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>> Brought to you by businessblueprint.com.au
>> Shelley Taylor-Smith: So right now you need to remember that if you aren’t driving
and you haven’t got 100% certainty, anything less than 100% certainty in anything else
is self doubt, isn’t it? And you might say, but I operated about 99% of productivity,
99% of purpose, 99% of passion.. well, what’s the 1%? Is it self doubt? Is it excuses? Is
it frustration? Is it fear? Ok.. Because all those excuses take 100% of your attention.
>> Ok.. so moving into how we attract what we want and how did I become a 7-time world
champion? My greatest asset was my mind. I could just get in that zone very quickly.
You know that zone that athletes have, right?.. and it’s all about utilizing your reactivate..
I call it a GPS because it’s a lot easier..a reticular activating system which we all have
in our brainstem, ok.. It’s fascinating jargon, its more stylish than a Ferrari..
ok.. and it gets you from A to B, what you want in the quickest amount of time. Who would
like that? Ok.. but I call it a GPS because who’s in control of that GPS? Yeah, absolutely,
that’s a programming. And what happens is it finds it fast for you, so you don’t have
to conciously be thinking about it all the time because it’s deep within your unconsious..
it’s what we’ll find, what’s wanted, what’s needed, what’s important.
>> Now this little girl used to go bouncing through the gates with this big smile and
my coach would go, “Oh god, here she comes..oh no and she’s still smiling, she still likes
it.” And, you know, I go bouncing through but only to drag one leg behind the other
and at 12 years of age I got diagnosed as disabled. Anybody been labeled in their life?
You’ve never been any good at because.. and I had scoliosis, was put in a steel brace..
I spent over 2000 days of my life.. Max Walker, who did the foreword in my book “Dangerous
When Wet,” he said that, “Shell, that worked out.. you’re 70.. you’re 12, that
was 2000 days!” When my mother would literally put her foot in the middle of my back and
strap me in every morning. Whether I went swimming or had a shower, she had to strap
me in.
>> But the interesting thing was when they found out I had scoliosis when I was.. all
those years ago, they decided they wanted to fuse my spine. Now, the one thing I love
about in life is swimming. Who are the people that now understand that. Who love swimming?
Or who would love to have loved swimming? Yeah.. and it’s interesting because you
know regardless of me being so bad, the only reason I started swimming is because my sister
is an asthmatic, and I went along to keep her company, do the big sister thing and she
had to do it and loathed it. Ok.. so many of you might have had that feeling because
that’s what happens at school when you had to go swimming, alright.. you loathed it so
much. So anyway you know we were sitting down at the doctor and the doctor said we need
to fuse your spine. Well, was that gonna stop me from being able to do what I loved more
than anything else? Swim..
>> Now, I don’t know about you but I learned at a very early age I was prepared to do whatever
it took. And I learned it from my mother and father who were hard working. Dad was a cook.
Mum was a barmaid. She had her own bar. They worked shift work.. We never went without.
I always had choices. So at a very early age, these champion habbits were rubbing off on
me that ended up becoming rituals. And one of them was negotiating.. I thought.. well,
if they’re gonna fuse my spine, I’m not gonna get to do what I want with my life which
is swim. So I did a deal and I said, “ I’ll do whatever it takes, please don’t fuse
my spine.” They ended up allowing me to, you know..they created this steel brace and
I wore that for 2000 days. So, literally, I would get to the pool.. they
started with say.. “Take your marks..” and I’ll be down trying to get it together
you know.. and I’ll be last off the blocks. And I’d swim like crazy to the end and I
hit the line rope after I come off the tumble turn.. Who does that?.. Well.. yeah, a few
of you there. And I’m in you know fourth, fifth and I was like frustrated because I
thought.. darn!. And I said to my coach, “Coach.. coach.. would you stay behind with me in the
morning and help me you know with my dives.. I just wanna go with everybody else.” And
he looked at me.. you know that look.. “But is it really worth it?” ***.. he said yes..
I said, “Coach, coach.. would you stay behind and I said to him everyone has gone home by
the way and help me with my tumble turns.. I wanna, you know, I wanna tumble on that
tee, come down that block line and hitting the line up.. would you help me?”.. You
know that look.. “But is it really worth it?” But ***.. he said yes.
