What Olympians Show Us About Zen and Leadership

“Follow your dreams.” “Believe in yourself.” “Never give up.” Such were the themes of stories we heard again and again from the great Olympians who thrilled us through the first half of August. Most of us love that message—it resonates with our optimism and models strong personal leadership. Some of us are skeptical, knowing it’s much easier said than done. Judging from the numbers of Olympic spectators versus participants, on the whole, we’d rather watch others put themselves on the line than do it ourselves. Brain research tells us that watching others perform sports gives us about 20% of the neural thrill of victory (or agony of defeat) as if we were doing it ourselves¹. It’s no coincidence that Olympic coverage focuses on winners – often leading up to it with empathy-building personal stories. And here we get to watch it: partially entering the lives of people who followed their dreams, believed in themselves, and never gave up. Why, we’re 20% winners ourselves!

I celebrate these great athletes. I join the optimists who are inspired by Olympians to follow their own dreams. And I join the skeptics who know the difficulties. For here is what I’ve learned in a lifetime that is now about 3 times longer than that of the athletes I applauded this month: I have more dreams than I can realize, self-belief comes and goes and can be wildly deluded, and never giving up is only good advice if what I’m doing is sound.

Does that mean dreams don’t matter? No, our vision of a desired future, to the extent that it triggers personal transformation to bring it about is exactly what “attracts” that future into the present. For when we exactly match the “us” of that future state, that future state is exactly now. How could it be otherwise? To get a sense of how you, yourself, are the transforming agent who brings the future into your present, I offer you this flipped-around, timeline exercise.

But still, there’s a difficulty with dreams – it’s the same difficulty shared by all thoughts: they come and go, and are a dime a dozen. The embodiment of the dream – which is what we see in the best Olympic athletes and what takes so much effort – is what moves it into reality. Everything that doesn’t match the dream has to be worked through and weeded out, which is where self-belief and tenacity matter. We saw many examples of this during the Olympics: a false foot on the balance beam and the commentator would say this performer “just lost her confidence.” A fall from the bar and we hear, “she gives up too early.” When we’re up against it – and all dreams put us up against it sooner or later – what pulls us through? It cannot be a mere thought, a conscious tip-of-the-iceberg bit of self-talk. It has to go all the way through. This dream has to perfectly match us. Our belief has to be embodied. Only then does not-giving-up take us from idea to reality.

So if the dream has to perfectly match us to be realized, if self belief has to be deeper than ego-stroking, and if tenacity is to be rightly applied, a great responsibility lands on the “I” at the heart of these matters. How good is our insight? How well do we know ourselves? These questions are especially relevant to leaders, whose vision or dreams must match a realize-able slice of the future if they’re going to successfully lead anyone to it. While the dreams of Olympic athletes propel their personal mastery, our dreams as leaders in the world need to further inspire the behaviors of other people, whether they’re working for us or with us, buying our products or needing our services. It’s not enough for our dreams to match us; we need to get them to match the reality of potentially many others. Yes, we need self awareness to know what we’re good at and passionate about to recognize what dreams match us. Yes, we also need to know our weaknesses to know what’s going to get in our way and cause self doubt. But we need something more to gain genuine insight into what not only matches us, but also matches the context of what is ready to happen. Our vision needs to be Integral: not just an “I” vision but an “I,” “we,” “its” and “they” vision.

The connected state of deep meditation – what is called Samadhi – is the most reliable source I’ve found for this quality of inspiration. Samadhi is not a thought “I” thinks, indeed the boundary of “I” is indiscernible. Samadhi is not a state we can will ourselves into; the “I” that would will it is, itself, dissolved. It is a place that the stillness of meditation naturally opens us to. And from that state, insight arises that we translate into thought: a vision of what wants to happen through us. This is one of the flips of The Zen Leader, and the downloadable exercises from Chapter 6 (available at www.thezenleader.com) can help you experience it for yourself.

I’ve come to trust that source of inspiration far beyond ordinary thought. So “belief in myself” is far greater when I’m pursuing a vision I took “from the cushion.” “Not giving up” is far easier when I have this grounded confidence that “I” am more of an instrument (rather than originator) in a chain of events that have inspired me. But still, doubts arise, and barriers pop up left and right. How can we tell the difference between stubborn pursuit of an impossible dream, and necessary tenacity toward a worthy vision? It’s simpler than you might think: Joy. Joy is missing from the impossible case and keeps popping up when the vision is worthy – even when we least expect it or scarcely notice it. It may be subtle, quiet satisfaction, but something in us registers the “rightness” of being connected, connected to Being.

This same dichotomy between idea and embodiment applies not only for leadership, but is at the heart of Zen as well. An “aha” experience or reading about enlightenment may give us an idea about what it means to awaken from the false sense of self that is the ego-as-prison. But to fully embody that understanding, so it can come through our functioning both consciously and unconsciously, takes the patient training of years: the working through and weeding out of everything that doesn’t match. The great Zen master Dogen observed that three things were required for enlightenment: great doubt, great faith, and great effort. The great doubt is equivalent to “follow your dreams:” that which we are determined to bring about that is not yet so. The great faith is “believe in yourself,” which is not ordinary ego-based confidence, for that comes and goes with our mood. It is belief, not outside our self, but beyond ego-self, informed by boundless Being, Spirit, God, Absolute emptiness—whatever cultural frame or name we put to it—that we are NEVER apart from, even when we don’t feel it, know it, or have any conscious awareness of it. And the great effort is “never give up,” even though we will be tempted to again and again.

So while our dreams may change as we grow from being individual contributors to being leaders of others, while our self-belief may mature as we know ourselves better and connect beyond our ego, and while never giving up may become more wisely applied, the themes that guide the Olympians are exactly what guide the human spirit, and can guide us as leaders. And not just 20% guidance – but all the way through. To put it simply: follow the dreams of your true self and don’t stop.

Dr. Ginny Whitelaw is a leadership expert and Zen master in the Chozen-ji line of Rinzai Zen. She is the author of The Zen Leader (www.thezenleader.com), President of Focus Leadership, and founder of the Institute for Zen Leadership.

¹ Iacaboni, Marco, Mirroring People: The Science of Empathy and How We Connect with Others (Picador, 2008).