Sally Pearson recently won the 100 m hurdles at the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow.  How she focused on winning that race and achieving her goal can be applied to our HSC students.

Here are 3 winning tips that Sally shared post race that can easily be applied to all our students.

1. “I don’t want to win I HAVE to win.”  

How could changing the way you look at your HSC Goal into something you HAVE to achieve rather than something you WANT to achieve impact on your own HSC result?

• I need to get 90+ ATAR
• I need to get into that Arts degree course
• I need to get into UNSW

2. At the start of each race she looks down the track and finds some green and gold to focus on. This reminds her of why she is there. Knowing that she is an inspiration to others who look up to her and representing her country is what motivates her?

• What is your motivation/vision?
• How can you find your own ‘green and gold’ to focus on at the start of an exam, trials, study?

3. Sally had a difficult run up to this important race.  She was trying to retain this title from the last commonwealth games, she had injuries leading up to the race and there was a lot of behind the scenes drama that were distracting.  She said she just had to get the job done and that she had ran that race a million times.

Fergus often says you can have excuses or you can have results but you can’t have both.

So as an HSC student practicing exam style questions under timed conditions over and over again is as Sally puts it ‘going to get the job done’ in the HSC.

Thank you Sally Pearson for being so inspiring.