Yearly Archives: 2018

Recently I worked with a team on building their team culture and their part in creating it. I started off by asking them a simple question.

“Who are your leaders?”

They responded by saying the coaches, captains, and few other names of teammates who are high performers on their team. When I ask them who shapes their teams’ culture they responded by naming the leaders they previously mentioned.

Wrong. The culture is the attitude of the people in it.

I asked them if they are part of their culture, which they nodded.

“If you are a part of the culture, you have a part in creating it. That makes you a leader as well.”

I knew immediately the reason they weren’t liking their current team culture is that they weren’t doing anything to change it. They ignored their responsibility as leaders to take ownership of creating the culture they wanted. They avoided stepping up as a leader and placed blame on a select few who they thought controlled the culture. If this is the case with your team, your culture will not change until the attitudes of the people on the team change.

“Leaders create the culture that drives the behavior that produces results.” – Brian Kight

Everyone on your team are ALL leaders in the sense that they all play a part in creating the team culture. Leadership means taking ownership of that role. The culture is YOU. It’s not the coach, captains, school, or fans. The culture is each and every one of YOU. What YOU believe and do can change the culture.

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Once you can create buy-in from your team that each and every person plays a vital role in establishing the team culture you can change it. Establish values and rules that you want your team to live by. What kind of culture do you want? What do you want your team to look and act like? Create unified team goals that everyone on the team buys into. Once you know your values, rules, and goals that everyone is onboard with you can shift the culture and change the attitudes on the team to step up as leaders and take ownership of their part on the team.

Teams with great cultures also know how to bring the energy with their positive attitudes. Does your team do this? Energy is contagious. Once it’s formed and passed throughout the team it can create powerful momentum.

Feel the energy this team I worked with brought in an activity called Rock, Paper, Scissors Cheerleader. The only way this activity works successfully is if the whole team buys into the game, develops a positive attitude, and brings the energy. If you were another team looking in, what would you think about this team? Other people and teams can feel the energy from these groups and they are drawn to them! You can intimidate your opponents and draw others to be on your team through your team culture. Create the culture that you want and remember that each and every person on your team has a part in creating it.

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Seeing how this past week was #Globalrunningday I wanted to reflect and analyze 10 things I learned from running my first marathon a year and a half ago.

1) Self-awareness is key

Know your identity, values, and what works for you. If you know how to identify yourself, what values you want to live by, and what your limits are you will be more successful and driven in whatever you choose to do. Know your purpose and your reasoning for doing it.

I have never identified myself as a distance runner, I’ve always been a sprinter in track and field. Running a marathon was never even on my bucket list. Why would I EVER want to put myself through that excruciating pain of training and running for 26.2 miles? It never seemed exciting and I was lucky if I could run over 30 minutes.

I do identify myself though as a competitive person and a challenge-seeker. I value hard-work and trying things out of my comfort zone. This is what led to my decision to run a marathon. When my good friend in graduate school Sofia expressed her interest in running a marathon I responded, “Good for you, I will definitely cheer you on!” Her response was, “No you’re running with me.” I laughed and when I saw her still looking at me with a straight face I knew she was serious. That was it and I was up for the challenge.

2) Establishing a support team is crucial

Not going to lie, the training was time-consuming, painful, and exhausting. We decided to follow the Chicago Marathon training guide, which included hills, speed work, and track intervals. This was much more ideal for me with my track and field background compared to the other training regimens that only had different miles to run each day. I knew that would bore me to death and I needed more variety. (Again referring to point one, KNOW WHAT WORKS FOR YOU!)

After a few months in I was starting to feel pretty confident in my abilities. I surprised myself with how fast I increased my cardio and was able to run for longer chunks of time without stopping. It definitely helped to have Sofia there because if she didn’t stop running I was definitely not going to be the one to back down. We pushed each other in every run, encouraged each other through the pain, and since we were roommates we could get each other out of bed for those early 5 am runs. She even pushed me when I wanted to back out of a challenging hill workout in 100-degree weather and we couldn’t walk for the next two days due to our calves being as stiff as rocks. Without her support and encouragement, the training runs and the race itself would not have been as fun.

