From Paralympic World Record to Daily Growth: The 1% Method with Mikael Avatar Stjernvall

A Paralympic world record doesn’t come from hype; it comes from tiny choices repeated for years. That’s where this conversation with Mikael Avatar Stjernvall goes: into the real mechanics of resilience, focus, and the kind of leadership habits that hold up when motivation disappears.

We talk about Mikael’s journey from childhood training and early coaching instincts to elite Paralympic performance, and how passion becomes the “glue” that makes setbacks feel smaller. From there, we get practical about behavior change and mindset: curiosity, testing, repetition, and the daily reflection that keeps you pointed at the right goal. If you’re searching for leadership development that isn’t fluffy, you’ll hear a clear model for building consistency, strengthening your growth mindset, and staying aligned with what actually makes you happy.

Mikael also shares unforgettable stories that make the lessons stick, including his months-long mission to earn a wild cat’s trust through small, steady actions. We dig into the 1% concept as a chain reaction: choose one priority, take one small step, and let momentum build. Along the way, we talk about the loneliness of high performance, how to create real support systems outside your field, and why “almost committed” can quietly sabotage your results.

If you found value here, subscribe, share this with a friend who needs a reset, and leave a review with your biggest 1% takeaway. What will you commit to this week?

About Mikael Avatar Stjernvall: Mikael Avatar Stjernvall is a resilience coach, Paralympic world-record holder (long jump, Atlanta 1996), and creator of The Mikael Avatar Method – daily 1% pauses that turn life’s chaos into joyful legacy. Born dead for 45 minutes with cerebral palsy, he defied odds: sailed the Atlantic at 20 with an “impossible” crew, coached 1,000+ clients (Hilton, Save the Children), inspired 300,000 through keynotes, and painted 1,000+ artworks. Since 2009 in Thailand, he’s pain-free and thriving, blending 40+ years of mental training with laughter and fire. Connect with Mikael: mikaelavatar.com

Interested in being a guest on The Talent Forge? Contact our producer, Madison Bennett, via email: madison@coeuscreativegroup.com.

Meet the Host
Jay Johnson works with people and organizations to empower teams, grow profits, and elevate leadership. He is a Co-Founder of Behavioral Elements®, a two-time TEDx speaker, and a designated Master Trainer by the Association for Talent Development. With a focus on behavioral intelligence, Jay has delivered transformational workshops to accelerate high-performance teams and cultures in more than 30 countries across four continents. For inquiries, contact jay@behavioralelements.com or connect below!

LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/jayjohnsonccg/
Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/jayjohnsonccg/
Speaker Website - https://jayjohnsonspeaks.com

Transcript

Jay Johnson 0:38

Welcome to this episode of the Talent Forge, where together we are shaping workforce behaviors. Today I am joined by special guest, Mikael Avatar, and that is Mikael with a K, not with the CH. So for any of you looking for Mikael online, you'll be able to find him. Mikael Avatar, welcome to the show.

Mikael Avatar Stjernvall 1:01

I am so excited to be on your show. This will be fun.

A Childhood Start In Coaching

Jay Johnson 1:06

It is a pleasure to have you, Mikael. Let's get started with a little of your background. I'd love to hear your story and to better understand how did you get into this leadership space?

Mikael Avatar Stjernvall 1:19

Well, it started when I was really, really young, like 10 years old. I had this crazy idea I was going to train to the Olympics. And I thought maybe I need to read some books and have some idea of what I'm doing. And people started following me into the training every day. So I read books. So I had a little group. When I was 10-year, they were from seven, eight years up to 30 years because I was good. So they listen. So that's where my training uh ability started really. And then it developed. And it had been over 40, 45 years now. So it's a long, long, long time.

Jay Johnson 2:22

So so Mikael, I've you know, I I do my research on all of our guests before before they come in. You are a world record holder. Tell us a little bit about that.

Mikael Avatar Stjernvall 2:35

Yeah, as I told you, I started training to the Olympic. And after 10 years of training, they told me, wow, there is this called Paralympic. I had no clue. So then I knew I'm gonna go to the Paralympic, but no worry. So when I was 27, I had trained for like 17 years. And uh I broke the world record in Atlanta 1996. So it's uh lot of training, lot of focus, lot of I it's so many steps here to take to do that kind of achievement and it's so small, small margin of success. Not success. I had no clue it was so complicated. When I stopped my sport, then I understood deeply how difficult it is and how difficult to coach people to do stuff in business, in sport, in violin or whatever to really, really make it's very rare, very rare.

