I am writing to you from one of my favourite places in the whole world…. Roberval, Quebec, Canada; the host city for the FINA World Open Water Swimming Championships 2010.

Last month I visited Christmas Island. Now to my overseas subscribers this is an island with a difference. The Australian Attorney General’s Department invited me to present and present I did. 3 days and 9 presentations later….I was a changed woman! Christmas Island changed my life.

I have to say that without a doubt the most emotional presentation of my career was presenting to the Asylum Seeker Students. I felt it was my privilege to meet them. We talked about dreams, goals, marathons, journeys, mental toughness, resilience and keeping your eye on the prize! It was one of my finest moments.

Ralph Waldo Emerson said one of my favourite quotes. “What lies behind us and what lies before us are small matters compared to what lies within us!”

Today Swimming Canada CEO Pierre Lafontaine (as interviewed below) said it even better at the FINA World Swimming Championships 2010 press conference: “Great things happen when people do great things unselfishly, for the right reason. I think you see it in great events in the Olympics and recently in Africa with the World Cup. And you see it here in Roberval.”

If we all accepted Pierre Lafonataine’s observations, took a small part of his amazing leadership and became acutely aware of the awesome power that lies within, the world would be radically and immediately altered in a positive way. I have only recently come to realise the power that I own and that is, the power of what is WITHIN me.

Self-reliance is all about freedom from the control or influence of outside parties. It’s a simple concept that encourages each of us to take responsibility for our own needs–physical, emotional, spiritual, social, and economic. To put it more directly, it’s an understanding that nobody owes you anything!

Your Champion Lesson - How to develop your greatest asset - YOU!
You must constantly ask yourself these questions:
1. Who am I around? What are they doing to me?
2. What have they got me reading? What have they got me saying? Where do they have me going? What do they have me thinking?
3. And most important, what do they have me becoming?
4. Then ask yourself the big question: Is that okay? Your life does not get better by chance, it gets better by change.”

Cheers to thinking like a Champion!
Shelley Taylor-Smith