NMP Live sat down exclusively with athlete Sally Gunnell - The only woman in history to have ever concurrently held all four major championship gold medals - Olympic, World, Commonwealth and European, as well as the World record. We spoke about overcoming mental and physical barriers, winning Olympic gold and translating Olympic success into every day life.
Watch the full interview or read the transcript below.
In conversation with Sally Gunnell
How did you get into motivational speaking?
I didn’t get in to motivational speaking for a number of years afterwards, because the thought of standing on that stage horrified me. It was actually Roger Black that said to me, ‘hang on a minute, if you can run around a stadium in front of 80,000 people in a leotard, you can get on that stage!’ and I just remember thinking do you know what? He’s right.
He just said that there’s not that many successful sports women out there, you know I was probably the only one at the time really, it’s very different now, but also people want to know your story; what you learnt about yourself, and how you achieved what you did. And I thought do you know what? That’s probably right.
I remember the first one I did was to IBM, there was 3000 people and they had made me this track, a running track with five blue running lanes in this swirl that went up the back. I was petrified but I used all the skills that I had learned from my running days around preparation, the mental ability, visualization of seeing myself on that stage, and delivering it, and I loved it. I had such a buzz.
I guess at the day, if you have come from the sporting world you are a performer – that’s what you love doing. And I guess that’s what I love doing when I get on to the stage.
The bit I really enjoy is seeing people who think ‘oh, another motivational speaker’ or ‘another do that work has put on’ or whatever, and they are sitting there like that, but by the end of it they’ve got tears in their eyes, they are sitting there, they are smiling at you, and you’ve taught them something, you’ve got something across to them and I love that feeling.
What are the fundamental traits of a winner?
I think the fundamental traits of a winner is a number of things that I’ve learned. The bit I love around what I did and around the business world is someone’s got a talent, but what is that space in between that makes them a high performer, that really go on to that next level, and what does that look like?
I guess for me it is that we all work hard, we all train hard, and I think the thing that excites me is all those little pieces that you can learn about yourself and you can put in to place, as an athlete but as a business person as well. In around how you look after yourself, how you keep yourself fit, how you keep yourself nutritionally engaged to give yourself enough energy – all those areas.
And then it’s around that mental skill, because nine times out of ten that I speak to people that is what is holding them back. It’s about how do you get to that next level, and that’s around your mental ability to be able to able to prepare yourself, to be able to emotionally perform at that high level, and that doesn’t just happen over night, you cant just click that in to place.
Fundamentals need to be in place, you’ve got to have done the work, you’ve got to put all those small areas together to get you there, but that last little piece of that mental skill is what holds people back. That’s the area that I love, and that’s the bit that I love to just work out within people.
I know what I had to do, and I love being able to share those stories, and they are real tangible stories that people can actually take away and can actually use for themselves.
In pursuit of your goal, how did you overcome your physical and mental barriers?
It was really weird, because when you do stand on the line and deliver something like an Olympics, and it’s not until you have achieved that and you look back at that journey and what you have been through, and I guess it’s the real tough times that come out. You think about the things that have gone wrong, the injuries, people telling you you’re not good enough.
There were many times when I felt like I was going to walk away from the sport. I walked away from the sport for a number of months, but realized that I loved it and that is what I wanted to do.
It’s not until I achieved at that high level that you realise that it was such an important part of it, and getting over that adversity was around learning about yourself and what makes you have focus and that drive, and that passion that you really want.
I think I would never have won what I had unless I’d gone through that adversity in my life.
What did winning Olympic gold mean to you?
Winning that gold medal was completely life changing. I’d done everything I needed up to that point of crossing the line and winning, but nobody can prepare you for how your life is afterwards because it changes overnight, in a good way.
But also, I guess, what comes with that is pressure and expectation, and the years leading on from that it was a completely different story that I had to go through within my athletics career. Around sustaining that excellence, making yourself resilient, making yourself be able to deal with that pressure, which was very different pressure to what I had in that Olympic year.
But, again, it was a challenge, and I thrived on it, and I got myself into that position that the more pressure that was on the better I would do as an athlete, And that takes years and years of training and mental training to be able to get yourself in to that state.
How do you compare individual success with participating in a team?
Doing an individual, like I felt very much within the 400 hurdles, was one thing, and I felt like that for many years, but actually you are not an individual – it’s a massive team that’s got you to that start line.
Even though you’re the one that’s out there, and you’re the one that’s in front of the telly or people are watching. I knew, probably four years out, five years out, that I can’t do this on my own, so you do stand on that line and you are part of that team, and it’s actually no different to being part of a relay team. It’s no different to being the team captain, which I was, of the Great Britain team.
You need help, you need support, you need to nurture each other on, you need to understand each other, you need to know, because everybody within the group has different challenges, different goals so you need to know how to get the best out of each other.
I think that was a skill that I had to learn because I did, for many years, think it was me on my own out there, but it was a real skill and something that even now, going on in life, I need that support and I need people around me to be able to thrive.
What is the importance of visualization?
Yeah, visualization is a really important tool. I know some people think, oh gosh, you know, that it is a bit wishy-washy. I think it’s around preparing yourself for something that you’re not sure about.
I know some people sort of think well how do I do this? What is the skill in it? And it doesn’t take long.
But visualization was a really powerful tool. I would say as much as 70% was in my mind on that day of my race, and that was how I’d mentally prepared myself, what that visualization had looked like for the last 12 months that I’d put in place.
So, it is a really powerful tool, but you have got to be able to know how to do it. You can do all the work, but if you are going to stand up there and do a presentation and you haven’t visualized yourself standing up there and delivering it you are going to lose your way, you’re going to not get across what you wanted to.
Or maybe it is in a situation where you have got to go and meet the boss, you have got to go and talk through how you are getting on at work. If you have done your preparation but you haven’t visualized yourself in that room communicating with them, and being thrown a certain question and how you will answer it, you might as well throw it all away.
It’s the last bit, it’s sort of like the tablecloth that goes over the top of it all, and so often we don’t get that straight, and we don’t put that out there, and it is a real key to bringing everything together.
How do you translate Olympic success into the everyday lives of your audience?
For me it’s around how did you become a high-achiever, what did it take? And I love that; I love the synergy between sport and business. It’s so strong and I look at what I say are the five lessons that I learnt from my running that I apply, and I take into my life now. Because I always say I am like everybody else – trying to be a successful businesswoman, trying to run a family, trying to keep myself healthy and fit, and all of these sorts of things – sometimes you have good days and sometimes you have bad days, but what is it that I drew on?
I think that a lot of it is around knowing what you want to achieve. Having clarity in your mind, I think that is really important.
I think its around having that support, and that help, and that team around you, and looking at, for me, how much tiny little things can help so much in a big way. And whether that is around nutrition and exercise, but just dealing with stress, dealing with confidence and that sort of thing, you know, they are tiny little things that we can add in to help ourselves be the best that we can be.
And then I think it’s around communicating with people – how best to be a leader, how best to, you know, I look at my coach and how did I get respect for him? What is it that he taught me? And I’ve learnt so much around that, of just guiding people, helping people, being there for people, in the way that he was. I think having that relationship with him from 14 right to the end was really, really key.
And then I think it’s around that mental skill, and that real belief, and that passion within your mind that you need to be able to get out.
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