It probably hasn't escaped your notice... we had the Olympics in Paris, the previous weeks.

I love the whole day of sport on TV!

The excitement, the results, and also the close finishes. A rollercoaster of emotions.

The women's double four rowed to the silver with a dogged look, behind mirrored sunglasses. A spectacular race, in which they lost the gold to the British by a difference of 0.15 seconds, after rowing in front for two kilometres. 0.15 seconds is the time it takes a sprinter to react to the starting gun. That's how small the difference was.

The Dutch stormed the medal table from the water, ending the Olympic Games at position 6, in front of countries like Germany and Italy.

But, the real achievements of these and other athletes only become clear during the interviews afterwards. And for sports nerds, yes I mean myself, also during the documentaries that follow the athletes "on their way to Paris", such as that of Gregory Sedoc, an overenthusiastic former Dutch hurdler.

Working extremely hard, the athletes are working towards that one day, that one moment. And that work, unlike the sporting event itself, turns out to be very boring. To achieve this feat, they did the same thing every day, for years!

Why did they do this?

Because your routines determine your performance. In the heat of the race, when your legs are completely soured and in tremendous pain, you still have to be able to do the right thing, the right stroke, in the right rhythm.

This only works if "doing the right thing’" takes the least amount of energy for your brain, so it doesn't protest. Routines, or unconscious, programmed series of actions, cost your brain the least energy.

So you need to develop the right routines by training, training and training.

By the way, this applies not only to elite athletes, but to any professional. So if you want to perform and achieve your goals, you will also have to develop the matching routines.

Which routines then? You will be surprised!

At the Japanese national championships, a reporter asked a middle-distance runner: "How did you win this gold medaille and become Japanese champion?"

And she said, from under her fringes, with a modest smile: "By washing dishes every day!"

"Now what does dishwashing have to do with top performance?", you must be wondering.

Takashi Harada, Japanese gym teacher, researched what top athletes do to perform and discovered that the truly successful also dedicate themselves to others: their community, family, people who have it "less" than them.

The effect of this is that you learn that it's not about you. As a result, you develop humility and are much more open to what others have to offer. Your environment will react differently to you as a result and you will have a positive influence on your surroundings, making you feel better about yourself.

It also puts into perspective your own efforts that you have to make to achieve your personal goals

If you are willing to do something for someone else every day, without expecting anything in return(!), then training for yourself every day to become a better doctor, nurse or manager is suddenly less of a daunting task.

This reinforces the discipline you need to keep it up to practise and improve every day.

The beauty is that enabling yourself and other people to develop in this way not only increases your professionalism, but also your self-esteem. In turn, this extra motivation contributes to higher performance.

Do you want to perform better and, like me, find it hard to muster the discipline to do so?

Then follow The Harada Method. This method, developed by Takashi Harada, contains everything you need to become systematically better in addition to the aforementioned service.

In my book Lean Thinking for Emerging Healthcare Leaders, I share the basic principles and skills from the Harada method, and how I applied them to reach my goal of writing and publishing my first book. I spent a full chapter on it.

Want to work successfully, on your goals?

​Order my book now*

*Harada teaches you that you are happiest, when reaching your goals, leads to helping other people.

So seize this opportunity for yourself and especially for the people around you, like your team members.

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​Purchase multiple copies, save on shipping costs and make your team happy​

*Get an extra (10%) discount when buying 10 copies or more

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What are your goals in life? And how far away are you from reaching them?