picture: https://quotefancy.com/quote/1717055/Jon-Gordon-Challenges-ONLY-make-you-STRONGER

A common phrase “Challenges only make you stronger” can be a powerful message during difficult and challenging times.  In my opinion this is only true with the right amount of challenge, how that challenge is overcome and the resulting situation.  I intend to be critical here for the purpose of creating discussion and sharing some of my recent experiences with challenges that I have had.

Something that seems to be ingrained into my DNA is to go towards the fire, go where others might shy away, go into situations I later reflect and wonder why I chose to engage in certain things or take on certain tasks.  Whether these turn out to be the right or wrong decision, it varies.  Some challenges can be sought after and some happen by chance; do you ever find that a challenging situation you have sought after gets compounded by more and more challenges, creating the perfect storm?  How do you cope with this?

A challenge I recently sought after was the decision to go back to school to complete a masters program in high performance coaching and technical leadership at UBC.  The start of this program happened to land in the middle of my busiest weeks of the year in my current role building this years off-season on and off-ice development camps with elite players from around the globe coming for 8 weeks of our world renowned program.  In the middle of this throw in 2 out of town weddings, another work related annual presentation (that was out of my control in scheduling) along with still managing day to day functions of the facility and training my athletes.  The only choice I have is to jump in the fire!  Live it.  Not a problem, but a challenge.

Some coping strategies, other than the nice local IPA I have beside me:

• Lists – lots of lists
• Get enough sleep – mental fatigue is your worst enemey
• Exercise – nothing clears the mind and gets the juices flowing better than a good lift!  Today I chose 4 lifts, complexed them and banged them out in 20 mins with a decent sweat, good to go.
• Delegate – handed over a few less important tasks to staff which also gives them some leadership of their own.
• Put the phone away – dump the easy distractions for an hour at a time and get it done!
• Utilize your support system – family and friends are great people to keep you motivated, give them a call.
• Take some brief time away – I have a tee time booked with some friends tomorrow morning to reset the mind.  Get outside!

A recent presentation I listened to the other day by Dr. David Henry brought about the study by Rees et al, 2016 about the difference between elite athletes and super elite athletes.  An interesting finding was that almost all super elite athletes had a negative life event (challenge) and compounded that with a positive sport-related event.  They found ways to deal with a challenge that created a positive outcome.  Having the proper tools to manage the challenge at hand is the key becoming stronger from the challenge.

A friend and mentor Peter Twist often presents the phrase: opportunity is nowhere.  Do you see the word “nowhere”  or do you see the phrase “now here”.  Opportunity is now here!