What if You Fly?

We’re celebrating the SEVENTH anniversary of Coach Tip Tuesday!  

In what has become a tradition, I am sharing something inspired by my friend and mentor Coach Brendan Jackson: What if you fly?

Read this Coach Tip Tuesday: 

https://www.fullcircleendurance.com/blog/coach-tip-tuesday-what-if-you-fly 

Referenced Posts:

1st Anniversary Post: Coach Tip Tuesday: At the End of All Things

2nd Anniversary Post: Coach Tip Tuesday: Fundamentals are the Foundation

3rd Anniversary Post: Coach Tip Tuesday: The THIRD Anniversary of Coach Tip Tuesday!

4th Anniversary Post: Coach Tip Tuesday: The FOURTH Anniversary of Coach Tip Tuesday!

5th Anniversary Post: Coach Tip Tuesday: The FIFTH Anniversary of Coach Tip Tuesday!

6th Anniversary Post: Coach Tip Tuesday: The SIXTH Anniversary of Coach Tip Tuesday!

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Chapters

• 0:00 Opening
• 0:16 The Genesis of Coach Tip Tuesday
• 2:45 Face Fear
• 6:14 Approach with Curiosity, Not Fear
• 9:34 You Can’t Manifest Everything
• 10:24 The Bottom Line
• 11:07 Closing

Transcript

(0:04 - 0:19)
Hello, and welcome to the Full Circle Podcast, your source for insights into the science and art of endurance sports training and racing. I'm your host, Coach Laura Henry. Seven years.

(0:19 - 0:45)
For the 364th Tuesday in a row, it is Coach Tip Tuesday. Seven years ago today, on April 30th, 2017, my good friend, colleague, and mentor, Coach Brendan Jackson, died suddenly and unexpectedly while he was running the Seneca 7 relay race in Geneva, New York. I was devastated by the loss of someone who I loved and who I had held in such high esteem, and I dealt with my grief in one of the most therapeutic ways I know.

(0:45 - 1:00)
I wrote about it. Specifically, I wrote about something that Brendan had taught me so I could continue to share his words of wisdom with the world. For the past seven years, I've made it a tradition to share something that honors him, his spirit, and the things he taught me on the anniversary of Coach Tip Tuesday.

(1:01 - 1:12)
I honestly didn't know that Coach Tip Tuesday would go on this long. It's quite honestly taken on a life of its own. I never expected that this would be the 364th week in a row I had something to write about.

(1:13 - 1:30)
But for the past seven years, I've made it a tradition to share something that honors Brendan, his spirit, and the things that he taught me on the anniversary of Coach Tip Tuesday. Here's a recap of what I've shared in those anniversary posts, and there are links to all of these posts in the show notes. I talked about some of the kicks in the rear that he used to dole out to his athletes.

(1:30 - 1:46)
I've talked about how fundamentals are the foundation of any and all athletic gains. I've talked about how running laps just to get a good, quote unquote, distance on your garment is just plain silly. All you people who can't handle a 5.97 distance on your watch, I'm looking at you.

(1:46 - 2:03)
I wrote about how we should all write ourselves a letter. I've written about how important it is that you have something to do in your leisure life whose only function is joy. And last year, for the sixth anniversary of Coach Tip Tuesday, I wrote about how duration-based training is better than distance-based training.

(2:04 - 2:23)
So for this year, I had a lot of different ideas about what I could write about for the seventh anniversary post. I seriously considered writing about how I don't think you should pull up on your bicycle pedals. I thought that this would be funny to share as the anniversary post, because what I think about pedaling a bicycle is directly counter to the advice that Coach Brendan used to give to his athletes.

(2:23 - 2:45)
He was one of the many coaches who would dole out the advice to pull up on your bicycle pedals. I know that Brendan definitely would have seen the humor in my sharing something that we disagreed on in a post remembering him and celebrating him. But when it came down to it, I decided to share a message that embodies what Brendan's spirit and philosophy was, both as a coach and, more importantly, as a human.