3) Trust your training

I remember vividly our 18-mile run. This was our longest run so far and afterward, we had one more long run left before the marathon. I felt great! It was surreal to be able to run that long, on pace, and finish the last two miles even faster with a kick. This marathon that I was formerly dreading definitely felt manageable and I was excited to hit my goal of running under 4 hours.

Then came the injury.

I had about a month before the marathon and could barely run without pain. In order to overcome these doubts, I had to remind myself of the previous training I had done. I built a strong base that would allow me to finish the race, even with the lack of training in the last month. I would review my former workouts as reminders of what I had already done and how far I had come. I had to trust that my cross-training pool workouts would be enough and that I did not lose the fitness and strength that I had already built.

4) Pay attention to what your body needs

After the 18-mile run, I should have been more aware of my Fitbit tracker results. My resting heart rate skyrocketed and I was not recovering the proper way. The next few weeks I could hardly walk without pain throbbing in my outer knee from my IT band. I tried to push through the workouts but always had to finish early. I decided to take a few weeks off and focus on recovering workouts such as pool running, swimming, biking, and yoga. My IT band just wouldn’t release.

This lasted for about a month and I barely could get any running workouts in. My roommate Sofia finished training the last month by herself. I have never been so worried and anxious for a race before. I would have nightmares of quitting the marathon or I imagined myself having to walk the entire race, which would leave my roommate to run by herself and my marathon would turn into 8 hours instead of 4.

I researched everything I could for my IT band. I was trying out different stretches, foam rolled constantly, completed strengthening exercises for the muscles around my IT band, and carried a lacrosse ball to roll onto the tight spots. I even had two full-body massages, several chiropractor appointments, took Epsom salt soak baths, went to doctors, and had Graston treatment done.

It is important to pay attention to your body. Make sure you recover properly and listen to what it is telling you. Get your sleep, eat correctly, watch your heart rate, and take a day off of training if that is what you need. If I did this early in my training I may have been able to recover better after my 18-miler and possibly prevent or reduce the IT band injury.

5) You can overcome things that others may not think you can

It was two days before the marathon and at this point, I had several people telling me to drop out. I was frustrated by their comments because I felt like this was not an option. I had been training all summer for this, put my body through hell, and I needed to finish what I started. I am not a quitter. Thankfully, my roommate supported me in whatever decision I wanted, which is what I needed tremendously.

I could have easily listened to those who told me to drop out, and I did consider it. Sometimes it is better to listen to others but keep in mind that no one will know yourself and what your limits are better than you. They give advice because they care, but you make the ultimate decision.

6) Preparation breeds confidence

I attempted a slow 2 mile run two nights before the race to see how my IT band was feeling since I hadn’t been running in almost a month. I got .75 miles in and I had to stop because I was nearly in tears from the pain. I walked back home with my head down and my hopes sinking.

The next night I bought Kinesio tape and a knee brace to prevent the oncoming throbbing pain that I knew I would inevitably endure in this race. I anticipated that this marathon will probably be the most painful experience of my life and I wanted to be as prepared as possible.

During the injury, I lacked confidence in my ability to run. What helped was reminding myself of all of the training I already did. I visualized and re-experienced my previous successful runs to remind myself that I am capable and prepared for this run, regardless of the injury. I also became more prepared by investing in a knee brace, Kinesio tape, and all of the treatments/recovery exercises I had done on my IT band. The more you prepare, the more confident you will feel.

7) Goal-setting is important, but remember to modify as needed

My former goal for the marathon was under 4 hours, which is what I was on pace to run before my injury, but I modified it after my injury to just finishing the race. I had certain my previous goals established but was willing to modify my goal of running under 4 hours after the injury. These goals assisted me in adhering to my training regimen and provided motivation during my race.

When race day arrived I had the support of my roommate, boyfriend, parents, stepparents, and siblings. With them on my side, I was confident and determined to finish somehow. As the race started my roommate and I followed behind the 4-hour pacer. I began at a slow and comfortable pace and started to fall behind. I wanted to ease off because I worried that getting out too hard would onset the IT band pain and once it flared up it wouldn’t go away. My goal was to prevent the pain as long as possible otherwise it would be harder to run the marathon if it started early on. We fell pretty far behind the 4 miler pacer and my roommate began to worry we were too off pace. I encouraged her to go ahead and that I would try to catch up if I can once I eased my nerves and felt warmed up.

