat Milorad Cavic of Serbia in the Men’s 100m Butterfly by the narrowest of margins, a mere 0.01 seconds! That’s one hundredth of a second, or the speed at which a hummingbird flaps its wings. The average blink of a human eye is 0.10 or one tenth of a second. Michael’s victory in this race was by a margin that was ten times faster than the average blink of a human eye!

The total margin of victory in all five of his individual medal races was 7.18 seconds or an average of 1.436 seconds. That’s pretty darn quick. One Mississippi, two Mississ… Times up! See what I mean?

That 1.436 second average is the difference between silver and gold. It’s the difference between perhaps a few endorsements and those equaling around $40 million a year.

Develop the habit of applying that consistent extra effort, vision, and focus to move you closer to your dreams. But don’t stop there, use a little extra effort in all you do. Once it becomes a habit, it will be second nature. Imagine if your attitude, your focus, your kindness, your belief, and your perseverance were all just a little better. What would that be worth? Priceless.

Everyone knows that worrying doesn’t accomplish a thing and yet most of us do it from time to time. Some people do it so well that if it was an Olympic event they could easily be a gold medal contender.

So why do you do it and how can you stop?

The reason you worry is that you fear that something is going to happen that you don’t want to happen. You think that by somehow worrying about it you are doing something to prevent it. What you are actually doing is focusing on what you don’t want rather than what you do want to happen. Typically, people worry when they have no control over the outcome of something. If you have control and are actually able to take action to prevent this real or imagined event from occurring, then do so.

For instance, if you’re a student and you’re worried that you won’t pass an upcoming exam then what should you do? Stop worrying and spend more time studying and preparing. Once you’ve done everything in your power to ensure the desired outcome there is nothing more that needs to be done. Even if you didn’t prepare as well as you should have, worry and fear will not help the situation. Being relaxed and confident about the outcome will make it easier to focus your mind’s energy on doing your best and achieving the desired results on the day of the exam.

If you find that you are worrying about someone else because of his or her actions, then share your concerns with them. If there is something you can do to help, that’s fine if you have the time, energy, and desire to do so as long as they want help. If the person is engaging in harmful actions and has no desire to stop, then there may be a life lesson they need to learn. You cannot learn it for them; it’s something they must experience for themselves.

When you worry, all you’re really doing is harming yourself by directing energy towards the problem instead of the solution. If you’re worrying about someone’s health the best thing you can do is to take action by preventing them from worrying. Try doing this with humor. In the book The Secret, there were stories of two people who used laughter to heal themselves. After being diagnosed with breast cancer Cathy Goodman immediately began to believe that she had been healed and everyday went around saying, "Thank you for my healing". Rather than feel sad, she made a conscious decision to surround herself with laughter. She allowed herself to think only positive thoughts as she was determined to assist her body in it’s own healing. She watched funny movies every night and directed her focus on being healthy. Three months later she was cancer free. A man named Norman Cousins inspired her. Norman had been diagnosed with an incurable disease and so for three months all he did was watch funny movies. As he laughed, he released negativity and he released the disease. Three months later, he was disease free. His doctors thought his recovery was a miracle.

Three words you should immediately remove from your vocabulary are fear, worry, and can’t. Worry is fear-based thinking. As Franklin D. Roosevelt so astutely remarked, "We have nothing to fear, but fear itself." The man knew what he was talking about. So quit worrying. You can do it and laughter really is the best medicine.