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Throughout history there have been some incredible stories play out in front of eyes on the grandest stages across the planet. According to TwinSpires, the Kentucky Derby is coming back for the yearly race in May 6^th, so it’s the perfect timing to look at some inspiring racers.

So, who are three of the most inspiring horse racing jockeys that we have seen throughout the history of the great sport?

Bob Champion

One of the most heartwarming stories that we have ever seen in horse racing began in 1979, as Bob Champion was diagnosed with cancer. Champion continued to ride despite doctors giving him just six months to live. He surpassed these beliefs by continuing to ride winners in the United Kingdom, before finally getting his shot in the Grand National in 1981.

His mount, Aldaniti, also recovered from a career-threatening injury to line up in the world famous race at Aintree. It was a story that even Hollywood movie directors could struggle to believe, but Aldaniti and Champion traveled supremely throughout the race, and took the advantage after the eleventh fence.

The combination held off the challenges from all angles on the long run to the line to win by four lengths. The moment was later voted among the Greatest Sporting Moments, and was immortalised in 1983 by the film Champions.

Rachel Blackmore

The Grand National always has a habit of writing its own story, and in 2021, that was the case once again. Rachel Blackmore was highly regarded as one of the best jumps jockeys in Ireland, but very few could see the trend of a female struggling in the grand race being bucked.

However, Blackmore has smashed so many glass ceilings throughout her career that it only seemed a matter of time before a female winner of the Grand National would become a common trend. In 2021, her date with destiny arrived, and her and Minella Times passed the post over seven lengths clear of the field.

Blackmore continued to break new ground in 2021, as she ended the Cheltenham Festival as the top jockey, while in 2022, she became the first female jockey to land the prestigious Cheltenham Gold Cup on board A Plus Tard. Aged just 33, this is still the start of her journey, and few would bet against her repeating both feats again in the future.

Steve Cauthen

There are perhaps few more influential jockeys in global horse racing than Steve Cauthen. The American quickly became one of the standout jockeys in North America, winning his first race just a week after making his debut in the saddle. His success would continue in 1978, as he became the youngest ever jockey to win the U.S. Triple Crown onboard Affirmed.

However, after dominating in North America, he decided to make the career-defining move to Europe to take over from the legendary Lester Piggott. That bold move led to immediate success, as he was named Champion Jockey on three occasions, and he would win ten English Classics.

His first win came in the 1985 Derby, becoming the first jockey to ever win Classics in both the U.S. and UK. Not content with cracking England and the U.S., he would later claim Classic success in the French Derby and the Irish Derby, before winning the Italian Derby with Hailsham in 1991.

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Speaking is one area in which a college degree is almost essential. Your audiences won’t take you seriously unless you are a college grad. In many cases, your major doesn’t matter as long as you’re a bona fide expert on a particular topic. Experience speaks louder than diplomas when it comes to building a career as a speaker, but a four-year degree is a baseline requirement for success.

Learn how to promote yourself or consider outsourcing the advertising function if you can afford to do so. One helpful step is to join a speakers’ bureau, which is a kind of specialized employment agency for the industry. Bureaus get a commission from your earnings, so choose carefully and compare contracts when signing on. One of the best ways to acquire customers, get your name in the public eye, and gain relevant experience is to give a few free presentations to local organizations like chambers of commerce, school boards, charitable organizations, and colleges. Here are some specifics about getting your speaking career off the ground.

Choose a Specialty

It’s important to select a subject area that you feel totally at ease with. In the same fashion you would develop a career plan for yourself you should develop a plan here as well. Most successful speakers choose an area in which they already have some degree of expertise. Others choose a niche that appeals to them and then study it intensively. Experiment with different topics and write a few practice presentations to get the feel of how challenging it can be to present yourself as a subject-matter expert.

Get a Degree

If you don’t have a four-year degree, get one as soon as possible. If money is an issue, use a free online scholarship search service. Platforms like these are a worthwhile way to scan for opportunities at once and apply quickly for ones that are a good match for your skills and background. Start by building a personal and professional profile, and let the search platform do the heavy lifting of uncovering financial resources for you.

Promote Yourself

Self-promotion is the cornerstone of a successful speaking business. This is especially true during the first two years when you’re building up a clientele and making yourself known to the local and online communities. Use business cards, phone calls, and free services for advertising your company. Join the local chamber and other professional organizations, using every contact to grow your network of potential customers.

Join a Speaker’s Bureau

Speakers’ bureaus are the most direct way to get work as a professional presenter. Most of the reputable companies will ask you to audition by giving a short demonstration of what you do. Expect bureau hiring agents to act as stand-in audience members and pepper you with questions about your special topic. If you’re accepted, work on developing at least three unique presentations.

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The advantages of listening to a valuable motivational speech are too many to mention – and it can be difficult to fully describe the magnitude of how it can make you feel and the difference it can make. But I’ve tried to break it down for you below.

