Olympics legend Derek Redmond on turning 60, life after retirement and developing a winning mindset
He turned 60 last year, and more than three decades have passed since the iconic Olympics moment which changed his life.
The British sprinter tearing his right hamstring in Barcelona in 1992 and being helped along the track by his dad, Jim, has gone down in history and been viewed more than 100 million times on YouTube..
But legendary sprinter Derek Redmond has no plans to limp off into the sunset.
Since retiring from athletics Derek has played professional basketball for Birmingham Bullets and England where he competed at the World Championships, was an international motorcycle racing team co-owner and survived the challenge of Celebrity Gladiators.
There were also stints in rugby sevens, kick-boxing and amateur boxing and he now goes clay pigeon shooting up to twice a week.
He’s also become a world-renowned and leading motivational speaker, criss-crossing the planet to talk about his life and offer lessons in leadership.
That work has seen him finish 43 out of the top 100 global speakers ranking ahead of Usain Bolt
In an interview with Champions Speakers, Derek, 60, from Northampton, has shared his tips for developing a winning mindset in all areas of his life.
He said: “Too much focus today is on what other people might think about us, but you risk other people’s opinions – or what those opinions might be – becoming barriers to your achievement.
“Yes, you’ll probably have bumps along the way – who doesn’t? But the key is to be adaptable.
“Following my retirement after my injuries I still had the drive to compete; I just needed a new goal and to accept that things had changed for me.
“I turned my attention to other sports and ended up playing basketball for the England national team.
“Those challenges opened up new opportunities for me and it’s that mindset that you need if you want to succeed.”
Here’s Derek Redmond’s five tips for a winning mindset
- Find a purpose
In order to succeed, you've got to have something that you really want to aim for; a clearly defined goal is necessary to keep you focused and help you put that strategy together.
You might want to be the best, but at what? Define the goal and work back from there to build that strategy.
- Acceptance
Key to a winning mindset is to accept that things aren’t always going to go the way you want, so you need to build resilience.
By being prepared for challenges along the way, which is an inevitability in life, you can quickly recover and learn from them when they appear.
- You can’t always do these things on your own
When I was training, I had a team to help me. I wouldn’t have broken the British record without that team and I wouldn’t have won a gold medal without my teammates. The important thing is to surround yourself with good people who understand and are supportive of what you want to achieve.
Never, forget that asking for help is a sign of strength, not a sign of weakness. Don’t be afraid to ask questions of people and by forging strong relationships you build that resilience in your mindset.
- Be prepared for change
Sometimes that change comes in the form of voluntary change, because the market has changed or you’ve spotted a new opportunity. Sometimes its involuntary change because you have no choice.
I’d rewrite the saying, ‘you win some, you lose some’ to ‘you win some, you change some’. View them as short term challenges which won’t last forever and try to figure out a way that you can get through them.
- Ignore what other people think
In today’s world so much of what we do and don’t do is because we are worried about how other people might view us.
Ignore them.
What they think of you is actually none of your business and what you want to achieve in your life is none of theirs.
Let them think what they want and focus on the goal you have set for yourself and if you feel you can achieve it, go for it.
Everyone’s got an opinion of someone else; the only opinion which matters is the one you have of you.