Jay Johnson 4:15

So, Mikael, I love your story because it is packed full of resilience and some of the things that you teach. Now, you know, when you had mentioned the Paralympics, um, from what I was able to understand from your background, is you actually had a very abnormal, what would be called birth. And from there uh you were diagnosed with cerebral palsy, and you were able to overcome that and literally become a world record holder. That is just incredible. And I want to acknowledge what you must have. I mean, the the the sheer mental strength and the ability to kind of push forward against those odds is absolutely incredible. Can you tell us a little bit about how you got that resilience? What that what that resilience, you know, what brought you that sense of I'm gonna do this and I am not gonna stop success, because it's incredible.

Mikael Avatar Stjernvall 5:17

Yeah, but I've been people asked me this question many, many times, but I think I was born with this. It I mean, when I was four years old, my hands, I couldn't open my hands, my feet was the opposite of Charlie Shatley. I fell all the time. I couldn't really, my body was not in shape. But I ran to my mom and said, Mom, mom, I want to be a mountain town when I grow up. And my mother told me, but you can't make money on that. But she was so wrong because during the early, I was a rock climber instruction, and you should see the eyes from those people coming, and I was the teacher. I mean, it's in your head. It's when you find your passion. I loved sport more than anything else. And I told people, today I don't have that passion, that go, that whatever it is, I'm out of there. And that came day it came and I left it because you need that glue, that whatever it is, because all the bombs you have, they disappear. It's not obstacles, you don't see them, you just focus.

Jay Johnson 7:08

Mikael, it's such an inspiring message because when I think about leadership, and I think about, you know, there's sometimes that we get put into leadership because there was nobody else there, or we get put into leadership because um, you know, that's the next step in our career. But without that passion, are we truly showing up in the way that we need to show up to have that level of success? And what I'm hearing you say is that passion is what gets you across the goal line. Is that accurate?

Mikael Avatar Stjernvall 7:42

Yes, that's accurate. And as far as tell people, don't live half life and half-life automatics on your whatever it is. Be aware where you're going. Do you wake up every day? And I literally mean every day. What can I make today that makes me happy? That makes me the athletical glue. Even if I can do it for five minutes, that's enough. But you have to have that, whatever it is. And if you don't have it, don't do it. Literally don't do it.

Curiosity, Habit Building, And Brain Training

Jay Johnson 8:33

Uh you know, I can't I can think of so many people that are sitting in jobs or haven't made a decision to move or change just because it's been comfortable, or that they're, you know, that they're not happy in the position, but they haven't made that decision. I want to go back and just acknowledge, you know, I think there's something so important. 20 years later, and you are teaching people how to do rock climbing, it's just incredible. Um, but it it tells me how often we judge a book by the cover, that we as individuals or people, we make assumptions about what somebody can do and what they can't do, and how good they're gonna be at something, or maybe, you know, uh, this person's not ready for this position. And it sounds to me like you've experienced that throughout your life. Can you talk about how did you overcome that? Because I think all of us on some level, and maybe to different degrees, all of us feel like we want somebody to just be like, hey, you know what? You can do this, but that doesn't always come. How did you overcome some of that, Mikael?

Mikael Avatar Stjernvall 9:48

I think I I'm curious, I'm a curious person, and a curious person to teach action to understand. So I read about stuff I took action, I tested, tested, tested, and there's a fine line here between uh testing wrong and testing right. Sometimes you have to do stuff that people do. You your brain um scientifically don't get automatic until the sixteenth day. That's our brain. And after that, then we start doing things automatically. So if you don't do sixty days, you can't get it automatically. That's one part, but the other part is after sixty days you see more and if it's right, you have more glow. Wow, because the more you see, the more excited you should be. That's why I do stuff with people say sixty days, that's only the first. Can you have ninety, a hundred twenty, a hundred and eighty? Because your brain, you can train your brain to anything. Anything and I train myself all the time, push myself in small things that nobody knows about. Nobody, because I love experimenting with my brain.

