Personal Management 101: Taking back control of your inbox and social media alerts

Nine or ten thousand unread emails seems to be normal for typical student these days. And then they wonder why they might not have seen that important email from me! Or why they did see it, marked it as unread, and subsequently forgot to respond. Somebody’s (or many-bodies) inbox needs sorting out!

And here’s some handy tips to help you do just that.


Understand the importance of email

No doubt, you’re used to receiving communications in a variety of formats on a daily basis. WhatsApp messages, Twitter mentions and DMs, text messages, emails to multiple accounts, not to mention communication via Snapchat, Instagram, and all the other social media platforms that you’re signed up to. On top of that there are the occasional to rare phonecalls. Sometimes working out what’s important or not important can be very difficult. I’m even reliably informed that people’s mums prefer to WhatsApp their children than call them these days, so, yes, understanding what’s important can be close to impossible.

Outside of work settings, emails – which revolutionised communication in the nineties (before that it was just fax machines, the postal system, and good old-fashioned landlines, when they were just called telephones because there was no other type of phone) – have quickly gone out of fashion. Everyone has an email account (if not 3 or 4), but for many it’s a less than popular form of communication. Fair enough. Apart from the fact that some very important information is still passed on via email. Those who work in the real world (university lecturers, sports scholarship providers, national governing bodies, prospective employers – the important people, basically) are not just more likely to contact you by email, but in some cases it is the only form of communication open to them. Emails are important! University emails are particularly important, and while you may not want to receive emails berating you for not attending class, they may still be useful and important. Get into the habit of checking your university email account on a regular basis.


Deal with things straight away

Delete unwanted emails when you see them. Respond to emails that require a response straight away – you’re going to have to respond anyway, so why not do it now. If you don’t have time to respond, then why are you checking your emails right now? Find a time of the day where you can check your emails, delete unwanted ones, and respond where appropriate.


Reduce the number of promotional emails you receive

The biggest contributor to unread emails are promotional newsletters from companies which you have purchased things from before. They are emails which you never will, or never have to, read. Booking.com is a major offender, along with other hotel and travel sites, online retailers, etc. They send you emails for no other reason than to promote further products and services to you. Reducing or getting rid of these is a good starting point.

1. Take note of the people you get emails from that you never read
2. Unsubscribe from their mailing list (all promotional emails should have an ‘unsubscribe’ option at the bottom. Some email providers, e.g. Hotmail, will let you delete old emails from that sender when unsubscribing)
3. If you’re worried that you won’t be able to receive important emails from these people (e.g. booking confirmations), you should still be able to update your preferences
4. When buying online in the future, make sure that you untick the box to receive further promotional information from these suppliers (or tick the box that says you don’t want to receive their promotional emails)

Some providers offer additional tidy-up features and tools to help you stay on top of your important emails. Gmail, for example, gives you the option to separate your inbox into personal, social and promotional folders. It is not completely fool proof, in that some important emails can end up in the social or promotional folders, but it is a good starting point.


Reduce your social media alert emails

Social media alerts are another big contributor to unread emails. All social media platforms will give you the option to select what alerts you receive. In most cases you will only need to know when someone has sent you a direct message that you may need to respond to. You don’t need to know that Jonny responded to Mary’s post or that Paddy liked Jimmy’s picture. When you get an email about something on social media, it should be a prompt to check that social media platform and respond accordingly (not that most people need reminding that to check their social media accounts these days).


Remember junk is not always junk

Occasionally, important emails can end up in your junk email. Check your junk folder from time to time and make sure that no genuine mail is ending up in there. Sometimes emails from senders you don’t respond to, or emails that are sent to multiple recipients can inadvertently end up with the spam folder alongside the offers of money from Nigerian princes, and the phishing emails from fake Paypal accounts. If valuable emails are ending up in the junk folder, take time to mark them as safe, and add the sender to your safe list. If you’re a little unsure if someone is genuine or not, hovering over the sender to see what their email address is, is usually a good starting point. Most scammers have very fake looking addresses.


Get over the FOMO!

We probably all suffer a bit from the fear of missing out. But while we’re so busy making sure that we’re not missing out on social media conversations and updates, we’re actually missing out on what’s going on around us. Yes, the internet can help you stay in touch with friends, help you punch in time while on a bus or waiting in a queue, and be an important source of information, but you should never be living your entire life via the internet and social media. Decide what things you need to be informed of (and the latest Kim Kardashian news probably isn’t really that interesting), what alerts you really need to receive on your phone (remembering that you don’t need your phone to ‘ding’ every time someone shares a rabbit-ear selfie of themselves), what you really need the internet for, and then get busy living your real life. Give the real world your full attention.


