Fearless- An old lesson becomes the biggest asset.

Like most of you know, I played for the James Madison Dukes for four years in Virginia. It was one of the best experiences in my life. Coming from Canada, I quickly felt welcomed by the best teammates I could have ever asked for and an environment you can only grow and prosper in. This campus is filled with desire for change and people that are proactive about what they want their institution to reflect. Playing for the Dukes, I learned many valuable lessons I will carry with me for the rest of my life.

My last year with the Dukes started by welcoming 3 new coaches Lauren, Ron and Casey. Each individually bringing their distinctive beliefs, attitudes, techniques and set of rules. They were such a compatible group for being each so very different. During my last summer training season, our coaches gave us a book by John Waitzkin, The Art of Learning. We were told before reading that we would have to fill in journal entries from a question given to us to reflect upon. Each week, we answered a question posed by either Casey, Lauren or Ron. We learned valuable lessons that we could adapt in our lives as athletes but also as human beings.
Yesterday, I found myself revisiting theses entries and seeing what I wrote, what type of questions were asked and how I answered at the time I was playing for the Dukes. I stumbled upon one entry that talked about mental resilience. A trait that is not always mastered if we are not proactive about making it a habit. The entry started by stating:

"The soft zone is resilient. It is all about intelligent preparation and cultivated resilience. In this zone, you are calm and collected. You are unshakable.  A hard zone entails one to be in a state of pressure which he or she feels tense and demands all the energy you might have to fight of distraction. It is not a comfortable or desirable state."


We tend to let the hard zone control are every word and move. I could almost say we feel comfortable in the hard zone because we can create excuses and reasons why things are not working out. We feel sorry for ourselves and attempt to make those around us feel compassionate about our situation. It takes courage to step away from this mindset. And it takes willingness to back away from something so comfortable yet detrimental to our goals and pursuits. 

The entry ended with this thought:
"Mental resilience consists of the unshakable desire to be focused on nothing else but the task at hand. It requires to have creativity and carving a path the excellence by overcoming fear or any other distracting obstacles." 

It is not necessary to try to run away from fear. No, instead you should acknowledge what it is you  fear, and make peace with it in order to move on. The ability to master this idea is difficult because we don't want to believe that we can be fearless. But you can, you can be fearless. Fearless in the way you walk, fearless in the way you talk, fearless in your friendships, fearless in your projects, desires and objectives. Being fearless is not being careless or reckless. Being fearless is a way of life. 

Take some time to know what it is you fear, what is holding you back and what is keeping you stagnate, make peace with these thoughts and go for it. Go for what you want and never look back. Because in the end, people will respect and support you if you are honest with what you really want.
Someone once told me "Jess, good leaders gain respect from people, great leaders gain respect from people who respect themselves because of them." I think that these great leaders are fearless because they have the ability to ignite a fire within people that they feel within themselves. 

To my coaches, if you read this, thank you for teaching me this way of life, to be fearless in the hard zones of life.