8) Talk to yourself, don’t listen

A few miles in I was running by myself and alone with my thoughts. It was definitely a lonely couple of miles. My thoughts told me to slow down, throw in the towel, and focused on the anticipation of the pain occurring at any moment. After passing my family a couple of times it hit me. “What are you doing Jenna?” I asked myself while running alone. I finally confronted my worries, concerns, frustration, and anticipation. It was time to have a serious conversation with myself.

“You did NOT sign up for this marathon to run it by yourself. You and Sofia made a pact to run this together. Without her, you wouldn’t even have considered running this race. You are HOLDING BACK because you fear something that might happen regardless of your pace. Pick it up and get back to the pace you told yourself you were going to run and find Sofia.”

This is what I needed. I needed to give myself a good kick in the butt for holding myself back from meeting my goals. I was running scared and timid, which is not the kind of competitor that I am. I decided that I didn’t care if my IT band acted up or not. I would rather run this race with my friend by my side just like we ran all of our training runs than to run a dreadful 26.2 miles all by myself. This wasn’t the plan. So I stopped listening to my thoughts and talked to myself instead and started to pick it up.

9) Being alone is not fun or helpful

It took me about a mile or two to catch up, but eventually, I did. I was moving at a comfortable, but strong pace with my friend by my side. We matched strides and proudly maintained our pace right behind the 4-hour pacer. This made the race so much more bearable. My thoughts were no longer on waiting for my knee to lock up with throbbing pain and how much this race sucked by myself. Instead, I was enjoying running with a pack of people with all different stories and backgrounds. The miles flew by while indulging in conversations with one another and being cheered every mile or so by my amazing fan club.

In those earlier miles, when I ran by myself, I lacked the support and camaraderie that I would have had running with a group. Realizing how lonely and hard it would be run the run solo motivated me to kick it in and fight to run with the 4-hour pack. It made a world of difference once I had the support of a group to run with.

10) Your mind is more powerful than you think

Within the last five miles, I was in the zone. I pressed on and felt like I could kick in another gear. I told Sofia I was taking off and she came with me. There were miles of pain up ahead but we pursued. We used each other, our mantras, and our supporting fan club to focus on our goals. One step at a time. I used every mental training trick I could think of. I sang, “Left, left, left right left” in my head for hours, repeated the mantras that I wrote on my arm as reminders, and towards the end became mindful. In the last few painful miles, I focused on whatever color shirt the person ahead of me was wearing. Every time I focused on a color I unconsciously met their strides and would gradually speed up and pass them. Yellow, Red, Black, White, Blue. I passed them all. I refused to focus on the pain my body was feeling and only focused on the color ahead. I felt invincible. I felt strong. I felt determined.

I saw the finish line up ahead and started to kick it in, at least that was the plan, I really doubt I was moving much faster. I propelled my arms as fast and strong as I could across the finish line. We finished, we were done! My final time was 3:49, which surpassed our goal of 4 hours. The timing was just the cherry on top. Most importantly, I was gleaming because I finished despite my IT band injury. I realized that your body won’t quit if your mind is still in the game.

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To this day I have no idea how I finished that race. I’m not sure why my IT band didn’t act up when two days before I couldn’t manage running a single mile. Maybe it was the Kinesio tape, maybe it was the knee brace, or maybe it was because I changed my mindset to focus on the present moment instead of anticipating the pain to present itself. All that mattered to me was that I finished. Take that Doctors who encouraged me to quit! (Not really though, I knew they were only doing their job and looking out for my health and well-being.)

