Becoming whole again

If you are an athlete you know that feeling of not being seen as a person – probably that happens to all of us. Coaches look at you seeing your scoring percentage, your technique and your records. Fans look at you seeing - in the best case - your performance and in the worst case your booty in skimpy panties. Your doctor is looking at you seeing your functionality and your BMI. And if you‘re unlucky even your parents look at you seeing you as a confidence booster while speaking to colleagues.

Who askes if you like that? Who askes if you‘re happy? And who even askes how you are beyond sore muscles and spread ancles? – This hurts.

It’s asked from you to be disciplined, strong minded even while performing in the front of thousands of spectators, commitet to your training – daily - for hours – even to those parts that are painful or just boring. They want you to have a good time management, to fullfill your duties without speaking up and follow the rules.

Well, and somehow you are all of that, you are disciplined, a dogged worker and commited to the path you chose and you love to get better and optimize yourself – congratulations! This is why you came so far. But deep down you know, there is more about you than just medals and records.

And what you wish is to unite those two parts of you, the person you are from the center of your being- unique, worth to be loved unconditionally and one of a kind - with the identy of an professional athlete. Should’t that be possible? And in the end make you shine even brighter inside and outside the court?

While people in the outside see and will always see what they want to see. It’s up to you, to find the switch button between pushing and flowing, thriving and letting things go.

Here is one tried and tested approaches to close the gap between your identy as an athlete and as an human being. It’s called the magic of values 😉.

The goal here ist o find out what’s really important for you. What are the basic values you as a person stand for? But where to start?

There are different ways to do that. First one is to find a list with values online and choose the biggest ones for you – when you found them, rate them and bring them into an order. Not very fancy, but it works pretty well.

The other way is to brainstorm freely with pen and a blank page of paper. You let things flow right from your heart on the paper, thinking is not needed. Set a timer for 5-10 Minutes and let it go. After you finished you draw a circle around the most important things and again, bring them into an order. Look at your values with the highest ratings – are they true for you? If not, change something. Are you missing something? Add it. Do this until you are truely satisfied with your result.

Now you’re clear about your values, but what’s next? Define honest what those values mean to you specifically. What kind of behaviour you connect to them? What kind of attitude? Who is living it entirely? Everything that comes up.

And then follows the last and most important step: how can you bring more of that into your daily and your athletic life? What small changes can you make? What can you create, found or give more space to? Example: Your number one value is health. So educate yourself about appropriate nutrition, learn how to cook, learn the body scan to adjust adequately to the bodys needs or find time for yin yoga in the evening – being and living healthy means something completely different to you? Good! It’s not about me, but about you – write down what is true and possible for you.

And then – set goals. You know that from you athletic life. These are smilar. How often you want to cook on your own per week? Do you want to invite also friends? When exactly are you going to ask your coach to invest in a yoga teacher? Goals that are connected to your values have a much higher impact, because they are connected to your being, to your heart and your inner core.

And now: Start acting. Do what you can do already today and start talking about it with anybody who is worth hearing it.

So, for a short resume: You’re more than your athletism alone. One approach to bring that idea more to life: Start finding your values and you’re definition of them. And then be creative to implement them a step by step more into your daily and also your athletic life.

Have fun with it 😊

If this resonates with you and you want to learn more about how to close the gap between the your two identities, how to push sometimes and flow in other times. Schedule your free call now and we’ll find a way how I can be helpful.

Love and light,

Berit