I’ve been pondering the concept of self-love – or self-care – for a while now, specifically how it relates to our lives as career-driven, ambitious, successful women and triathletes. And how–if I want to maintain my health, stay successful, and live a fulfilled personal life whilst pursuing triathlon–this becomes more of a daily necessity, rather than an infrequent afterthought when I find myself halfway down the slope towards stress and fatigue.
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Getting Back On The Bike
Happy new year ladies! Welcome to 2019…although we are already half-way through January now and February is staring us in the face! Regardless, I hope your year is off to a cracking start, and you were able to take some time out over the holiday period to reflect on and review your 2018, and set up 2019 to be even better.
The start of a new year always signals a fresh start, doesn’t it? A whole big shiny blank canvas in front of us ready to be filled with stuff – work, family, life commitments, holidays, and of course for all of us, new race goals! I’m guessing that a fair chunk of that shiny white canvas is already blanked out with hundreds of training sessions, paving the way to the finish line of your race goals. So, tell me, what’s in store for you this year? What goal did you set for 2019?
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I know, your inbox and social media is full of emails and posts about goal-setting and how to “plan your best 2019 ever!” right? Well, in this article I am going to be talking about 2019, but I’m actually going to be focusing on 2018. Why, you may be asking, when 2018 is essentially done and dusted? For one great reason – you achieve a hell of a lot in a year and I’m guessing that the majority of us don’t stop to acknowledge that! We just power right on through into the next year, scribbling down all our grandiose goals on New Year’s Day, without actually stopping to consider what actually went down this past year. Take a moment. What did you actually accomplish this year? What were the good bits, the hard bits, and the lessons you learned from both? What’s worth keeping and bringing into the new year, instead of throwing the baby out with the bathwater and starting all over again?
I did promise you a follow-up to last weeks’ article, More is Not Better, in which I shared with you the experience of my life grinding to a halt within a mere few days, how I managed to salvage my work and health, and my subsequent epiphany about my current MO – and the realization that it was beyond time for a new one! Well, here it is. I will show you what I did to change my life so that I actually ENJOY each day, whilst still being productive and achieving my goals. Sounds like a win-win doesn’t it? It is. Here’s why.
I used to think very differently to this – ask any of my training partners, coaches, or even work colleagues and bosses for that matter. More ruled my life for longer than I care to admit, and it’s gotten me into a pickle way more often than I’ll likely ever admit!
But thanks to my experience last week–and the never-ending patience of my personal development coach–I finally see the error of my ways. Let me unpack this for you, and perhaps it might help you out of the same pickle – if you’re also of the More is Better school of thought.
Well here we are, at the beginning of another triathlon season. No doubt you’ve spent the winter months plotting and planning your races for the 2018/2019 season, and I’m sure that you’ve also thrown a few big ones in there for good measure – just to really challenge yourself. The next step was likely signing up to a training squad or signing on for a new program with your coach; after all, you need the plan to get there, right? So, you’re on track – races entered, coach onboard and squad to train with, awesome!
Now let me ask you this – how many of you thought about additional support strategies to help you achieve your goals this season? Perhaps one that sprang to mind is recovery; what the best strategies are, how to utilise them daily and weekly to remain healthy, energized and primed for each day’s training, how to get the most from each session. Yes? I thought so.
I’m just going to come right out and say it early – I myself am terrible at setting realistic expectations. I have been most of my adult life, come to that, but I live in the hope of reform.
I should be better, I know. I’ve had plenty of opportunities to learn about setting expectations, between two uni degrees, over a decade-long professional career, and years of racing triathlon. Yet despite the many, many disappointments I have experienced in each of these areas, I never fail to keep setting the bar too high for myself, and continuously setting myself up for failure. Ironically, it’s kind of become…an expectation.
Yesterday I had the privilege of watching the WTS Triathlon World Championships on the Gold Coast. And what an experience that was! As with any World Championships, the home crowd was out in force, the cheering and shouts of encouragement were at fever pitch, and the atmosphere was just electric!
And that was for the age group race!
I’m not kidding. The feeling of excitement that permeated the air was awesome, and it was such an experience to be able to personally support clients, team mates, friends, and every other Aussie out there on course – it didn’t matter that you’d never met Dianne before, she was out there in the Aussie kit giving it her all for herself and her country! It united us in that moment, and we both felt pride at the connection – supporter and supported. And it was the same everywhere you looked – kiwis shouting for random kiwis, Brits supporting random Brits, cheers, yells, waves and high fives flying around. Amazing!