Reduce study-time distractions

Many students tell me that they can’t study at home. That there are too many distractions. That the only place they can study is in the library, and that getting to the library takes up too much time. Realising that their phone is the biggest distraction, and learning to put it away during study time, can revolutionise their productivity and how they study. Unless you’re waiting for an important phonecall, you don’t need your phone anywhere near you while you’re studying. Be disciplined. And if you do need the internet to check facts or get additional information, make a list of things you need to look up, and do them all together when you need a break after a productive hour or two. If you are working on a laptop, PC or tablet, make sure that you don’t have notifications popping up in the corner and distracting you from what you should be doing.


There are numerous different ways of communicating. Yes, there will be important stuff that you shouldn’t miss (emails from your university, what’s app notifications from your club, perhaps, and text messages from your mum), but you don’t always need to know what everyone else is doing and thinking every moment of every day. Monitor what is important to you, and take steps to ensure that you receive the important stuff, and are not distracted by they unimportant stuff. Taking a few easy steps will help ensure that you are living the life you want for yourself, not somebody else’s fake social media life.

Personal development concepts: a bias for action

I was first introduced to the concept of 'a bias for action' when reading the excellent The Skilled Helper, by Gerard Egan (no relation), six years ago. The book was one of the main texts for a course in career counselling that I was studying for at the time, but which I never managed to complete (the course that is; I still have aspirations of finishing the book), and, somewhat ironically, the phrase 'a bias for action' resonated with me. It is one of the main values which I constantly endeavour to bring to my consultations with athletes.

'A bias for action' is a term often used in the business world. In that sphere it refers to the "propensity to act or decide without customary analysis or sufficient information, to 'just do it' and contemplate later" (ref: thebusinessdictionary.com). In the business world, it is rarely the most effective way of doing things and is typified by people attempting to simply look busy, feel productive, or to be seen to be making a difference.

The term has a slightly different meaning in the helping context, though in certain contexts, there is a value to doing things for the sake of doing something, not over analysing and just trying things out. 

In essence, those with a bias for action are doers rather than bystanders. They set and pursue life goals, they take responsibility for their actions and they persist against obstacles. According to Egan, bias for action is one of the key values that drive the helping relationship. "The doer is more likely to move beyond problem management to opportunity development" (Egan 2007, p61).

The overall goal of the 'helping' practitioner - in this case the personal development/lifestyle support practitioners - is to help the client (athlete) become more effective in managing problems and developing opportunities. This involves helping them "become more effective 'agents' in the helping process and in their daily lives - doers rather than mere reactors, preventers rather than fixers, initiators rather than followers" (Egan, 2007, p61).

The practitioner should adopt a bias for action themselves, as well as help the athlete become doers and active agents for themselves. During consultations, practitioners with a bias for action will question what more they can do to increase the chances of the athlete taking action and solving their own problems in an intelligent and prudent way. Relationship building is a fundamental part of the 'helping' process but it shouldn't get in the way of solving problems and developing opportunities. Councelling and coaching are often seen as simply listening to the client, and yes, listening is an important component, since, afterall, we can't actually advise the client or take action on their behalf. But we can facilitate them to take action.

Egan goes on to talk about non-discretionary and discretionary change. Non-discretionary change is something that is mandated to us; something that we have to change in order to achieve a certain outcome. In the high performance sport context, a governing body might tell an athlete that unless they start attending their strength and conditioning sessions, they will be removed from funding. If they want to remain on funding, they must make the change.

Discretionary change, on the other hand, is something that we choose to do simply to improve our situation. Human nature means that if we don't have to change, we generally don't. We generally think that others should change first and that we will only change if we absolutely have to. This is the reality that we as helpers need to be aware of. Having a bias for action will help promote discretionary change.

Take, for example, an athlete who expresses concern over how their coach-athlete relationship has developed. They might feel that they are not having enough input into their development. The relationship which worked well when they were a junior athlete is no longer optimal. Often, however, the athlete in this situation isn't motivated enough to have a conversation with the coach about how they fell, and how they can work together to change the situation. Before long, the athlete's performances start to drop, they blame the coach, trust is lost, and something which could have been fixed with a conversation and some basic discretionary change, requires drastic intervention. The athlete will often end up changing coaches or moving training groups. Helpers with a bias for action would encourage action when concern was first expressed.