Jay Johnson 12:09

Is that a good answer? I love that answer, Mikael, because what what what you're telling me is that growth mindset, that curiosity of like, who says I can't, or you know, why? What evidence shows that I can't do this? Let me try it, let me get out there and do something. And that's such a beautiful way to look at the world, Mikael, because I think if more people did that, they would take the chances to say, hey, I've got this brilliant idea, but nobody's gonna love that. Well, what evidence?

The Wild Cat Story And Tiny Steps

Mikael Avatar Stjernvall 12:43

I I I used to tell this story so people, I I'm a storyteller, so people really understand what I mean. I had this wild cat in the back in Thailand. You have the kitchen outside. There was this wild cat coming there. When you go outside, it just ran away. So you might look I thought, oh, I want this cat to come to me and sit on my lap. I had no clue how to do that. So I started focused. How can I get this cat to not escape from me? How do I go out into the kitchen? I it was my mission. It was like my own training camp for myself as a coach. It took me maybe two months before it ran away. It took me seven or eight month months it sat on my lap. My ex-wife, she told me, how do you do that? How do you get a wildcat who had never been near humor to sit on your lap and you didn't lift it? That's my passion, that's my small daily challenge. Because if I can do that and I have a human being, I can understand them on a totally different level. You understand what I mean?

Jay Johnson 14:39

Absolutely. And Mikael, let me applaud your persistence on that because I know some people that would be like after a week, they'd be like, I forget it. This cat's never gonna come, and they'd stop. And what I'm hearing you say is that you've just you've got that sort of drive that says, you know what, maybe tomorrow, maybe tomorrow that cat's gonna sit on my lap. Seven to eight months you worked on that project, and you started to attune to that cat. You started to you started to have a relationship that's so powerful.

Mikael Avatar Stjernvall 15:12

Uh, and it it wasn't all day, it was just one minute, it was one minute here, one minute. It it's not 100%, it's a small, small step. In anything you do, it's not the character, it's not the work you do, it's not the violin you try to play or actor or whatever. It's these small small things that end up to who you are as a person.

Jay Johnson 15:52

Now, I'm gonna relate this to your 1% concept because I know that you talk about that one percent, and and we're gonna get into that because I think that's so important and so powerful. Before we do that, I want to go back to something that you said earlier. It kind of really hit me, Mikael. Um, you had said, you know, when you had told your mom that you wanted to be a mountain climber, and her response was, How are you gonna do that? And, you know, I think about this in and in different contexts, right? There's a power of believing in yourself, and there's a power of other people believing in you. Let me ask you, how important has it been for you to truly believe in yourself first? And then what has it meant to have other people believe in you? Like, what does that look like for you?

Everyday Support Systems That Work

Mikael Avatar Stjernvall 16:51

That's a tricky question. This this is a very good question because since I have cyber policy, people don't believe in me, people don't understand what I create. So I'm kind of out of that room, so I'm kind of free. So I don't have this hang up in my head, you understand what I mean? Yeah, but uh I have had mentors, good mentors in my life, all my life. I choose to pick mentors, uh some very high level, some books, reading knowledge, knowledge, knowledge. Um, but supporting it's very tricky because when you're all on this level where but we are talking about high performance, you are very, very lonely. You know that I know you are very lonely, you rarely meet people that really understand what you're talking about. And when you do, you are like a storm, you take all the knowledge that you can, and then you transfer it to your life, and that's the trick. There's so many skilled people out there. I need them, I talk to them, but they can't fit it together. They don't need a new course, new whatever. They haven't got the thing to put it together, so it's driving them where they want to go. That's I don't it's a very tricky uh question to answer. But for normal people, I think this is a big problem to have a supporting because most people don't have it. They don't have it. You have to create it. I love that. You have to you have to like if you want to go to the gym, don't go to the gym. Tell your friend I see you seven o'clock tomorrow. Then you have to be there because your friend is there. And if you are three people or four people, then you will go to the gym. It doesn't matter what you do at the gym, you will be there now for six-month. You change your perspective of your body, of your health, of your people around you. That's the kind of support that people need to have. But if you're uh sport level, you don't have that. It's not the same system. It's like the president of the United States, he's alone wind, very, very alone, whatever he is doing.

Jay Johnson 20:20

It's so true, and this is actually something I hear a lot from executive leaders is that they feel lonely, that I I don't know who to talk to, I don't have anybody to talk downstream to or anything else. And and if I if I heard you correctly, that occurs with everybody that's sort of that high performance, and it's it's a value to cultivate that connection, to build that connection, to build that support group. So you actively went out and found mentors that were supporting you. You found a cheering section that was supporting you and and built sort of that community around support. Is that is that what I'm hearing, Mikael?