I did have some painful toes though at the end. Luckily I had my supportive father there to assist in taking off my shoes. 🙂

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To wrap up here are the 10 lessons:

1) Self-awareness is key
2) Establishing a support team is crucial
3) Trust your training, even when your training isn’t where you want it to be
4) Pay attention to what your body needs
5) You can overcome things that others may not think you can
6) Preparation breeds confidence
7) Goal-setting is important, but remember to modify as needed
8) Talk to yourself, don’t listen
9) Being alone is not fun or helpful
10) Your mind is more powerful than you think

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Share your thoughts on the post, I’d love to hear from you! Apply these 10 principles and learning lessons to your game, race, or event to keep that eye of the storm mentality!

I watched as our 4×100 meter relay team fought for the Championship Title at our Conference meet my senior year in track and field. They were defending champions of the title, ranked first in the Nation for DIII, and it was two weeks before the National Championships.

They ran smooth, efficient, and mastered their handoffs. Maya, the anchor, powered down the home stretch far from the rest. I watched as she missed a step, losing speed and momentum, and fell to the ground.

“Oh no, I think she pulled her hamstring again! Two weeks until Nationals, what are you going to do?” I gasped to Coach.

“Well, we need someone fast, strong, and experienced,” Coach said.

“Definitely, who are you thinking about putting in?” I asked while considering teammates who would be up for the challenge.

“I was thinking you,” Coach said looking straight at me.

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Throughout college, I was fortunate to have accumulated numerous All-Americans, school records, and 5 National Championship titles. I’ve seen other teams who had great skill, speed, and technique but fall short of experiencing the success that I was able to have. What makes the difference though?

Trust.

One simple word, but a word that makes a tremendous difference between winning and losing. The 5 National Championship titles, school records, and All-Americans I accumulated was not because of my speed and skill alone. It was because I trusted and was trusted by others to perform at my greatest abilities. All of the National Championship titles were earned from relays. The first 4 were from the 4×400 meter relay and our success was from having a group of athletes who wholeheartedly and 100% trusted each person’s leg to do what needed to be done. We ran together regularly and constantly expressed our trust in one another, which dissipated any doubts that we had going into each race.

I remember when my teammate Maya pulled her hamstring at the Conference meet in the final leg of the 4×100 meter relay. Coach turned to me and told me I had to step up and be the one to fill her spot. Obviously, I had thousands of reasons why I would be terrible for this position run through my mind. I put the pressure on myself that if we did not win Nationals it would be all my fault. That’s a lot of pressure! Luckily I had amazing teammates since our coach not only built a team but a family and sisterhood. The 4×100 meter relay ladies supported and trusted me. They knew how scared I was and the pressure I was putting on myself that they knew it would not help to add more. Each member went out of their way to make me feel like a member of their relay. Even Maya, who was now injured, supported me and affirmed my place on the relay. That was huge for me! They all assured me that they knew I could do it, I just needed to believe in myself.

Our new relay qualified for Nationals, even with a botched handoff that I was accepting, and my relay members still had trust in me. They knew I was overthinking the handoff, which led to the poor exchange. I knew they were right and had to stop overthinking things. Coach chose me for a reason and I needed to accept that and run the leg I knew that I could for myself, my coach, Maya, and the rest of my team.

We all experience self-doubt and our minds like to tell us we can’t do certain things that we strive to do. It is ten times easier to force out the doubts when you have your teammates and your coach trusting you. What I told myself before the National Championship race was, “You have all of your teammates and your coaches trusting you and your abilities. What reason do you have to not believe them and trust yourself?”

I have to admit, waiting on that track for my relay member to handoff to me was one of the most nerve-wracking experiences in my life! I had to put everything that I felt was on the line out of my head. I had to focus on what was important NOW. That’s the only way winning happens. We need to focus on What’s Important Now. (Did you catch that acronym?)

Being able to focus on the present and know that no matter what happens my teammates and coach have my back I was able to receive the baton in a good spot and run my leg. We finished in first that day, which led to my 5th National Championship Title. There is absolutely no way I would have been able to assist in winning that award without my teammates trusting me.

If you are a coach or an athlete and you want to create a winning team, you MUST develop trust. Obviously, you also need to have a certain level of physical skill, speed, and ability, but a team with all those qualities plus trust will perform even greater.