In many cases, simply taking action can help an individual to feel better about themselves. Take and injured athlete for example. In most cases, athletes who take control of the situation will fare much better psychologically (and probably physically) than those that don't. Whether it is just making an appointment with the physiotherapist, doing rehab exercises, or hitting the cross-training, each action that an athlete takes is a step closer to getting better. Deciding, after weighing up all the options, to use the injury as an opportunity for a prolonged rest is, in itself, action.

And not all action has to take place in the consultation itself. In fact, most of it will occur between sessions. There are normally 4 to 8 weeks between my consultations with athletes. In order to promote action, at the end of a session I will ask them to summarise how they now feel about the situation that we have discussed, and ask them what actions they are going to take before the next session. Depending on the situation, I may follow up via email. At the start of the following session I will ask the athlete what actions they have taken following our previous session.

If you would like to learn more about bias for action and other aspects of Egan's Skilled Helper Model, purchase the book via the link below.

Burnout in young athletes: Are we doing everything we can?

As a teenager and young adult the end of season break from athletics was always an important part of my training year. Two weeks of complete rest normally coincided with the first few weeks of settling back into school or university, and was followed by a further two weeks of mild and varied exercise. I always looked forward to this phase of the year, but, after a week or two I was keen to get back into training. By the end of the four weeks I was ready, both physically and mentally, to get stuck into the hard winter miles again.

Even now I take a break at the end of the season, though various enforced breaks mean that the end of season isn't always a predictable period in September, sometimes falling much earlier, and some years a lot less needed than others. However, whether I feel like I need an off-season or not, this break in training is necessary, if just to mark the start of the next 12 month cycle, reflect on what went well or not so well in the previous 12, and set new goals for the season ahead. A finishing point for one season gives you a starting point for the next.

I have no doubt in my mind but that the annual break helped me remain mainly injury free over the years, and has allowed me to have a 'career' that has spanned 24 years, and counting. The value of the off-season is well supported by scientific and anecdotal evidence and is a fundamental component of any sound training programme.

It is therefor disappointing when I hear of 12 and 13 year old athletes who take no annual break from sport, or even have a day a week free from some form of physical activity. Yes, that's prepubescent boys and girls partaking in sport seven days a week, 52 weeks of the year, for as many years as their bodies (and minds) will put up with it. That, in my book, is child abuse.

Don't get me wrong, it's great to hear of young people participating in sport, trying multiple different sports, and not being afraid to partake in competition. But that shouldn't be at the expense of the fundamental principles of training. If an elite Kenyan athlete - who doesn't have school or university, or even making a living to worry about - can spend 4-6 weeks away from sport each year, then surely growing boys and girls can.

The great thing about athletics is that there are always things to train for. But that is also its downfall. I remember as a child how packed the annual calendar was, particularly since I competed in multi-events and cross country in addition to a range of events on the track and field programme both indoors and out. There was a competition on the programme almost every weekend, and even more once I became eligible to compete in junior competitions as well. When I was finally good enough to reach the national Community Games finals, the season end was extended to early September, with county cross country championships - races that I had to do to be eligible to compete in regional and national competitions - usually being held just 4 or 5 weeks later. The season was almost endless. Thankfully my coach was wise enough to know that the break was essential, no matter what the calendar said, and my ego was robust enough to take a sever beating when racing county championships more or less straight off a break.

Other sports are similar. Seasons have been extended to prevent athletes wandering off to other sports and not coming back. That's not to say that athletes don't do multiple sports - they just try to do 3 or 4 sports with overlapping seasons on top of each other, and with no consideration for the overall loading that their body is taking. But the physical components of sport, particularly in young individuals, are transferable. Training can, absolutely, be altered to take into account what an individual is doing in training elsewhere. If they are developing speed and endurance in another sport, then they just need to concentrate on the skills and technical aspects of that sport. This fear of loosing athletes to other sports or not having complete control over their participation in your sport is having undesired effects. Not only are they not coming back, not making the transition from talented juvenile to junior and senior competition, not being the next star athlete, they are being lost from sport altogether. The 'must-find-and-keep-the-next-superstar' attitude has to change because too many young athletes, each with the potential to be a useful sportsperson, are being resigned to the scrapheap long before they have the opportunity to fulfil their potential.

And that is not fair play.

