5 Love Lessons From Olympic Athletes

2. Train hard. Olympic athletes don't expect to win the gold if they have not trained. They know daily practice on a consistent basis is how to win. We can use this wisdom, and realize we need to train daily to have a gold medal relationship.

Training includes introspection and personal growth. We need to focus on our own feelings and behaviors and commit ourselves to our own personal growth journey. As we grow and learn to work with our own internal light and darkness, we are more able to give in the relationship.

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True giving comes from a place of abundance and overflowing without expectation of receiving anything back. 

3. Spend time. A commitment of years is dedicated to striving for Olympic gold. The athletes are in it for the long haul to attain their goal. It takes more than five minutes a day, it takes more than a month, and to get really good at the sport, it takes multiple years of training. This applies to relationships, too.

To attain gold in relationships we must commit our time to the relationship over the long haul. We must face the hard times with courage and grace and move through them rather than quit.

4. Work through failures. How an athlete deals with failures are important to attaining their goal of gold. Failures are inevitable; how we respond to them is what's important.

An Olympic athlete will turn the failure into determination to attain the goal no matter what. We can also learn from mistakes and choose to incorporate what we learn into our continued pursuit.

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5. Heed advice. All Olympic gold winners have coaches who help the athletes see what they cannot see, and to aid them in getting better at their sport. It takes a community of people to help one athlete to attain gold in his sport.