Despite Covid 19 and the lack of spectators, I’ve still loved watching this year’s delayed Olympics in Tokyo.
Britain hasn’t enjoyed quite the same level of success we’ve seen in recent Olympics but we’re still doing better than the disaster of only winning one gold medal at the 1996 Atlanta Games
What I love about sport is that there’s so many lessons you can learn and apply to everyday life; whether it’s with your own personal or professional goals.
This got me thinking about the lessons we can learn from Olympic champions which can help us become better writers. Here’s what I came up with.
Natural talent will only take you so far
Most top athletes already have a huge amount of natural talent, but once you reach the Olympic Games natural talent simply isn’t enough to make you a champion.
The same applies to writing. You may feel that you have a talent for writing; you know how to tell a good story, you’re quite good at spelling, but that’s not enough.
You need to look at writing as an ongoing learning process. A willingness and desire to constantly learn and improve will help you become a better writer.
Top Olympic athletes are rarely satisfied and are always looking for improvements – you should be the same when it comes to your writing.
Olympians know what to improve to get better
To be an Olympic champion an athlete really needs to know who they are – they need to be honest with themselves in recognising both their strengths and weaknesses.
Even when winning gold or any medal few athletes can say that was the perfect performance. Although Norway’s Karsten Warholm’s world record in the men’s 400m hurdles comes pretty close to the perfect peformance, there’s always room for improvement somewhere.
What areas do you feel you need to improve when it comes to your writing? Could you improve your introductions when you write an article. Perhaps you never quite know how to finish a written piece effectively. Maybe you want to improve your headlines to make them more appealing or persuasive.
We all have areas in our writing that can be improved upon so identify yours and start working on them.
Olympians push themselves to the limit
Olympic champions always look to push themselves both physically and mentally as hard as possible.
When I started my journalism training, I decided to create a blog called newspotting. My blog allowed me to write on a regular basis, which was something I knew I had to do if I was serious about becoming a writer.
I’ve consistently challenged myself to keep writing all the time. I write about subjects I know a lot about, I write about topics I know little about.
If you feel you’re in a bit of a comfort zone, identify what it is you can do to push yourself a little bit harder when in comes to developing your writing.
Olympians have personal goals
Olympians set personal goals – that probably won’t come as a huge surprise but it’s still important to remember this.
For an Olympian their personal goal could simply be to compete at an Olympics. Then it could be to set a personal best, reach a final, win a medal, become Olympic Champion.
Everyone needs goals and it’s no different for writers. Have you considered what your personal writing goals are?
Identify what your writing goals are and put in place a strategy that will help you achieve those goals.
Olympians pay attention to detail
Great Olympic champions leave nothing to chance. They focus on the small details, the little things which when you add them together make a huge difference to performance. Britain’s cycling success in the last 20 years has been based on this very principle known as marginal gains.
Paying attention to detail is always crucial when it comes to writing. You need to become a bit obsessive about your grammar, spelling and punctuation.
Minor mistakes in your writing can have huge consequences. You can lose credibility and respect in the eyes of your audience. You can fail in your attempts to influence and persuade them.
Olympians know the best environment they should train under
A training regime and environment that works for one athlete will not work for another athlete. Each individual needs to understand the conditions under which they can train and perform effectively
Have you considered what type of environment helps you write better?
Are you more creative in the morning, the afternoon or the evening? Do you need to work in silence because you get distracted? Or do you prefer to have music or the television on in the background to stimulate you. Do you write in one continuous burst or do you like to take breaks and come back to your writing?
We’re all very different and sometimes we can’t always control the environment that we’re working in, but it’s important to recognise the conditions in which you perform best under.
Olympians know how to train smart
Most Olympians work incredibly hard but working hard and having natural talent won’t always mean success. An Olympian’s approach to training has to be smart. It has to be effective in terms of improving and developing an athletes performance.
It’s the same with writing. I remember studying for my news writing exam. I studied very hard but still failed my first 3 attempts. I realised that despite all my best efforts I was still nowhere near my goal of passing the exam.
I realised that even though I completed lots of practise papers, what I needed was for somebody to mark each paper for me. I asked my online tutor to mark my practise papers which he did and provided feedback. With the feedback given to me I could see which areas of my writing I needed to improve upon. I previously hadn’t had this.
Now I was working just as hard, but my approach was more effective and on my fourth attempt I finally passed my news writing exam.
Olympians are students of their sport
Great Olympic champions are also great students. They look at their rivals and previous winners from their sport for inspiration and to learn about what it takes to become a champion.
You can do the same thing with writing. We can have our own writing heroes, whether it’s an author, a journalist, a blogger. Identify your favourite writers and think about what it is that you like about them. What is it that makes them successful writers?
Read books and blogs on how to become a better writer. I read two blogs, Copyblogger and Problogger everyday for writing tips.
Find a writing mentor who you can ask questions. The former Olympic Decathlon champion Daley Thompson won two golds in 1980 and 1984.
As a young novice to the event he continually pestered the American 1976 Olympic Champion (and now reality tv star) Bruce Jenner. Jenner became so fed up with Thompson’s questions he told him ‘I don’t like talking to you..I don’t want to talk to you anymore’
Becoming a student of writing will help you become a better writer and give you an advantage over other writers who aren’t students.