Here are my top 10 benefits of listening to a motivational speaker: –

• Being inspired by different life perspectives
• Coming away with real belief in your own dreams
• Learning to grow from failure
• Becoming determined
• Developing your ability to relate to others
• Overcoming adversity
• Learning new things
• Improving your career
• Becoming successful
• Finding the best version of yourself

With so many amazing benefits on offer, you’d be a fool not to delve into the world of motivational speaking today. We are so fortunate in this day and age to have easy access to whatever it is we need information about. Sites like TED Talks, mean that we have inspiration waiting for us just a few clicks away. And it doesn’t matter what it is that you need inspiration for! Literally everything in life requires motivation – and life can quickly become very miserable without it. We so often thinking of motivational speaking being needed only for the huge changes we’re making in life – and of course those are important – but we need motivation on every level every single day! Do you want to paint your house? Read that book you’ve been meaning to get to for ages? Start working out more like you’ve been promising yourself for years? It all needs motivation. And luckily for us, whatever it is we’re feeling, whatever it is we need – it’s right there at our fingertips with the help of our good friend Google, we can find it.

My favourite kind of inspiration is when it hits you when you least expect it and definitely weren’t searching for it. You’re innocently scrolling through social media one day and suddenly Justin Baldoni is speaking to your soul about toxic masculinity. Or Esther Perrel is redefining your whole life perspective on relationships. (Those were both really good! I’d recommend checking them out!) And just like that, your whole world changes. It only took 20 minutes out of your day, and you are changed, inspired, you’ve learnt more in those 20 minutes than you have sometimes in the years before that led up to that moment. You remember what you learned forever, and the way it made you feel. When you go on to meet other people in life who you feel would benefit from hearing that perspective, you share it – you send them the link to the video, and it hits them straight in the heart too. They go on to do the same. Literally changing the world one human heart at a time.

But a word of caution before you head of on your journey of discovery. Obviously, not all motivational speakers are created equal, so it’s worth doing your research about who you choose to spend your time listening to. Particularly if you’re investing in a motivational speaker to help with some of the larger changes in your life. Try to find recommendations from people you trust about somebody that’s helped them. Or failing that, have a good look at online reviews. Most motivational speakers will usually be up for having a no cost initial chat with you to see whether you feel they are the right fit for you.

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Working to maintain an even keel and staying motivated are key factors in achieving business success. Here are five useful tactics and resources for business owners.

1.      Read Inspiring Business-oriented Blogs & Books

Reading and digesting what business leaders are putting out into the world is beneficial. It can indicate when you’re doing some of the right things. But also, it serves to highlight new initiatives that hadn’t occurred to you. New business books are often mentioned in interviews by prominent CEOs; frequently these aren’t books you would have come across otherwise. Here are 15 great business blogs to consider. Some will be familiar to you already, whereas others may be completely new. Find the ones that either speak to how you think about and conduct business, or that will inspire your day.

2.      Set Meaningful, Intelligent Goals

While there’s much focus on setting SMART goals, they’re not a panacea for every business ailment. Goals, when too vague, lack specificity. Overly unambitious goals are uninspiring to all. These types of goals aren’t worth setting in the first place. The objectives of the business must be significant enough to be highly motivational. If they’re too easily achieved, no one will push hard toward their attainment or feel good about succeeding with them. Instead, make the business goals intelligent, ambitious, and meaningful.

3.      Talk with the Customers

Losing touch with what the customers expect and want to see from the business creates a fundamental disconnect. Subsequently, fresh business ideas turn out to be wrongheaded, regardless of whether they’re inspired or not. Turn a negative into a positive by asking customers what could be done better. See if they have suggestions for product improvements or ideas for new ones. Accept the feedback. Look for ways to learn, iterate product lines, and deliver well on customers’ expectations.

4.      Take a Break

Stepping away from the business by taking time off, enjoying a staycation, or going on a vacation, can refresh and reenergize you. By returning to the business fully recharged, you’ll be happy to embrace challenges with full engagement. When you are no longer feeling worn down, it allows for bigger, more optimistic thinking about what can be achieved over the medium to long term.

5.      Stay in Shape

Lastly, staying in shape can do wonders for your mental health, and consequently you will feel as though you have more energy to dedicate to thinking up new business ideas. While exercise sometimes requires taking time away from the business, it can be a source of renewal. Furthermore, it’s a chance to gain a meaningful perspective.

As a founder, if you find yourself struggling for motivation and the energy to push ahead, don’t just accept it. Use a collection of tactics and useful resources to bolster your confidence, open your mind, and re-orient toward the positive.

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If you search the internet for experts in habit formation, probably the first person that will come to you will be James Clear. If you haven’t heard of him before, you should know that he is the author of the bestseller ‘Atomic Habits’. If you are a non-fiction enthusiast, you have most probably heard about or already read this book.

What is James Clear’s work field?

James Clear was a baseball player that had an accident that made him struggle with health problems for more than one year after the accident. That is when he discovered the importance of habits and, ever since then, he observed and studied how habits work and are formed and came up with a few strategies about habit formation that he details in his book.

He has been writing articles about habits on his blog for several years now and he can be called an expert in this field. Everyone who wants to know more about habit formation has to explore his ideas.

