Not only did he achieve this, but he also broke 4 world records in various areas of swimming at the same games.

Mark actually broke 33 world records during his swimming career.

• It is good to honor others for their achievements.
• It is also good to look at their lives and be inspired to do more in our own lives.
• It is even good to learn from these outstanding achievers, studying their lives to discover their secrets to success.

What is NOT good?

Do not try to copy their pursuits.
Pursue YOUR own dream. You have a unique dream and life purpose that no one else can fulfill. Don’t leave a gap (that is your size) in this world. Fill it with YOUR success.

Do not try to be like them.
You do not need to copy someone else. You not only have a unique purpose in life but YOU yourself are unique. There is no one else like you. So do not ruin yourself by trying to be a clone of someone else.

Yes, be inspired by others.

• You can learn strategies and ideas from others.
• You should apply and adapt these strategies to achieve YOUR dreams and YOUR life purpose. Also seek to pursure YOUR dreams and life purpose.

Today’s thought is:
You should honor others yes, but ALSO it is VERY important to honor YOUR dream and life purpose.

YOUR life purpose and dreams are to be YOUR main focus. Don’t leave a gap in this world, your size!

Photo: Mark Spitz at the 1972 Olympics in Munich, Germany.
Thanks to stephaniecomfort at flickr.com for the photo.

It happened at work. Each day is different which means there are always new things to learn. When I entered the room I noticed how everything was set up and also took note of the methods my partner was using to complete the tasks.

Later that morning we discussed some items that needed replenishing and a strategy to do it quickly. This would mean doing it in a different way than I had observed earlier that morning. I agreed that it was a good idea and committed myself to carrying out this duty.

Towards the end of the morning there was a down time so I began to set up the equipment exactly as I had observed earlier.

Soon my partner arrived and said What are you doing? I explained, and the answer came back immediately. You don’t need to do that, just take them this way.

Oh yes, I remembered and then began to ask myself why I had not remembered when beginning this assignment?

No, I am not losing my memory!

Suddenly I understood. I am a predominately visual learner. Left handed but right brain orientated.

This means that in the morning my brain had taken a mental picture of the particular setup.

Later my coworker and I had verbally agreed to a different setup. No problem except that several hours later when I decided to replenish this setup my visual memory came to the front.

Without even stopping to think more, I KNEW how to do this. The audio memory was somewhere in the background being ignored.

So I understood clearly what had happened and why I had forgotten our conversation where we agreed on using a different method.

Now what to do to avoid future similar events? Mm I am really not sure — yet. Look for ways to strength the other side of my brain.

Have you had similar experiences? (I am sure I am not alone here
Do you have any ideas?
I would love to hear about your experiences. Please share below in the comments.

The life of Edison is an incredible story. He had numerous patents on all sorts of inventions.

He is quoted as saying: To invent, you need a good imagination and a pile of junk”.

Well he was a master at turning a “pile of junk” into something that would change society for ever.

He was a genius, yet not in his eyes. At least not the way we would define genius.

Edison defines genius saying: Genius is one percent inspiration, ninety-nine percent perspiration.

He would not give up:

A what point would you have given up? After the 10th try? Perhaps you would keep going until you had tried 100 times?

He saw every “failure” as a success:

Where you and I may come to a place of frustration because all we see are failures and no results,

Edison saw EVERY failure as a result. Therefore every “failure” in his eyes was a success. He had successfully discovered something that did not work! He was focused on success!

Edison was not afraid of hard work.

So many people do miss opportunities because they are looking for an easy solution. Most truly successful people will tell you that there is no easy solution.

So to sum up: Three keys to Thomas Edison’s success:
1. He would not give up. He was relentless in his pursuit of success.
2. He was so focused on success that even “failure” looked like success to him.
3. He was not afraid of hard work. Hard work is a PART of the process and journey.

Are you relentless in your pursuit of success in your life today?