Anyone can be an Olympian; but that doesn't mean it's easy

This week has been a big week in the lives of track and field athletes across the world. This is the week in which most national governing bodies are announcing and nominating their teams for one of the central sports on the Olympic programme. It is, in short, the week in which dreams are made and hearts are broken.

This morning I gave a small talk to some of the athletes attending the week's Wexford Athletics Summer Camp. Twenty-three years in the sport has thought me that if just one of those young athletes makes the Olympic, they'll have beaten the odds. In fact, if even two or three of them compete in athletics as an adult, that'll be a small miracle. Over the years I've seen hundreds of young athletes, many far more talented than me, give up on the sport because they can't handle been beaten, because they want to concentrate on their studies, because they want to get a job or spend more time socialising, because they get injured, because they go through a bad patch, because they think that success doesn't happen to people like them and because they think that if they are not good enough for the Olympics then the sport has nothing to offer them. Some simply fall out of love with the sport, move on, or do other things with their lives. And that is perfectly fine. There are things that I did as a child that I no longer do, there are things that I realised that I wasn't very good at, and there are things that no longer interest me. 

But, the Irish team named on Tuesday disproves all the myths about where successful athletes come from or what they do with their lives. It proves that you don't have to give up on your academic goals to follow your sporting ones - Paul Pollock and Sara Treacy are both doctors; Mark English is working towards that goal; Ciara Evarard has studied physiotherapy; Michelle Finn will go straight into a block of teaching practice when she gets back from Rio. It proves that you can absolutely work full time and still be a top athlete - Kevin Seaward is a fulltime PE teacher, Breege Connolly works full time in software testing, and Lizzie Lee, a fulltime employee at Apple, recently said that she wouldn't have it any other way (yes, that's half our marathon runners with proper jobs!). It proves that it's not always the best juvenile athletes that make it big time - many of the team will not have been standout juveniles - only a few years ago Michelle was deemed not good enough to be sent to a European Cross Country Championships, now she's going to the Olympics. Indeed, Breege and Lizzie didn't even start to run until their late twenties. It shows that injuries can be overcome - before winning European bronze on Sunday, Ciara McGeehan, one of the true former junior standouts to make the team, had not worn an Irish vest for five years because of injury. 

But most of all, it proves that ordinary people, like you and me, can make it to the Olympics. 

And those of us that don't, can have a darn good time trying, and achieving our own 'Olympic' goals.

The closest I'm likely to get to an Olympics

Mood cards and understanding our emotions

Recognising and understanding our emotions and knowing how to deal with them is an important skill for managing our lives both on and off the sporting field. Whether it's managing pre-competition nerves, dealing with anger on the pitch or learning how anxieties and fears about our personal lives are holding us back, moods and emotions constantly need to be managed. 

That's not to say that we should bottle up anger, fear, anxiety and other emotions which are perceived to be negative, and constantly exude happiness, excitement, love and hope. Quite the opposite is true. Expressing our emotions, both positive and negative, can help us to better cope with life, but recognising the emotions that drain our energy, the thoughts that we associate with certain emotions, and the situations that initiate or prolong negative emotions can help us deal with them. Sometimes emotions just need to be acknowledged.

Take the mood of depression*, for example. Feeling depressed is rarely a positive experience. Sometimes we feel depressed for no real reason. Sometimes it's something we feel when we're bored or have reached a crossroads in our lives. Sometimes it's something we experience in the lul period after a big event or time of extreme excitement or on a Monday morning after a particularly big weekend. Sometimes it's one of the many feelings we experience when we get sudden or unwanted news, experience an injury or go through a breakup. Depressed moods can also be associated with female hormone fluctuations (periods, in other words) and low iron levels. 

When we are feeling depressed, we may find ourselves crying unexpectedly, we may have a more negative outlook on life that usual, our lust for life may have temporarily disappeared, or we may find that we simply do not feel anything. In some situations we simply have to go through the emotions (or lack of), cry the tears and feel sorry for ourselves, for a while. But recognising and acknowledging the mood can help us to deal with it quickly. Acknowledge what is making you feel depressed. Ask yourself what you can do to change your situation. Think of a time when you were in a happier mood and what your outlook on life was then. Acknowledge the emotion, take time to deal with it, talk it through with someone or write down your feelings, and, when you're ready, move on. (If your depressed mood lasts longer than expected or becomes uncontrollable, make sure that you seek appropriate help.)

