#24: Overcoming the Little Voice

It’s a warm Tuesday afternoon in Rome, September 6th, 1960, at the starting line of the men’s 1500m Olympic final. At only 22, Australian Herb Elliott has dominated the event for the previous 3 years – obliterating the world record in 1958 by a full 2 seconds and winning every race he entered.

In the pre-race tactical discussion, Herb’s coach, Percy Cerutty said ‘these guys will expect you to go at halfway. You’ve got to do that. Once they see you doing that, you’ll break them, and they’ll be vying for second place.’

The pace is rapid, but with 2 laps to go Herb is in perfect striking position, sat just behind the leading pack. Everyone expects him to kick on and win from here. Herb knows it’s his time to make a move and expects to hear a voice telling him – ‘This is your moment. Show them what your made of.’

He did hear a voice, but instead of positivity it said 'Herb, you're buggered! Stay where you are and wait until the bell goes. You've still got plenty of time to win.'

This surprised him, that in the middle of an Olympic final, he would hear this negativity. He always thought as a kid, that if you train hard enough eventually ‘this little voice’ would go away. "That was proof to me that it never leaves us. It's always there; it's always looking for the easy way to do things." Source

Herb had heard this little voice whilst running up sand hills in training a million times and learnt to carry on regardless. He ignored the negativity and surged to the front. That doesn’t mean it was easy – Herb’s legs were screaming with lactic acid and his lungs were burning. 

He kept on answering the call to slow down from ‘the little voice’ and broke free with 300 metres to go - 5m, 10m eventually 30 metres ahead, Herb took gold breaking his own world record in the process.

Herb explained in his book ‘Winning Attitudes’ that your training is so important. Not so much the strength or fitness training but training the mind. Training mental toughness.

We all battle with the little voice in our life… ‘just stay in bed for a little bit longer, it’s so warm in here’… ‘Do you really need to finish this now. Just stop, no-one will know’… ‘Maybe you can skip this workout - it’s pretty cold out.’

WISDOM 💎

‘As soon as you give in to the little voice, that small compromise becomes a crack in your foundation. No one else can hear it but this really is where the champion is made.’

Nick O’Hern

Tip 1 - A SMART PLAY ✅

Ultra endurance athlete David Goggins talks about having a cookie jar full of positive accomplishments. When you are in a tough spot, delve into your cookie jar and pull out one of these personal memories to inspire you to keep going.

Tip 2 - AVOID 🚩

Procrastinating. Mel Robbins used the 5 second rule. When you need to act, you have a 5 second window, to physically move or your brain will kill the idea. Don’t wait.

Tip 3 - ACTION 💪

Next time you hear ‘the little voice’ maybe respond with a respectful ‘no thanks.’ You have more left than you think.