I have had the most wonderful time over the past two days, visiting my alma mater - Transylvania University in Lexington, KY.
This is my first real visit to Lexington/Transy since I graduated college in 2004. Wow - 16 years have passed by and so much has changed! Both in my life and in Lexington. After spending the first 22 years of my life growing up in Lexington, I have so many amazing memories here.
Why am I here?
I was invited to Transy to speak to the senior exercise science students, the triathlon team and the swim team, as well as to some of the sport/exercise staff/faculty. I arrived on Sunday afternoon and I will be leaving Wednesday morning. It's a quick 5 hour drive. I have been sharing my journey of how I got to where I am today and I owe so much of it to my amazing liberal arts education at Transy. Funny story - my high school swim coach is now the head coach at Transy. And the triathlon coach is married to one of my friends from my high school swim team. What a small world!
During my talk to the senior exercise students, I couldn't help but put myself into their shoes nearly 16 years ago. I thought I knew what I wanted to do in life but my career path had many different twists and turns. At the end of my talk, I spoke about some of the lessons I have learned over the years. Here was my list:
This is my first real visit to Lexington/Transy since I graduated college in 2004. Wow - 16 years have passed by and so much has changed! Both in my life and in Lexington. After spending the first 22 years of my life growing up in Lexington, I have so many amazing memories here.
Why am I here?
I was invited to Transy to speak to the senior exercise science students, the triathlon team and the swim team, as well as to some of the sport/exercise staff/faculty. I arrived on Sunday afternoon and I will be leaving Wednesday morning. It's a quick 5 hour drive. I have been sharing my journey of how I got to where I am today and I owe so much of it to my amazing liberal arts education at Transy. Funny story - my high school swim coach is now the head coach at Transy. And the triathlon coach is married to one of my friends from my high school swim team. What a small world!
During my talk to the senior exercise students, I couldn't help but put myself into their shoes nearly 16 years ago. I thought I knew what I wanted to do in life but my career path had many different twists and turns. At the end of my talk, I spoke about some of the lessons I have learned over the years. Here was my list:
- Follow your passion(s)
- Figure out what you like/don’t like
- Don’t let hearing the word “no” stop you
- Don’t give up on what's most important to you.
- Stay true to your morals/ethics
- Don’t look for short cuts.
- Start now, time will pass on by anyways.
- Don’t put your health to the side just for a lucrative career.
- Figure out your strengths.
- Network.
- Learn from others.
- Don’t let social media get the best of you – comparison, self-doubt, fear of messing up, trying to be perfect.
- Never stop learning.
- Be patient.
- Don’t turn down opportunities.
- Say yes to what makes you happy.
- Embrace the grind
I ended with "embrace the grind" because I feel it's such an important aspect of achieving success in life. And it's so very true as it relates to sport succss.
Have you ever heard athletes and coaches talk about "the grind?" While you may think of it as the grueling aspect of training, the grind is where joy is found.Whereas your day job may not be your dream job, your sport (or exercise of choice) is a hobby that you have choosen because it brings great happiness and good physical/mental health to you.
For many athletes, the deep satisfaction, joy and fulfillment that was once felt for training dissapears and what's left is a body and mind that is simply going through the motions of training for an athletic event. Although goals will help you get a workout started, it's hard to reach a goal if you don't love the work that it takes to get you there.
When was the last time you looked at a workout and got excited by the challenge? Or looked forward to learning a new skill? What about the feeling of giving your best during a workout, even what you don't feel at your best.
Being an athlete is hard and it requires a lot of work. But to get the most out of your training, you have to embrace the grind. When you keep grinding, you push yourself to limits that you didn't know were possible.
You must love the work that comes with being an athlete. It's not about the product but the process. Don't stress about the end result - the paces you think you need to run, the power you think you need to push, the pace you think you need to swim or the place you think you need to achieve to feel success.
Sure, some days are harder than others as you try to balance work, family, kids and other obligations. Sometimes you will feel under the weather or you may experience a setback like a health issue or injury.
But knowing that you are getting up every morning and doing something incredible with your body - and doing it to the best of your ablity - this is the grind. Attack every workout with a can-do positive attitude and give that workout everything you can give on that day. Be thankful that you are apart of a small percentage of individuals who can train for and participate in an endurance athletic event.
The next time you find yourself counting yourself out before a workout begins, giving up on yourself when a workout gets hard or making excuses for why you can't finish a workout, check-in with yourself and ask why you choose to call yourself an athlete? What are you doing this all for? What makes sport fun and exciting?
No matter how much you love your sport, there will be days when you are unmotivated, workouts that you want to quit (or not start), workouts feel repetitive and boring, the weather will be miserable and you will struggle to find the courage to finish. These aspects of being an athlete are not fun. But this is the grind. When you could easily give up, you don't.
The grind doesn't mean pushing through deep fatigue, sacrificing sleep or making sacrifices with family/work/friends. The grind is where you recognize how important this sport is to you and all the joy that it brings to you.
Set big goals and aim high but never lose sight of what it feels like to love the work that you get to do with your body - the good, bad and everything in between. This is the grind that comes with being an athlete.