In this TED-Ed video narrated by Mesler and animated by Katie Wendt, Mesler reveals his inspiring story about how everyday decisions yield big results.

Below, Mesler counts down his favorite TEDTalks of all time.

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Dan Pink: The surprising science of motivation

I love what Dan covers in this talk so much. It speaks to me on two levels — the first being, this is exactly how an Olympian works. If you want to find someone who is highly motivated and looking to achieve success when money is not a motivator, find yourself an Olympic athlete. Secondly — this is the working world I live in now. My consulting practice focuses on fostering high-performing teams and individuals in the business world, and Dan’s argument for creating a high-performance environment is pretty compelling from my experiences.

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Salman Khan: Let’s use video to reinvent education

I love Salman’s vision in this talk and how his ideas came to be so organically. He believed he could change the world, and he followed through on doing it in a way that no one had ever seen before. His process has inspired me so much as my sister and I build the organization Classroom Champions, which connects in-need schools with Olympic and Paralympic athletes, to reach and inspire as many students as possible.

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Simon Sinek: How great leaders inspire action

The way Simon breaks down a complex thought process into such simple terms is awe-inspiring. To explain to people the impact of the way they deliver their message is such a difficult thing to do, so I can appreciate the detail that he put into making it seem so easy. Anyone who leads or wants to inspire should watch this talk.

Check out 10 powerful TEDTalks from Olympians and Paralympians.

Last night’s Opening Ceremony for the 2012 Olympics was filled with symbolism and storytelling over centuries of UK history. Intrigued by the stories and players? Dive into these related TEDTalks!

The Olympic pageant begins with an idyllic vision of green fields — coolly surveyed by a top-hatted engineer with grand plans to build the UK into an industrial powerhouse. Played by Kenneth Branagh, that engineer was Isambard Kingdom Brunel. At TEDGlobal 2009, Tim Brown tells his story:

Then the Industrial Revolution begins — with the beat of a drum, played by legendary percussionist Dame Evelyn Glennie. Watch her TEDTalk, in which she teaches us how to listen:

In a gloriously surprising segment celebrating the National Health Service and children’s dreams, Harry Potter author JK Rowling steps up to read from Peter Pan. Watch her Best of the Web talk, full of advice to dreamers and overachievers:

And in the musical segment called “Frankie and June say … Thanks, Tim” — the Tim of the title is Tim Berners-Lee. While NBC’s on-air commentators pretended not to know who he was, TED fans do — in fact, it was at TED2009 that he laid out his vision for the next phase of the World Wide Web that he invented, linking data sets together into the Semantic Web:

(He updated us a year later.)

Someone else who knows who Tim Berners-Lee is: Ian Ritchie, who had a chance to invest in the fledgling World Wide Web … and turned it down:

In the photo at top, you can see Berners-Lee live-tweeting (on a NeXT box) from the middle of the stadium. Here is what he wrote:

This is for everyone #london2012 #oneweb #openingceremony @webfoundation @w3c

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Tim Berners-Lee (@timberners_lee) July 27, 2012

The London Olympic Games kick off tomorrow. To get you hyped, here are eight great TEDTalks from Olympians as well as two from inspiring Paralympians.

Maarten van der Weijden: On surviving cancer and becoming Olympic champion
Long-distance swimmer Maarten van der Weijden became a Dutch national hero in 2008 after winning gold at the Beijing Summer Olympics in the 10km open water marathon race, just five years after recovering from leukemia. However, van der Weijden calls the idea that he “beat cancer” a crock and warns against notions that a patient has any influence over whether they survive the devastating disease. (Filmed at TEDxRotterdam.)

Sarah Reinertsen: The first woman with an artificial leg to complete an Ironman
Triathlete Sarah Reinertsen was the world champion going into the 1992 Paralympics, but came home empty-handed and devastated. She recalls how meeting another athlete with an amputated leg inspired her to attempt an Ironman Triathlon. (Filmed at TEDxYouth@Bruce, which was dedicated to the theme “Olympic Spirit.”)

Jeff Olson: How do we inspire kids to make healthy lifestyle choices?
Alpine skier Jeff Olson competed in the 1988 and 1992 Winter Olympics, and now worries that the torch Americans have passed on to the next generation is a penchant for unhealthy lifestyle choices. In this talk, Olson talks about what he calls “diseases of affluence.” (Filmed at TEDxMileHigh.)

Caryn Davies: The power of teammates
Rower Caryn Davies almost passed out as she neared the finish line in the women’s eight at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing. Luckily, she made it — and won gold. In this talk, Davies admits that training six hours a day for years was often monotonous, but that her teammates inspired her to keep going — just not in the way you’d expect. (Filmed at TEDxYouth@Bruce.)

Jason Rogers: We all write our own story
According to Jason Rogers, a fencer who won Olympic silver in 2008, we all are writers. In this talk, Rogers gives a short history of fencing and shares his Olympic story, filled with fascinating characters and unexpected plot twists that needed to be rewritten in his mind. (Filmed at TEDxYouth@Bruce.)

Rajyavardhan Rathore: Intelligence doesn’t just come in books
At the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, Col. Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore won the first silver medal for India since the 1900 Olympics in Paris. In this short talk, Rathore stresses that book smarts aren’t the only type of intelligence, and that wisdom earned through business and sport are equally important. (Filmed at TEDxShekhavati; turn on the captions.)

Steve Mesler: When kids meet their Olympic heroes
Olympic gold medalist Steve Mesler founded the organization Classroom Champions, which connects Olympians and Paralympians with underserved schoolkids via Twitter and email. Here, he shares his vision for the program as “Big Brothers Big Sisters meets 21st-century pen-palling.” (Filmed at TEDxCalgary.)

Marlon Shirley: Overcoming obstacles
Marlon Shirley won back-to-back gold medals in the 100-meter dash at the Paralympic Games of 2000 and 2004. In a talk given over webcam, Shirley tells the story of how he overcame obstacles both physical and situational. (Filmed at TEDxYouth@Bruce.)

Bob Beamon on his world-record long jump
In the 1968 Olympics, track and fielder Bob Beamon pulled off the “leap of the century.” Appearing to take flight in the long jump, Beamon’s jump far exceeded the capabilities of the measuring equipment. In this flipped TED-Ed lesson, Beamon reveals that he thought he might’ve broken the world record by a few inches … but instead blew it out of the water.

Isabel Allende on carrying the Olympic flag
Author and activist Isabel Allende may not have competed in the Olympics, but this talk is pure gold. In it, she describes her “four minutes of fame” as one of the flag bearers at the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin, Italy.