Mikael Avatar Stjernvall 21:05

Yeah. Yeah, but it was this is very interesting because I hear people a lot. You don't need to have the support in your field. You can have the support in totally different stuff. Well, when your car breaks down, you go to the car repair, you have a support team round you, but you should use it in a different perspective. It's not just that you go and change the tire, it's the meeting, a cup of coffee, water. Talk to people. That support too. It doesn't need to be a miracle. Talk.

The 1% Concept And A Chain Reaction

Jay Johnson 22:03

I love that. Well, and I think that that's I think that's you know, something that I'm seeing more and more of is, you know, I'm seeing some of these executives get support from their church groups or get support from their, you know, local racquetball club or something of that nature that's not really related to their high performance career, yeah, but they're still feeling connected to an extent somewhere else. Yeah. So, Mikael, let's talk about this. You know, one of the things that that you had said, all right. So we've we've got this, we've got this concept of 1%. And you've obviously demonstrated a resilience that most of us would would absolutely would be jealous, right? We would be thinking like this person has accomplished so much. And you know, from your described, you've had a number of barriers, you've had a number of challenges, but that that never really stopped you from being curious and advancing forward. And that's such a beautiful mentality that um is inspiring, is just incredibly inspiring. What is the one percent? And how do we how do we think about all right? Well, how can I be better tomorrow than I was today? Talk us through that, and I know you've got your own method as well.

Mikael Avatar Stjernvall 23:33

Yeah, the one percent is like a sharing reaction. You focus on one percent, something that you want to change, something you feel happy about, something you do, and that percent, if you do it regularly, it will create a shame reaction, and that shame reaction will take you someplace else. This is my example. Uh when you finish sports, that's another podcast you have a gap. What do I do now? When you finish your career, what do you do? So I thought, how can I find the same passion? And I found it in art. So then I started painting. And after all, this is really relaxing. So I told myself, let's do 100 paintings because it's like a process. So you don't need to be good bad. Just paint. What happened is that after 30 paintings, they get bigger and bigger. So you can't be at home. You have to rent a studio. Okay. So to rent the studio, it costs money. You have to sell your paintings. So after 100 paintings, you have the whole process. Then you can decide do I want to be an artist or should I just paint? So that's an example of I put every Sunday three uh from nine to three o'clock, I would go to a studio. Sometimes I didn't paint, but I was there. And if you are in the studio because you will paint, I mean that's like one percent. But today I do um art videos, I do my own music, uh, doing a performance thing. It's more than one percent because it started small. Is that a good example of how to change because it's had an impact for my sport career to my art career? Since that's the one percent.

Jay Johnson 26:35

Well, Mikael, I'm I'm gonna go back to the cat story, the wild cat story that you told, right? Where it was, you know, you were doing you were doing one minute a day or two minutes a day. It wasn't it wasn't so much. And and when we think about goals, just as humans, whenever we think about goals, we see the top of the mountain, and we're like, we want to get to the top of the mountain, but we forget that getting to the top of the mountain is a series of one percent steps. We've got to make this first, and then this, and then this peak, and then this summit, you know, one step at a time is how we achieve anything. So if if I'm hearing and understanding properly, it's you know, you don't have to be the expert tomorrow, you have to take a step, and that step is just one percent better. Is that accurate?

Mikael Avatar Stjernvall 27:25

Yeah, that's that good. So you but the thing is that people have 10, 21 percent, they don't focus on one, they have too too many, they go to the gym, they do the painting, they're reading their book, they and it's it's too much for focus on how here. Okay, is this book in the line of the one person I want to have in my life? Is this what in you are doing and going in your life? Is this you have to take like a step back and reflect if this for me wherever I want to go? Does it make me happy? If not, stop I mean reflect where are you going when you you talk to a lot of people? Where they are going? They have no clue.

Cut The Noise And Reflect Daily

Jay Johnson 28:43

It's true, they have no no clue, it's true, and and the science really backs this up, Mikael. Harvard Business had done a study on leaders and managers, and the ones that ended up spending even five to ten minutes a day just reflecting on their work, on their goals, on their purpose, and all of those things massively outperformed those that aren't reflecting and aren't actually thinking about like, hey, where am I at? Where's my energy? Where's my where's my product? What's my goal for today? What's my goal for 10 years? So that reflection piece I think is important.