One great activity to develop trust is to take the time to affirm each other. Go around the room and have each relay member, including the coach, affirm each leg or position on the team/relay. Remember; an affirmation is NOT a compliment. An affirmation is emotional support and encouragement to let the person know that you trust them and their abilities. Each time I have led this activity it had amazing results. It brings the team closer and builds a family that supports one another through thick and thin. It also builds the individuals trust and confidence in themselves.

Without my teammates trust in myself, themselves, and our team I would not be the 5x National Champion that I am today. It all comes down to trust. Thank you shout out to my relay members, coaches, and family/friends for always trusting me!

Sorry about all of the pictures in this post, there were too many great memories for me to choose from!

“The actions of confidence come first, the feelings of confidence come later.”

I recently finished reading The Confidence Gap. If you have not yet read it, I highly recommend you get on that! It was definitely one of the most eye-opening books that are out there regarding confidence.

The book focuses on the mind and how our minds work. I recently read a study that shared that we have over 50,000 thoughts a day and around 70% of those thoughts are believed to be negative. How, in a world where we have so many negative thoughts, can we become successful? It’s amazing to read these statistics and see people still killing it and crushing their goals, regardless of what their mind is telling them.

The book dives into how our minds are brilliant at giving us reasons why we can’t do what really matters to us. Here are four reasons why our minds do this:

1. Obstacles: our minds point out the obstacles and difficulties that lie ahead.
2. Self-judgment: our minds find all of the reasons why we are not up to the task.
3. Comparison: our minds compare us to others who have it easier, who are more talented, or
simply do it better.
4. Predictions: our minds predict failure, rejection, and other unfavorable outcomes.

Simply put; whatever we are working towards or want to do, our minds will always give us thousands of reasons to NOT do something, point out our weaknesses, compare you to others in a negative way, and tell you there’s no point in trying. While I read this book I constantly was agreeing with what the book was saying about my mind and what it tells me.

“Yes, my mind does do that! It always is telling me how I will fail, how terrible I will be, and that there will be other people who will do it so much better than me, so why try?”

Nod your head if you’re agreeing in the same way!

If you still are not sure what I’m saying, try this exercise that’s in the book.

1. Write or think of a goal for yourself that is out of your comfort zone.
2. Close your eyes and focus on all of the things your mind is telling you about this goal.
3. Notice all of the reasons it provides you to NOT do it.

See? Our mind kicks in right away to provide reasons to get back into our comfort zone!

Why are our minds so against us? The book shares that the reason why our minds naturally provide all of the reasons to avoid expanding out of our comfort zones is that of evolution. We have a tendency to see the negative first because we had to in order to survive millions of years ago. In the earlier years there was danger everywhere and if you reached out of your comfort zone you would probably die. Our brains naturally view the negatives as a way to PROTECT ourselves from danger to stay alive. Those imminent dangers are not as apparent as they were millions of years ago and our minds have a challenging time viewing real fear from perceived fear. Whether we are anxious because we have a huge performance coming up or whether there is a grizzly bear about to attack us, our physiological responses are the same. The fight or flight response still kicks in and our minds start to race to tell us to run away, hide, protect yourself from any fear, and stay in your comfort zone. Before if we didn’t listen to our minds we would probably be killed by a bear, today though if we choose to not listen to our minds we will grow, learn, and challenge ourselves to become better.

How do we choose to not listen?

The book tells you to ask yourself, “If I let this thought dictate my actions, will it help me lead the life that I want?”

I love this question! I’ve been asking myself this often whenever my mind tries to take control of my actions and it has helped me reframe how I perceive the thoughts that my mind generates.

This past month I have been teaching Strong by Zumba (a high-intensity class) at a yoga studio in my town at 5 am once a week (yes 5 am, and I am NOT a morning person naturally). As soon as I was offered this time slot my mind started to go to town.

“You’re not a morning person, you can’t teach that early. What are you thinking? You barely get up to work out at other 5 am classes, how could you possibly get up to teach one? You know you’re going to sleep in and miss your class. You’ll let so many people down if you sleep in and miss it. You’ll be so tired throughout the day at work if you do this. You’re going to mess up your workout routine. What will the people think of you if you mess up while teaching? They won’t think you know what you’re doing and won’t come back. This is going to be a disaster.”

