He made history. In the 112 years the Olympics have taken place, Michael Phelps was the first person to ever win 8 gold medals in a single Olympics. The crowd went wild when he won the 8th but nothing was more remarkable than his 7th win. He won that one by one one-hundredth of a second. To me, it looked like the other guy (he has a name but isn’t it interesting from a marketing perspective how it doesn’t just roll off the tongue?), Milorad Cavic actually won. 1/100th of a second difference took 1st place. That was the difference between Gold and Silver. The difference between 1st place and last place wasn’t even that great. Even the slowest guy is a world-class athlete. So, just a little bit can make a huge difference.
What I found most fascinating was Michael Phelps’ decision prior to the event to win 8 Gold Medals. He made no secret of the fact that he wanted to do exactly that. And that is exactly what he did. It would have been easy to mock him with, "That’s impossible!" prior to the event. To most people it would have seemed impossible too – just like the goals and dreams they have for themselves. Why that is just out of reach. A pipe dream. There is an aspect of what he did (his 7th Gold Medal) that to me beautifully illustrates the Power of a Decision.
When a person really decides on something, really decides and strips off all of the "maybe" – with just that clean simple, exact postulate to do "that", it seems as though the physical universe shifts around as needed so as to be in alignment with that postulate.
In the mind, "maybe" is "yes" and "no" fused together. It is common for a person to have conflicts with regard to what they hope to accomplish. All of the counter-intention (thoughts that oppose your goals) that a person carries around causes dispersal: where the person will attempt to go in different directions at the same time. They "do want" and "don’t want" the same goal at the same time. Every single unresolved problem a person ever had or has – has a "maybe" (yes and no combined) sitting at the base of that problem. Get rid of the maybe and you just "solved" the problem.
What is it you secretly dream about doing? If you knew you would succeed what great thing would you attempt?