I was 17. Just gotten my butt kicked. Lost my match. I got off the mat and this lady came up to me crying and I thought I’d done something wrong.
She said: ‘I want to thank you.’ For what? ‘My daughter is over there on the sideline. She never wanted to do a sport. But seeing you out there, she wants to try new things.’
I wasn’t even trying to inspire anyone. I was just trying to dig myself out of my own hole. And passively, by just playing full out, I was changing people’s lives without doing anything.
That was the moment I stopped seeing the syndrome as something that happened to me. It was given to me. It was a gift.
You don’t need a perfect story. You need to play full out.
#mentaltoughness #unconsciousgoal #playingfullout #originatorystory #highperformermindset