Mikael Avatar Stjernvall 29:24

But I think can I tell one thing so people understand? Uh, yesterday I talked uh to my ex-wife in Sweden. She knew me very, very well. I moved to Thailand because I had cramp, it was too cold weather. When I came to Thailand, I was pain free. So I called her up and I have some questions. One of the people I call because I thought, oh, maybe I should start to play chess again. I played chess when I was little, I was quite good. I went on the internet, the chess, blah blah blah. I asked her, what's your opinion about me starting playing chess again? And she told me, why do you get happy? And the decision came, no, I should not start again. It's gone. It was a previous life. So you have to have people around you to ask. So I deleted my account because that's how you do it. You quit if it doesn't fit, but sometimes you have to talk to people. Is this correct? Am I convinced that this is the right way? Or is it just an illusion from some crazy idea I had?

Jay Johnson 31:15

I've had plenty of crazy ideas too much. So, but but I love that, you know, being able to have trusted confidence, being able to talk to people and say, hey, let me work through this. And do you see this as aligning? But I think one of the biggest messages that I want to make sure that the audience walks away with, if I'm hearing you correctly, the 1% is not just about starting small, but it's also about keeping laser focused on your priorities and trying to align and make sure is this serving what I'm trying to accomplish? If I'm trying to be the best leader, going out and starting to learn how to play the piano may not necessarily I may love it, but maybe that's not the right time. Am I hearing you correctly when I when I say laser focus seems to be one of your superpowers that you've been able to say, if this doesn't fit, then it gets cut, and I'm just gonna focus on what needs to happen.

100% Focus As The Real Magic

Mikael Avatar Stjernvall 32:20

Yeah, because if yes for me is 90%, it will not be my happiness, it has to be one hundred. I can give you a short example. Um my girlfriend now, she has a grandchild, he are two years old, and when he comes, he needs two seconds, one hundred percent that's it. If you give him two hundred one hundred percent focus, two seconds, he's happy, and then he run away. But if you don't give if you give him seventy-two percent, he will scream at you. But if you give one hundred, so that's uh easy to shake. But you have to shake yourself too. You sit one hundred percent focus, is it really decent, whatever it is, because then you have the magic. If it's only 92, you don't have the magic.

Where To Find Michael And Closing

Jay Johnson 33:43

So powerful. It's it's such it's such an incredible lesson and something great for every audience member to take away. Mikael, this has been an incredible conversation. If our audience wanted to reach out and connect with you, I know it's Mikael with the K M A M I K A E L Avatar, but uh where would they find you? Will they find you on LinkedIn, Instagram? What's the best way for them to get in touch?

Mikael Avatar Stjernvall 34:12

I'm on LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook, but I have a website tool, Mikael Avatar.com, and you have two things there. You have a free book, it's my second book, it's called um life reset, how to reset your life. It's free to download. I won't I have this website. You have two things there. One is my book likes to set free of download on my website, but you have these apps that we uh talk a lot about today for training your brain 180 days, it starts with 30 seconds reflex and go up to one hour, so you can do this app totally free. On my website, you find this app to train your brain to really reflect where you're going. How do you reflect? And that's really good thing to start.

Jay Johnson 35:55

That's incredible. So that is michaelavatar.com, and we'll make sure that we get that into the show notes. So, Mikael, I just I want to say thank you. This has been an incredible conversation. I've really appreciated it. It's it's inspiring to hear just how you've been able to navigate those different aspects and to be such a high-performance athlete, to be a high-performance professional and and business leader in all of those areas and artists, by the way. Uh such an incredible story that you have. And I just want to say thank you for coming on here and sharing that with us.

Mikael Avatar Stjernvall 36:36

Yeah, thank you for letting me be here. You have really good questions. I am uh really interesting. Wow, is it I mean, it's a pleasure for me to talk to people like you who really understand what's how how do we get people out there to wait out, wake up. Please, wake up.

Jay Johnson 37:06

What a great note to end on. Well, audience, we're gonna ask you to wake up and also thank you for listening in to today's episode on the talent forge, where together we're shaping workforce behavior. Thanks again, Mikael. It was a pleasure to have you.

Mikael Avatar Stjernvall 37:22

Thank you.