While I generally avoid labels and categorising things, I have found the naming and recognition of moods and emotions particularly useful, both personally and for some of the athletes I work with. A few months back, when looking for mood scales on the internet, I came across this particularly useful tool - a set of mood cards which each have a mood or emotion on them, a face representing that emotion and a phrase associated with the emotion. On the reverse of each card is a series of questions and an affirmation relating to that emotion. They are a great tool for personal exploration, group work, and one-on-one therapy sessions. They are probably the most useful and versatile I currently have in my toolbox.

*Depression can refer to both a mood or emotion and a mental illness. Unfortunately, because of the lingering taboos associated with the mental illness, we shy away from describing our emotions and feelings as being depressed. We don't want to be labelled as having depression or not being able to cope, but truth is that most people experience a depressed mood on a relatively regular basis. That doesn't mean that they have a mental illness. However, failing to deal with a lingering or severely depressed mood may predispose or lead to depression. 

Time management tips for student-athletes

Exam season is now upon us. Many student-athletes will be busy trying to balance the time demands of revision, the stress of exams, and the physical and mental challenges of training. Check out our Time Management Tips factsheet for some ideas on how to get the most out of your time.

Best of luck in the exams, and remember, no matter how you do, life still holds numerous wonderful possibilities that you can't even imagine right now.

30 ways to reinvigorate your life: Our 2016 challenge to you

This challenge is an adaptation of a task I recently saw somewhere on Twitter. There are 30 suggestions of different things you can do to make the world a more interesting place - some of which will benefit others; all of which will add new meaning and purpose to your life.

Making others feel good; doing something different; gaining knowledge - these are all ways of giving our life a little boost. All the little boosts added together can mean the difference between living a meaningful, happy life, and just getting by.

Hell, even cleaning the fridge can have major therapeutic benefits.

Try to achieve one of these tasks each week until the whole grid is complete.

Why not print off the sheet, cut out each square, place them in a hat, and pull one out each week?

Go on, give yourself those regular little boosts; you deserve it!

Pdf version of task sheet can be found here

Performance Workshops

Next month we'll be running a couple of workshops at the Ferrycarrig Hotel in Co Wexford, one aimed at athletes of all levels who are looking to improve performance, and the other targeted at coaches of high performance athletes, particularly those who coach performance athletes within a mixed ability group.

Thinking like a high performance athlete: a seminar for aspiring sports people 7:30-9:30pm, Oct 15; €10/€5 (includes free entry into draw for useful resources)

This seminar will explore some of the lifestyle and sports science practices used by high performance athletes, and explore ways in which you can integrate them into your training and competition. Topics to be covered will include, but are not limited to:

• Planning for performance – Goal setting, time management and decision making to improve performance
• Looking after your health – An introduction to the Female Athlete Triad, eating disorders, mental health issues, burnout, anaemia, immune function and dental health
• High performance sleep and recovery
• Building your support network
• Anti-doping issues – Anti-doping issues which athletes of all levels should be aware of will be outlined.

Competitive athletes aged 15 or older, of all abilities who would like to improve their performance are welcome to attend. The workshop is open to athletes from team and individual sports. Coaches and parents are also welcome to attend.

Supporting the high performance athlete: a special forum for coaches 6:30-9:30pm, Oct 19; €25

Do you coach high performance athletes as part of a mixed ability group? Are you unsure of how to support their special needs? Would you like the opportunity to meet and learn from other coaches in similar situations?

This session will provide coaches of high performance athletes with the opportunity to discuss challenges they face, to share experience and knowledge and to discuss best practice. Topics covered include:

• An introduction to the special health concerns of the high performance athlete: mental health issues, eating disorders, the female athlete triad, anti-doping issues, burnout, injury, etc.
• Building a support network and working within an interdisciplinary team.
• Real life concerns: long term athlete development; athletes moving on; burnout and dropout; integrating high performance athletes into a mixed-ability group; managing packed competition schedules.
• Lifestyle support: how the coach can help.  Will look at lifestyle balance, goal setting, time management, planning, managing transitions, decision making, dual careers, retirement and exam stress.

This session is aimed at the coaches of high performance athletes, particularly those who support high performance athletes as part of a mixed ability group. Experienced and inexperienced coaches are welcome.

We would appreciate if you reserve your place in advance via email. Payment on the night.

About the facilitators

Elizabeth Egan has more than 10 years’ experience working with high performance athletes from a range of individual and team sports. She specializes in lifestyle and personal development support for development and student-athletes, and has worked on two successful sport scholarship programmes in the UK. She has published an altitude training travel guide (Notes from Higher Grounds) and her PhD looked at the causes and consequences of menstrual dysfunction in female athletes.

