Words of wisdom from the great one

So I had the pleasure to listen to Mark Allen do a motivational speech at a IT government conference (I know strange)... So while I thought it was very interesting, the IT people did not understand it so much but in between funny stories and some video clips of his wins; here is some tidbits I took away that I think apply to all of us and will help us realize that even Mark Allen; 6 time IM World Champion, he is pretty much like us...

1. Mark talked about his fears and doubts during racing, at several times during his battles with Dave Scott. Mark said doubts would creep into his mind and would make him want to quit. Things like, he was not fast enough, Dave Scott was just too good, he didnt deserve to be te IM World champ, he had not done enough training... all the thoughts of doubt we have, he has the same thoughts.
2. The year before his first IM win, he did in training the equivilant of 125 IM distances in training, Mark did not win that year. He realized that doing 2xs as much training aseveryone did not make you faster, doing the correct amount of training is what wins races.
3. Mark talked about, when he did the best in races was when he would quiet his mind. He let all of the bad thoughts go and just would quiet his mind.
4. Look inward to change yourself, he talked about the challenges of coming back in the 90's for his 6th win. He spoke about looking within to challenge himself and to make changes to what ever was thrown at him.
5. It is all about hard work and doing it yourself, there are no short cuts. All you can do is put in the time and training and when you toe the line on race day, you give it your all. Give 100% for the whole race... even if that means you walk all of the marathon, you finish the goal.
6. That was his big take away message. Finish the challenge, no matter what that challenge is. Finish it to completion, the whole thing.
It was very cool to listen to him speak and was very interesting to learn the doubts and fears that he had are the same fears and doubts we have going into a IM, even Mark has had to walk a large portion of the IM run... We are all the same, we just need to look within and...

Finish the challenge.

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