#199 Winning at the Olympics While Anxious | 2x Medalist Ori Sasson

Imagine you are an athlete at the Olympics. You have trained for years and years. You have dreamed of this moment. Your entire country is watching you, cheering for you, even praying that you will win.

There is a lot of pressure and so much riding on your performance. But you have trained for thousands of hours and everything rests on this moment. There is noise and energy coming from the audience. And because you are a fighter, your opponent wants to destroy you.

How do you find your focus? It is one thing to talk about mindfulness and the power of therapy in everyday life. But putting these to the test in this scenario is an entirely different ball game. 

Most of us will never experience what I just described, but my guest on this episode did just that. And as you’ll hear, mindfulness, therapy and, of course, spectacular amounts of practice and preparation made a big difference. Ori Sasson is a two-time bronze medalist at the Olympics where he competed on behalf of Israel. I would describe Ori as a gentle giant. And Ori has explored his sensitivity and anxiety through therapy and found ways to channel these qualities to find greater strength inside and outside of Judo competition.

As you’ll hear Ori is generous in sharing his recipe for success. And sadly, as of this recording, rockets are flying over Israel. Ori and I were meant to meet four weeks ago, but he needed to cancel due to these rockets and he nearly needed to cancel our interview today for the second time due to their persistent presence.

In spite of these challenges and his WiFi being down, he found a way to make it to the interview. Today, Ori uses the knowledge he gained from Judo competition to assist company employees to find success. So, listen in as Ori shares his secrets for success inside and outside the ring.