Jenny Higgins is a 2014 Sport and Exercise Science graduate from University of Limerick. She has completed several research internships in the area of physical activity and diet including research in hydration, post-exercise recovery, body composition and the influence of exercise on metabolism & health. She is now pursuing a PhD looking at the interaction of diet and training on bone health in athletes.

Ciara Wilson holds a degree in PE & Biology from DCU, where she was a sports scholarship recipient, and has spent the last 2 years teaching. She is the Schools Participation Officer for the charity Cycle Against Suicide, and has an interest in a wide variety of sports. Ciara has just started a PhD at DCU.

All three have competed at a national level, have coaching experience and are passionate about supporting talented athletes in their pursuit of excellence.

Further information and news relating to these workshops will be posted here and on Facebook.

Transferable skills

Athletes who have been training full time their whole adult life often find it difficult to find a job once they retire. Without relevant experience in the working world, they may rely on transferable skills to give them a boost. Too often, however, we see CVs with skills listed as: ‘passion, teamwork, hardworking, works off own initiative’, or something along those lines. Show me somebody that couldn’t list those as skills!

When applying for graduate entry jobs, or roles that you don’t have specific work-based experience for, you need to think about your ‘super strengths’ or unique selling points. Think about qualities and skills that you have which will separate you from applicants and think about clear examples of where you’ve demonstrated these skills or qualities.

Useful frameworks to build examples around are ‘Challenge, Strength, Result’ or ‘Problem, Action, Result’. What problem or challenge were you faced with? What action did you take, and what was the result of your actions?

Some transferable skills that you might possess as an athlete include the following:

Self improvement

Many athletes, particularly those who have been striving for perfection for a number of years, are committed to personal development and self-improvement. Those looking for marginal gains are often self-critical (in a positive way), willing to accept feedback, aware of blind spots and dedicated to making improvements in all aspects of their performance. These skills and qualities can be useful in a variety of roles.

Problem solving and working with others to overcome a challenge

We don’t always think of the sporting field as a problem-solving environment, but think about the decisions that you and your team have to make on a regular basis in a high pressured environment. Overcoming an injury and putting together a rehabilitation plan may demonstrate problem solving skills, as may addressing defensive issues as a team, or adapting tactics following a last minute injury to a key player.  Putting forward suggestions, listening to others suggestions, devising a plan, reflecting on common goals, and following direction are just some of the important aspects of the problem solving process.

Communication skills

Being able to communicate with a variety of individuals in a variety of positions, is often something that employers look for. Think about all the people that you communicate with on a regular basis and how you communicate with them. Athletes often develop mature relationships with adults and people in authority from an early age. The coach-athlete relationship is one often reflects employer-employee relationships. The way in which athletes communicate with funders or sponsors, national governing bodies, appeals committees, and the media tends to be similar to the communication styles required in worked-based situations. Managing relationships with teammates is similar to managing relationships with colleagues. Any experience you have mentoring young athletes or less experienced teammates, coaching or officiating, or making guest speaker appearances will further demonstrate an ability to communicate with a diverse range of people. Make a map of who you communicate with on a regular basis, the roles that those people fill, and the ways in which you communicate with them.

Resilience

Few athletes reach the top of their sport without demonstrating resilience and an ability to repeatedly overcome setback. Think about how appealing your ability to refocus, reassess goals and adapt your methods following setbacks, and your ability to continue to work towards your ultimate aim, no matter what life throws at you, would be to a potential employer.

Commitment to excellence

The ability to demonstrating a commitment to excellence is likely to be appreciated by many employers. Those who demonstrate a commitment to excellence in their sport are likely to commit to excellence in other aspects of their lives. Wanting to be the best you can be, taking ownership of you life in order to achieve excellence, and being able to build a support team around yourself who also want to excel are abilities which are desirable in most work settings.

These are just some examples of skills that you may have developed as an athlete which may appeal to potential employers. Think about the things that you do in your sporting life, and how the skills and qualities required to be a top athlete can be applied to the workplace. Remember to think outside of the box and to avoid vague terms such as passion, teamwork and hardworking, unless you have very specific examples which separate you from the 99% of other applicants who will also list these skills on their application form.

Christmas Day: To Train or Not to Train

This seems to be an annual question: should you train on Christmas Day, when your rivals might be taking a day off, or should you sit back, relax, and enjoy the festivities.

