First up, we had Susanne Menge, a health coach and speaker. Her word was stuck.
- This is about getting there (to the stuck point) and getting past it.
- She had two primary goals - getting to Kona (IRONMAN World Championships) and to self-actualization in Maslow's hierarchy of needs.
- She did well in triathlon thanks to being physical. She didn't have any goals once she got to Kona - it was just to get to Hawai'i and to get out alive.
- She did IM Canada; it was 104 degrees and she qualified for Kona, which was the culmination of goal number one. The completion of a huge goal like that can leave emptiness ... which is kind of how she ended up getting to Kona a second time.
- After that, it was time for goal number two, which has no set concrete training plan.
- She did try to decide to try for the Olympics and her body stopped her, which was the beginning of what she called hard street. If you think there's one more thing to do and it brings you to your knees ... where do you go from there?
- Then people died and she got raped and was blamed for it which led to her divorce ... and she hit rock bottom.
- Every time there's a hard circumstance, you learn to breathe and can tap into your own intuitive capabilities.
- She developed a three g system - God, girls, and gratitude. If something doesn't fit in with those three things, it doesn't fit in her life.
- Also: self-care? So important.
(That latter point seems to be a recurring theme here recently ... hi universe, I get your message.)
The second speaker, who I forgot to get a picture of, was Pam Moore, an author and speaker. Her word was heart.
Her book, if you're interested, is There's No Room for Fear in a Burley Trailer.
She was not athletic growing up; she tried out for the lacrosse team and it was a disaster. She stuck with it until senior year when she finally quit, but along the way she learned that she liked running (or at least the feeling of pushing yourself to your limit when running) and kept at it. She started running marathons and then started doing triathlons. As a result, people would ask her questions about getting started and she'd answer, but would refuse to identify herself as an athlete.
She finally did her first IM and people asked her why she didn't identify as a triathlete even though she did triathlons. However, the image of her as a loser in high school stayed with her.
Moore discovered and read about impostor syndrome - you think you're a fraud and not good enough. She realized the issue was fear; the fear of becoming who she really was and that she has the drive. There's also apparently a high risk for this when you're out of your comfort zone.
The final two things she imparted were really pretty awesome, so bullet points for those:
- Growth forces you to stay in your discomfort.
- We all have the strength in our heart to find the courage to conquer our fears.
The final speaker was Olympian and former pro cyclist, Mara Abbott. I know I've shared her TedX talk here and her talk shared a bit of that experience, but her main point involved her word - authenticity.
She started off with a confession - she is terrified to ride up Sunshine Canyon.
As a pro cyclist, she was a hill climbing specialist and would do repeats up that hill. She hasn't ridden it since 7.30.2016 when she left to go to Rio to compete in the Olympics.
She related her retirement from her pro career to a divorce, and that returning to Sunshine Canyon would be like that first coffee date out when you and your ex are just friends.
Her cycling career, when it started, moved insanely fast; so fast that she didn't even know if she wanted to keep doing it and, more importantly, didn't know why she was doing it. At the end of a great 2011 season, she took herself out of the sport (retired for the first time) with an eating disorder. When she quit, she was convinced that all of her problems were cycling's fault when in reality, she had a lot of work to do herself. Abbott realized that she did actually miss the sport and that if she was going to mount a comeback, she was going to do it for her. If she was going to be a pro, she was going to do it with full authenticity.
Just post the London Games, she ran into one of the head guys from USA Cycling who knew that the climbs at Rio were ridiculous ... which prompted her to send a text to her coach about winning gold in the 2016 games (which, as we know, almost but didn't quite happen).
Eating disorders are an issue with the third chakra, which deals with self-expression. So, if she was going to come back, she had to come back with full honesty which meant with herself, too ... and also honest with the world with where she had been the past year (the 2012 season).
We all face the temptation and the risk of muting ourselves ... when we commit to goals that aren't our own, when we stay places where we shouldn't, when we say it's okay when it's not ... if we are practicing to be someone we're not, nothing good happens.
July's lineup hasn't been announced yet, but I know either next month or in August we're going to hear Shirin Gerami, who you might remember from last year's Kona broadcast, so I'm excited for that.
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