>> So fast forward to 1991 and I’m getting ready to the world championships and I’m
sitting down with my sports psychologist and I’m going for this gold medal which evidently
looks silver.. Kid said it looked silver. The kid where I go to this school said the
kid’s thing that it looks silver and I said, “No, it’s just when I handed it around
it’s just all the gold has rubbed of.” But what’s really interesting, I’m sitting
there with my sports psychologist and he is saying, “Shell, Shell.. how’s your preparation
going?”.. and I’m going..phew, phew.. “I’m ready for it..bring it on. Gold medal
is mine.” He said, “You got no doubts? You got no fears?”.. “No.”.. “You’re
sure?” Don’t you love it when people ask you, you’re sure? And I’m going, ok..
“Those bloody jellyfish..” and he goes, “What are you talking about?”.. and I
said.. “Well those big brown ones out there.. the size of an old dust bin that had tentacles
about a meter long and I’m out there...powering along.. *** .. ***.. I’m pulling my bathers
down, pulling out my jellyfish, putting everything else back in, put my bathers up and off I
go.. ***.. there’s another one and so, do you know what? they are bloody annoying.”
And he goes, “Hmm..that’s interesting, interesting..” I said, “Interesting! They’re
not the only problem out there!” Have you ever noticed when you start to think about
a problem another one pops up? I said, “There’s little clear ones?” And he goes, “What’s
the problem with them?” I said, “Well, being a female they get stuck in some places”
and I said “You don’t have time in the middle of world championships to put your
hand down, pull out the stingers, put everything back in and keep going.” And he rubs his
hands.. and I said “But no..no..no.. it gets worse.” He goes, “What do you mean?”..
“Well, it stings you know.. they’re in your target mark. It’s like an electric
shock over and over and over through my body.” He starts rubbing his hands.. He looks really
excited. He said, “We’re gonna make them your friends.” I said..this would be bloody
extraordinary.. this will be interesting. He says, “How many big brown ones are there
out there?” I said, “Oh.. I don’t know .. there’s millions probably.” He said,
“Great.. every time you bump into one I want you to think that they’re on your team.
They’re your supporters. They’re your friends cheering you on.” I’m like..right..
and I said, “How about these little stingers?” He said, “This is gonna be a really tough..really
tough to ask.. are you ready to get out of your comfort zone?” Are you guys ready to
get out of your comfort zone in this business? And he said, “Right.. are you ready?”
And I went, “Yeah..” because.. no no.. there’s no certainty .. I said, “I’ll
do whatever it takes.”
>> Notice that from a young child I had been prepared to do whatever it took to achieve
what I wanted. It wasn’t about the gold medal. It was about being the best I could
be and getting the best out of Shelley Taylor-Smith. So when he said to me, “Are you ready to
step up?” I said, “Yeah, bring it on.” He said, “Right.. these stingers every time
they sting you I want you to imagine they’re showing you their affection. They’re actually
kissing you.” and I’m thinking.. right.. I’ve had better kisses, actually I’ve
had worse. So, you know, I’m getting down at that Swan River and I’m pumping this
new mindset.. negative to positive, negative to positive, obstacle to opportunity.. You’ve
had all that right? And you know if you fail to plan, you plan to fail. Right.. Plan to
fail, fail to plan.
>> Everything I’m sharing with you today is simple key.. keys and habbits and rituals
that I’ve embraced in my life..in my life.. not at one time in my life.. not on a day
when I had to. And that’s how you become walking like a champion..
>> So I got down there and I’m pumping this new mindset and I went.. “Boy, that was
a lousy kiss, mate.. can’t you do better than that?”.. you know.. and slowly I didn’t
see the big brown ones and I didn’t feel the stings. And it was interesting because
the Germans were down there and this 6-foot 5-inch Italian who won the silver medal was
on the floor going..”Ooh ooh.. I’m not gonna go there..ooh” and went and trained
at Beatty Park pool. And the Germans, I saw them at.. around Matilda Bay.. they got out..
picked up their tiny, put it on the side and thumbed a ride along the freeway at peak-hour
traffic one morning.. and they said, “We’re gonna come back on race day.” How well do
you think that they’re gonna do with their own race day?
Brought to you by businessblueprint.com.au