The purpose of this post is not to tell you what you should do. I don't know your life, so it would be wrong for me to advise either way. Like everything to do with 'lifestyle' you've got to decide what works for you.

When I was a teenager, we looked forward to Christmas Day because it was the only day that we were sure would have a 'REST' next to it on our training programmes. There was usually even a few exclamation marks, reiterating the fact that we could have a guilt-free day off.

But as years passed by and running became a bigger part of my life, I realised that I no longer 'had' to take the day off. With Christmases devoid of little people and the associated excitement, we found that we needed something to fill the Santa-shaped void in our Christmas mornings. And so, for myself and my brother, the long Christmas morning run on the beach has become an important ritual.

Last year, due to a number of factors (and in the absence of my regular Christmas morning running partner), I even ended up doing a fartlek session on Christmas morning. Did I feel guilty for training hard on Christmas morning? Of course not! Why should I? Do I think that everyone should train hard on Christmas morning in the fear that if they don't, their rivals might be streaking ahead?  Absolutely not!

A much used quote at this time of the year is the one by double Olympic decathlon champion Daley Thompson who once said 'Train twice on Christmas day! Your competitors may only train once.' While I appreciate Thompson's sentiment, I don't believe that we all have to listen to him. Firstly, 99.99 percent of us are not Daley Thompson, nor will we ever be. Secondly, it's not that one day in the year that makes the difference - it's the other 364. And thirdly, it's no coincidence that a considerable number of athletes don't make it to the Olympic start line. In an effort to do more than their rivals, they forget the importance of rest and recovery and end up injured. This is, of course, the fine line that every top athlete walks along, and a balance that is difficult to strike, but 99.99 percent of athletes - serious or not - won't be affected by taking one afternoon off in the whole year. In fact, relaxing might just be what you need to improve your performance.

I love to run, and I don't see why I should deny myself a 10 miler on the nicest beach in the world on a day that has become all about over-indulgence. But I'm not everyone, and not everybody has access to the most beautiful beach in the world.  And so, I just have one piece of advice - if you do rest on Christmas Day, don't feel guilty; and if you train, enjoy it!

Merry Christmas.

Process Goals

Earlier this year, when delivering a workshop on goal setting, I used my athletics goal for the year to demonstrate the characteristics of a SMART goal. My goal was to go to the European Masters Athletics Championships at the end of August, compete in the 2,000m steeplechase, and win a medal. The goal excited me, it was measurable and timed, challenging yet achievable, and I was, at that time, committed to it.  I knew what I needed to do to achieve my goal, and was committed to regaining some of the speed that I'd lost in recent years.  I didn't need to be in the shape of my life, but I needed to be running better that I had been in recent years. And that was real key to my goal.

Process goals are all about the things over which we have complete control.  They deal with the technique or strategy which is necessary to perform well.  They are usually used to establish that route to achieving outcome goals.  They help to focus attention, and because they have nothing to do with uncontrollable factors they can help to control anxiety.  Examples of process goals in a race setting might include: running at 6-minute mile pace; mastering water-jump technique; carrying out a predefined warm-up routine.  Over the course of a season, a process goal might be to get into shape to run a 7-minute 2000m steeplechase.

As the summer progressed, I slowly got quicker.  Because of the slightly unusual international competition schedule this year, my track season started earlier that usual, but knowing that my main target race wasn't until the end of August, I patiently worked my way into shape, staying focused on getting faster and racing better.

Then, before I knew it, it was time to enter the European Masters Championships that I had so being looking forward to.  But there was a problem.  I was broke.  I was due a couple of payments that would have covered the entry fee, but would have left me without any money to live on for the next few weeks.  And then I would have to come up with money for the flights to Turkey, and for the accommodation.  I lay awake for hours the night before the entry closing date.  I had to come up with a solution.  I had looked forward to this event for so long.  And yes, I would come up with the money somehow.  But it all came down to a matter of priorities.  Did I want to spend all my money on one week in Turkey, to (possibly) win a medal in an age-group European Championships, when there would be European or World masters championships for me every year until the end of my running life.  Could my goals wait?

Sometimes, our goals can conflict with each other.  It then comes down to a matter of priorities. What do we really want to achieve, and why? What is most important to us, both in the short- and long-term?