(2:45 - 3:10)
It is extremely common for the athletes who I coach to tell me that they are afraid about something, that they're worrying about something, or that they are concerned that something bad will happen in their training or in their races. It is my job to identify what is causing them to feel this way and to help them navigate what they are feeling. A majority of the time, I recognize that their fears stem from the fact that they are lacking experience with, and therefore confidence in, whatever it is that they're worrying about.

(3:10 - 3:32)
Sometimes this is because they haven't ever done something before, such as riding a bike outside or swimming in open water. Sometimes it's because it's been a hot minute since they've done a particular something, so maybe they were injured or they chose not to do something for a while or they just kind of fell off the wagon. Sometimes it's because a distance or duration that they've never completed before is on their schedule.

(3:33 - 3:45)
Sometimes it's because they recognize that the intensity that is planned for a workout will be uncomfortable for them. Sometimes it's because the race that they're doing is a new distance or a new discipline. You get the idea.

(3:45 - 4:07)
When something isn't familiar to us or we're facing something that is unknown to us, it's honestly a natural thing to have some level of hesitation and or fear. And so it makes sense that athletes would feel this way when facing something that is new to them, something that has a bit of uncertainty surrounding it, or when it's something that they don't have mastery in. And yes, it's true, subpar workouts do happen.

(4:08 - 4:17)
Yes, sometimes things feel hard. Yes, sometimes it has been a hot minute since you've done something. Yes, sometimes things do not go well.

(4:17 - 4:29)
Yes, sometimes you will feel physically sore. Sometimes you'll feel tired. Yes, sometimes you will see depths in your mind that you have never seen before.

(4:29 - 4:40)
Yes, sometimes negative and bad things can and do happen. All of this is true. But what is also true is that the opposite of what you're fearing might happen.

(4:40 - 4:51)
Things might go much better than you're anticipating or you're imagining. You might find that you are stronger than you have ever given yourself credit for. You might discover that soreness and discomfort aren't the worst.

(4:52 - 5:13)
Just because something is unknown or you lack experience with it doesn't automatically make it an inherently bad thing. Just because you are not familiar with something doesn't mean that it automatically should be scary. Because of these truths, I often share the following quote written by poet Aaron Hansen with athletes when they are expressing fear or concern about a certain situation.

(5:13 - 5:36)
There is freedom waiting for you on the breezes of the sky. And you ask, what if I fall? Oh, but my darling, what if you fly? I love this quote because it very succinctly illustrates how to approach something with curiosity. Because yes, the truth is that you might fall, but the truth also is that you might fly.

(5:36 - 5:49)
So I encourage athletes to imagine that they might fly. And I encourage you to imagine that you might fly. I recently heard that bravery is not the absence of fear, but action in place of fear.

(5:50 - 6:13)
It's okay to be afraid and it's okay to simultaneously be open to a positive outcome instead of a negative one. You can experience fear and take action to help yourself manage and quell that fear. When facing something that is new or that makes you nervous, I've learned that it's profoundly more positive and wise to take action and to approach unknown situations with curiosity instead of fear.

(6:13 - 6:36)
When athletes are worrying about something, I find that they are almost always exclusively considering the negative things that could happen in a given workout situation or race. The emphasis on the negative is the root cause of their concern and worry, and they are almost never considering the possibility of success, joy, or positive outcomes. It is so, so important to remember that nothing in life is all bad, or all good for that matter.

(6:37 - 6:48)
There is yin and yang. There is balance. The philosophy behind yin and yang, which I do believe to be true, is that all things exist as complementary forces that are inseparable and contradictory opposites.

(6:49 - 7:03)
Light and dark, hot and cold, day and night, health and disease. All of these things, and more, exist together simultaneously, never as one exclusively. And so this is in endurance sports.

(7:03 - 7:22)
There may be times when the balance shifts, but things are never exclusively great. Most importantly, though it tends to be exactly what we imagine or what we fear, and though the balance may shift, things are also never exclusively bad. Good and bad, light and dark, are all existing simultaneously.

