Feeling Empowered in Your Post-Sport Transition
Coaching Tip #9
“As an athlete, I felt so empowered. I knew I belonged. As a post-sport athlete, there are times when I wonder how I’ll discover meaningful new goals, how do I shape and create the new me.” -athlete immersed in the process of discovery.
Do you ever feel this way? As I share in my book Personal Next, when I left competitive swimming, I certainly did. I wish I had a coach to help me through those moments.
Empowered, according to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, is “having the knowledge, confidence, means, or ability to do things or make decisions for oneself.”
The purpose of this coaching thought is to encourage you to pause and think about the shift that has occurred in your life – and about how to kick-start a sense of empowerment for your post-sport future.
As an athlete (or any high performer) you built knowledge and confidence, brick by brick, over many years. Your environment nurtured your development, celebrated your success, and supported you when you failed. It allowed you to take risks. Because of your success, you had access to the facilities to practice, to experts who supported you, and to venues where you could compete. These in turn helped build a deeper proficiency and furthered the belief that you belonged.
When we look at empowerment through this lens, we realize why it might wane (for a while) post-sport. As post-sport athletes, we have to rebuild our feeling of being empowered by actively engaging in our new environment, and not just hanging out in our old one.
Part of feeling empowered is taking ownership. Decide today what will generate a sliver of empowerment for you. Start to shift your energy toward future goals. Think how you can gain momentum. Here are some ways to encourage this:
• Start to build new knowledge and skills.
• Realize that you are in control of your decisions – that you are taking charge of this next part of your life.
• Know you can take risks, because others have your back and want you to succeed.
• Learn to step outside your comfort zone.
• Appreciate that you are developing new relationships: people who are interested in your new goals, and not just in your previous successes.
I’m cheering you on! Contact me if you feel like sharing your success.