Every time my mind attempted to get me to back down I addressed it with the question I asked earlier, “If I let this thought dictate my actions, will it help me lead the life that I want?” I know I wanted to teach this class at this yoga studio, so what if it’s early? I started to name off the benefits of teaching early.

“This will get you into an earlier morning routine so that you can become a morning person. You will be more productive in your mornings before work. You’ll have more time to get ready. This way you can spend a morning with your boyfriend before he heads off to work. This will make getting up early to workout at other classes at 5 am not seem so difficult. This will open up your evenings if you teach in the morning instead. This is a great opportunity, take it!”

This made me feel much more confident and ready to take on this challenge. I knew that if I listened to my negative mind I would not be able to live the way I want.

I try to remember that my thoughts are just thoughts. They are simply words put into my mind. They are not the truth and we do not need to believe them. We might not have control over what our mind is saying but we DO have control over how we respond. Make a choice today to not provide your thoughts with the power to control your actions and behaviors.

Choose to act confidently, regardless of how you actually feel and what your mind is telling you. Focus on what it is that you want and go for it. The actions of confidence come first, the feelings of confidence come later.

Keep that eye of the storm mentality!

The look you get when all of your hard work has paid off and you finally meet your goal!

For some reason, certain posts on social media receive greater traffic than others.
Why is this? Something to ponder at another time and day…

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Since this post received a lot of traction on social media I thought I would expand on the topic of goal-setting, asking questions, and going after it.

Since 7th grade, I was running the 400-meter dash and coming up short of the school record. Fast forward 6 years and I was finally able to crush that goal. I discussed in detail more about this experience in my earlier blogs.

What goal are you working towards though? WRITE IT DOWN!

Goals are much more likely to be achieved if they are written down. Research has even supported this. It doesn’t take much time so what’s stopping you? Grab a pen and paper and jot it down.

Like I said earlier, it took me 6 years to accomplish my goal. The timing of how long it takes to meet your goal doesn’t matter though. Don’t put pressure and stress out about the timeline. Instead, focus on these questions that I had to ask myself to make my goal a reality.

Regarding your goal, ask yourself:

1. What do I need to start doing?
2. What do I need to stop doing?
3. What do I need to continue doing?

For me I had to:

1. Start lifting since I avoided it up until my senior year.
2. Stop doubting my abilities.
3. Continue to push hard at practice and seek out feedback from coaches.

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If you want to achieve your goals we have to face these harsh realities.

There are things we know we SHOULD do, but we refuse to do them. Why is that? Because humans are great at avoiding the hard things. Our mind and body naturally want to avoid any discomfort, extra work, effort, and possibly scary thing out there. It’s instinctual. We need to ignore our minds and bodies and do it anyways. Push out of your comfort zone and start doing things that may scare you, but will push you towards your goal.

There are also things that we KNOW we shouldn’t do and KNOW will not get us towards our goal, but we do them anyway. STOP THEM NOW! There is no better time than the present. Make a commitment right here, right now, to stop doing whatever is preventing you from your goals. Don’t let your weaknesses cloud your judgment and stray you away from what’s important.

Lastly, we need to give ourselves some credit. You are working hard towards your goals and are making positive choices for your future. What are they? What are the things/choices you are currently doing/making that are directing you towards your goal that you want to commit to CONTINUE doing? Yes, there will always be things we can start doing or need to stop doing, but there are things that we are doing well. Point out the positives because you, my mentally strong friend, have the eye of the storm mentality and are a hard worker! You deserve to give yourself some praise for your efforts.

Justin Su’a has a great podcast called Increase Your Impact, which is FREE (yes I said free) on your podcast app on your iPhone, which is how I listen to it. He goes into more detail about these 3 questions to ask yourself. Check out more about his podcast here!

Keep pushing towards your goals so that you too can experience the elated feeling of achieving something that you worked hard for!

Share what your goals are and your answers to the 3 questions in the comments! The best way to make a change and move forward with our goals is to share with others and have them hold us accountable!

Keep that eye of the storm mentality!

– Jenna