Resume Reviver

Olympic Lessons for the Workplace

Each day during the Olympics, I’ll post a nugget relating a value of sportsmanship and the Olympics to your professional life.

Today’s Olympic Nugget: Don't let a hurdle define you; let how you handle the hurdle define you.

17 posts into this Olympics Blog Blitz, and it finally comes to me to use the hurdle analogy. Better late than never! The thought was inspired the story of Olympian Lashinda Demus from the USA who earned a silver in 400m Hurdles, only a half-stride behind the winner. From Demus' perspective, her hurdle is failing to win the gold this Olympics, but she's not letting it define her. Her goal is to come back in 2016 and try again, and that goal is what defines her in this moment.

Belgian Olympian Gijs Van Hoecke has a different hurdle to overcome. He was photographed 101 sheets to the wind outside a London bar and removed from the Games by officials. He now has to decide if the hurdle is going to define him or if how he handles it will define him.

We all have a few hurdles in our professional lives. Perhaps we've fallen short with a professional goal or said/done something incredibly stupid in a moment of lapsed judgement. Don't let it define you. Show your peers, your employer, your community and anyone else who's watching that you know how to handle hurdles with determination, good judgement and humility. You can choose to handle the hurdle in a way that reinforces the hurdle or shows that you've cleared the hurdle. It's up to you.

Do you have a work or professional hurdle to share? How did you overcome it?

Photo by botosynthetic