Habits of successful Olympians you can use to be more competitive at work

Olympic swimmers always swam to the wall, grab hold, and kick off to turn. In the 1936 Olympics, sixteen-year-old Vande Weghe developed an advantage by introducing a flip-turn, a smooth flip underwater to maintain momentum. He held the advantage for about a year until others started copying his method.

Expertise and conventional rules can hold us back by repeating what has worked in the past. Instead, approach your initiatives with a beginner's mind. Imagine you are approaching it for the first time, then find unique solutions.

The best athletes and coaches use technological advancements to gain an edge. For example, new spikes on cleats help sprinters to run faster.

But the immediate performance gain is just the first step. Technology also opens the door to revise commonly-held approaches on how something is done. Dick Fosbury could only jump over the high bar backwards after the thick cushioned landing pads had been introduced a few years earlier.

The flip-tun stayed the same from 1936 to 2015. Then Ryan Lochte attempted a new style of turning where he would remain on his back much longer, earning him multiple gold medals.

If you play the game the way you've always played, you will get the result you've always expected. To improve your outcome, change how you approach the game. Develop a habit of seeking new approaches while looking past accepted solutions.