The Rio Games inspire the world.

Me, I’m Canada proud. So proud to watch the Canadians rock it.

And I love watching all of the athletes give it their all.

Getting to the Olympics and Paralympics is a journey.

Artists can learn from Olympians and Paralympians. Writers, songwriters, musicians, visual artists – we can all learn from them.

So, to help move your creative goals forward, here’s seven lessons that creatives can learn from Rio 2016.

1. No guts, no glory.

Success comes from the daily grind.

Sweating it out.

If you want to produce, you need to invest the time.

2. Sacrifice.

Investing the time, comes with sacrifice.

Life is about compromise. There’s pros and cons to everything.

If you want it, you have to give something up to get it.

Athletes sacrifice for their sport.

They give up something for something else.

Time, sleep and much if not all of a social life to get to where to they are.

3. Mastery comes with time.

You master your art by investing the time.

And that means practice. So you can invest time in struggling with your art. Experimenting with your art. Looking and listening to artists you admire.

4. Slow and steady wins the race.

Mastery comes with the daily grind.

Do feel that your day to day time honing your craft goes at a snail pace? Don’t worry. It takes time to master each new part.

You can get upset about what you think is lack of progress, or you can channel your energy into moving forward.

Olympians go full-throttle on game day, but slow and steady practice will help you achieve mastery and achieving that mastery, win the race.

5. Celebrate each milestone.

On the road to glory, it’s important to celebrate each milestone.

Finish that part you were ripping your hair out over? YES! REJOICE!

It’s a journey. The journey goes in stages. And you should celebrate each victory along the way. Now you can move on to the next stage.

6. Don’t lose the vision.

Athletes focus on their goals to get the gold.

They never lose the vision.

Tunnel-vision while you train.

Big-picture-vision – go for the gold – eye is always on the prize.

So the next time you don’t feel like getting down to it?

7. Imagine the feeling.

I hear it takes 17 seconds of visualization to help manifest a goal. So imagine the finished story, the finished song, the finished piece – for 17 seconds.

It will help create energy around your goal.

So imagine it. Work for it. Go for the gold.

One day at a time.