What are the theories that he is most famous for?

James Clear started to write Atomic Habits long after he became an expert. At first, he had written about 1000 pages, but he shortened the book to a little more than 250. One of the main ideas that this book is built around is that a 1 percent improvement a day every day of the year can lead to an improvement of 37.78 percent after one year.

Following this idea, Clear teaches his readers how to implement new habits and how to be consistent. He says that there are 4 laws of behavioral change that can help you improve your habits.

A habit is an action that we perform often enough for our brain to make it automatic. At first, it is a conscious action that can make you a little bit uncomfortable, but, after enough repetition, your brain transfers it to your subconscious and you won’t have to think about performing it.

Clear also says that there is no such thing as people who do not have enough will power. There is just the issue of not having a good plan to turn some behavior into habits. He offers some solutions and strategies to do that, strategies that he himself has applied to his life and have worked well.

The 4 rules of habit formation according to James Clear

The first one says that if you want to form a new habit, you have to make the clue that leads you to perform it more visible. It is best to relate the habit to an older habit you already have. So if you want to develop a habit of squatting, you can perform 10 squats right after you wash your teeth in the morning. So the clue is washing your teeth.

In the formation of a new habit, there always has to be a craving. This is the second law, the craving has to be attractive. If you want to have great glutes, you should squat every day. To make the craving more attractive, you have to imagine having the perfect glutes and to really want it.

The response, the third law, is that the desire of having great glutes has to get you to do something about it and actually engage in doing the squats. The response has to be easy to accomplish. If you set a goal of doing 40 squats a day, you will end up quitting because the activity will be too hard to do. So start small.

Finally, the fourth rule says that you have to get a reward after you perform the habit. This will make your body release dopamine and be more consistent with your habit. For example, every time you do 10 squats you can put 10 dollars in a jar that you can save to buy more books. Find a way to make it fun.

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However, even though numerous experts have spoken on the matter, there are still a couple of myths that many still believe in.

 Only naturals make for good public speakers

To many, public speaking is an innate gift that only a limited number of people have. This could not be further from the truth. While some people feel more comfortable sharing their ideas to large groups of people, public speaking is a skill that you can learn.

Being nervous when you have to speak to others is something that even skilled professional speakers often have to manage. The key difference between a good speaker and an inexperienced one lays on how one chooses to manage his/her nerves. To feel confident before your audience, you have to channel that adrenaline rush and make your speech even more powerful.

Of course, doing so takes quite a lot of self-control, but it is something that you can master if you practice. This is why, it is often recommended that inexperienced or nervous speakers learn from the best.

Expert Sir Richard Branson argues that, a great way to calm your nerves before you go before an audience, is to feel confident in the message that you want to get across. So, instead of just winging it, be sure that you are well-practiced and that you don’t drink too much caffeine before you have to give your speech. Breathing exercises have also been proven to help speakers overcome their stage fright.

Today, there are plenty of resources that you can access and numerous courses that you can sign up for that can help you forget about your nerves and deliver beautiful speeches. Consider signing up for public speaking skills training or workshops, where you are given the opportunity to practice your skills in front of an audience and receive feedback from a qualified instructor. Additionally, there are a number of books from leading authors full of practical tips, techniques and guides to help you boost your skills and master the delivery of your performance.

 You have to memorize your speech

Contrary to public belief, memorizing your speech word by word is not a key requirement when it comes to public speaking. Just imagine it. You are in front of your audience, but you cannot start your speech because you cannot remember the first line that you have written.

Instead of memorizing your speech, it is best that you master your content in a logical manner and that you deliver your arguments in an engaging way. At the end of the day, energy, vigor and enthusiasm are more important.

Even though practice makes perfect, over practicing can do more harm than good. When you focus too much on the words that you are saying, and not on the substance, you risk delivering a speech that is robotic and monotone.

To reach that sweet spot between having a good command of the material and being able to present it enthusiastically, asking from help from a speech coach is often recommended. Public speaking is, in many ways, similar to fishing. If you are a novice, you need to get as much help as necessary.

In the case of fishing, as an inexperienced angler, you can boost your chances of catching something by investing in a fish finder, here you can find some good recommendations, in the case of public speaking, a trainer can help you shape your speech and manners so that, at the end of the speech, you get the reaction that you’ve been waiting for.

 Attire does not matter

Let’s be honest, we often feel comfortable and at ease in clothes that are not formal. However, stepping out on the stage in your favorite sweatpants just because you feel comfy in them is not the way to do it.

An important part of public speaking is the fact that you have to wear attire that matches that of the public that you are speaking to. If you speak in front of a group of people at a small startup, you can, of course, choose a more informal outfit. Still, if you have to stand before a large group of representatives from the financial sector, you have to show up wearing business attire.

 Only humor can make you relatable

We live in a society that often looks at humor as the go-to strategy to take the pressure off. However, humor is not something that comes naturally to us all. Even more so, when you feel stressed out, you will probably not be able to deliver jokes as easily.

So, instead of opting for humor, you should engage your audience by starting with a personal anecdote, or by simply offering quality information.

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