(7:22 - 7:45)
I strongly believe that the ability to understand that conflicting things can be true simultaneously is a sign of maturity. Specifically, I believe that the ability to hold two conflicting viewpoints as true simultaneously is a sign of maturity. In athletics, I have observed that mature athletes understand that there is always a risk that things may not go the way we want to or we expect them to.

(7:45 - 7:55)
But not going the way we want or we expect can go either way. It can go worse than we expect. And there is always an equal, if not better, risk that things might go better than we expect.

(7:56 - 8:05)
I have learned that things exist on a spectrum, on a sliding scale. One day, things may be tilted towards the negative. The next day, they may be tilted toward the positive.

(8:06 - 8:16)
Humans are wired to focus on the negative. It takes at least three heartfelt, positive emotional experiences to outweigh a single negative experience. And that's not just my opinion.

(8:16 - 8:37)
That's actually been proven in research and in science. When we look at our history and our evolution, this is actually a good thing, and it makes sense that we're wired this way. We needed to remember the negative things, such as which foods were poisonous, which foods weren't poisonous, which animals posed a threat to us, what the weather and the seasons meant for us, etc., all so that we could survive.

(8:38 - 8:59)
But in the context of endurance sports, it's rare that we're actually facing life-or-death survival situations. In endurance sports, we can disrupt our negative thought patterns by reminding ourselves that it's possible that things may go well, that it's entirely possible that we may fly. All too often, athletes who are fearing something are actually deciding ahead of time how it is going to go.

(8:59 - 9:11)
In essence, they can help contribute to the situation becoming exactly what they are fearing. It can become a self-fulfilled prophecy. I encourage athletes to seek to self-fulfill positive prophecies.

(9:11 - 9:29)
For instance, instead of saying, this is going to be hard and I am worried about how it will go, you could say, I wonder how this will go, or I look forward to seeing how this new experience goes. We're still acknowledging that it's unknown, but we are exploring the possibility that it might be different. We are being curious about it.

(9:30 - 9:39)
We're not automatically already deciding preemptively how it is going to go. Let's be clear. I am not saying that anything and everything can be dealt with by thinking positive thoughts about it.

(9:39 - 9:55)
Just because we wish for something to be true does not automatically make it so. There's a reason why blind optimism is called what it is, folks. But that being said, what we think and our thoughts do matter, and they have an impact on how we interact with and how we experience the world.

(9:55 - 10:31)
What I am saying is that if we interrupt and disrupt negative thoughts that we might be having as a result of fear, whether those thoughts manifest as internal self-talk or external talking to others, and realize that there are multiple possibilities, positive and negative, that may be our outcome, we can open ourselves to experiencing more possibilities than we might have originally foreseen on our own. We can open ourselves to the positive experiences we might expect and to outcomes that we may not even realize exist due to our lack of experience. Brendan Jackson relentlessly encouraged others, his peers, his friends, and the athletes he coached.

(10:31 - 10:46)
He always saw and believed in the best version of who someone could be. If I'm being honest, I think that this is an ability that he and I shared. This is something I've always believed in as well, and my friendship with Brendan only reinforced the idea that endless positive possibilities exist for athletes.

(10:47 - 11:03)
Yes, you may fall, but perhaps more than you expect, you will likely fly. Remain curious and open to possibility that you may fly and that you may succeed far greater than you can currently imagine. It's simultaneously liberating and empowering.

(11:04 - 11:25)
And what isn't there to like about that? That was another episode of the Full Circle Podcast. Subscribe to the Full Circle Podcast wherever you listen to your favorite podcasts. If you like what you listen to, please be sure to leave us a rating and review as this goes a long way in helping us reach others.

(11:25 - 11:42)
The thoughts and opinions expressed on the Full Circle Podcast are those of the individual. As always, we'd love to hear from you and we value your feedback. Please send us an email at podcast at fullcircleendurance.com or visit us at fullcircleendurance.com backslash podcast.

(11:43 - 11:53)
To find training plans, see what other coaching services we offer, or to join our community, please visit fullcircleendurance.com. I'm Coach Laura Henry. Thanks for listening.