Today's guest post is from Meryl Hooker, Sales Rockstar.

I am not a sports fan but like so many others, the Olympic games in Vancouver caught my attention. I didn't make time to sit down and watch any of the events, but some of the highlights really got me thinking. Of all the amazing performances, I found two athletes particularly inspiring: snowboarder and gold medal winner, Shaun White, and cross country skier and bronze medal winner, Petra Majdic.

Petra Majdic had a brutal time. During a trial run, she tumbled head first off the course into a rocky stream and could barely walk. Volunteers had to help her out of the ravine. She turned around and not only participated in the main event; she placed third – after rejecting a painkiller that would have hindered her movement. Talk about commitment!

How many times have you crashed into your own ravine and just stayed there in defeat?

Shaun White met and exceeded all expectation as well. He locked in a repeat gold performance in the amazingly elegant snowboarding competition. He later admitted he was nervous going into the qualifying round because he didn't want to be the guy who "couldn't hold." I don't know about you, but I sure can relate to that.

How many times have you reached a new personal best, and had moments of doubt about whether you could hold… or exceed it?

When he was asked about what he did to keep his emotions in check and deliver the killer execution of his routine, White responded, "That's how I pictured it in my mind, of how it was going to go down."

How good are you at picturing how something is going to go down… and then making it happen?

I am a die-hard sales enthusiast and there is no doubt that the principles of being an Olympic champion are not all that different from being a sales champion. It doesn't matter if you're running a store or a sales rep running the road. Here's what the games reinforce for me about sales training and execution:

• You don't get good in day.
• You must practice and train every day.
• You must have a deep, down in your soul, drive to be the best.
• Focus always.
• Discipline always.
• Have fun.
• Represent your sport (or manufacturer or customer or store) the very best you can.
• Take a trick and do it a little better and a little bigger.
• Create new things.
• Set goals for yourself. Some that are out of reach, some that aren't.
• It's not always easy and it's not always fun.
• Hard work pays off.

I don't know that any of these are revolutionary new lessons in sales or athletics. It doesn't have to take big events like the Olympics to remind us of these basic principles. We can create the motivation for ourselves everyday by focusing on, planning and practicing a better performance in our stores and with our customers. We may not be as hip as Shaun White, but that doesn't mean we can't earn the gold… or the green.

Meryl Hooker is a manufacturer's representative, writer, speaker, sales coach and all-around Sales Rockstar. She is the writer of "Road Rage," a blog about repping and selling and co-author of the forthcoming book, Pushing The Envelope: The Small Greeting Card Manufacturer's Guide to Working with Sales Reps (Center Aisle Press, May 2010). She lives in Washington, DC and can be reached via www.merylhookersales.com.