As I lay there thinking, I realised that the outcome was not the important part to my goal.  That one goal that I'd set at the start of the year had other purposes.  The processes that I needed to go through to achieve it (i.e. getting faster) stopped me fearing the 1500m and 3000m, and I was getting stuck into races like I used to do when I was young. Rather than fret about getting old, I embraced turning 35 and gaining 'master status'. I realised that a medal would mean very little to me if I still wasn't running as fast as I felt that I could.  I still wanted to compete with the seniors.  True, I was disappointed, but I wasn't going to let that disappointment ruin my year.  I was going to make the best of the rest of the season.

On Sunday 10th August, I won the Irish Masters 3000m Championships.  My winning time, 10:15, was the fastest that I'd ran for the distance in 13 years.  Though my outcome goals weren't going to be achieved, my process goals were.  And that's why they are so important.  Process goals can help us achieve outcomes that we don't even realise are possible.

Other aspects of goal setting were discussed in our previous blog posts: Goal Setting: The Key to Lifestyle Management? and Goal Setting - Part II.  When you sit down to set your goals for 2015, don't just set outcome goals.  Add some process goals too. Perhaps they will help you achieve things that you don't even think are possible now.

Managing Career and Sporting Transitions

Irrespective of what our career is, what sport we do, or what our personal life looks like, we all go through a number of points in our lives where major changes occur.  Our ability to prepare for and deal with these times of change - or transitions as they are popularly called - can be a major determinant of success both on and off the field. Dealing with small transitions successful can help us manage bigger, more significant transitions later in life.

Some of the major transitions that an athletes faces include:

• The transition from junior to senior competition
• The transition from school to university
• The transition from university to the world of work or full-time sport
• Retirement from sport

There may be a number of other significant transitions which have the potential to impact on your sport. These may include becoming a parent, changing coach, changing event, becoming an Olympian, or becoming famous.

Because of the difficulties many athletes experience, the retirement transition is the one which we hear the most about, and we have blogged about it to some extent here.  But the purpose of this post is to look at transitions in general, and highlight some of the skills required for smooth transitioning from one phase of your life to the next.

Transitions are often viewed as stressful events, with hurdles and pitfalls.  But that's not always the case.  Indeed many transitions bring with them new opportunities, and making the most of these opportunities can have long-lasting benefits.  The change of environment that often comes with a transition can also offer a fresh perspective of life, and of your sport, and renew the mind and soul for the sporting efforts that lie ahead.

Resilience can be helpful in dealing with the more difficult challenges that transitions bring. Check out last week's introduction to resilience post for more information.  These are some of the other steps that we can take to ensure smooth transitions from one phase of our lives to the next.

1. List all the things that will be changing

It’s often easier to face something if we know exactly what we’re facing, and when it comes to transitions, it’s a good idea to list all the things that well be changing.  Transitions such starting university involve more than just a change in the place of study, and can coincide with numerous other mini transitions.  The following are just some of the things that may be changing around that time:

• Moving city (or country)
• Living away from home for the first time
• Cooking for self
• Budgeting for self
• New teaching/learning styles
• Own responsibility to attend lectures
• New coach
• New training group
• Increased training load
• Moving from junior to senior competition
• New independence
• Living away from friends
• Legally old enough to drink alcohol

Once you have made a list of all the things that will be changing (location, educational, social and sporting), you can thing about which ones scare you, which ones will cause difficulty, and which ones you can prepare for.

2. Decide on your goals for the transition

In a previous post, we spoke about how goal setting can be the basis for all good lifestyle planning, and here is not exception.  If you know what the purpose of the transition is, and what you want to achieve following the transition, you can cope a lot better.  If you are changing training group because it is better for your longterm development, then it might be easier to manage transitions around that, and if you want to be an international athlete, the temptations of student life might be less tempting for you.  Goals help to keep you focused and manage your life.  They can also help motivate you to make a success of any transition that you are going through.

3. Plan and prepare

Much planning and preparation can be done in advance of a transition that will help overcome the potential hurdles.  Those planning for retirement can start to acquire new skills that will help increase their employment opportunities well in advance, and those due to start university in the next year or so can learn some of the skills that will help them to live on their own.  Set aside time to become proficient in cooking 3 or 4 different meals.  Avail of any one-off opportunities to meet or train with your new coach/training group in advance of the start of term.  Visit the university.  If driving will make the transition easier, make sure that you have passed your test in advance of starting term.

4. Speak to people that have undergone this transition

Taking the opportunity to speak to other individuals who have undergone the transition that you are about to face will help ease any concerns that you might have, and may highlight other preparation that you have to do.  Speaking to older athletes in your sport is a good starting point for those about to start university.

5. Discuss your concerns

If you have any concerns, or are anxious about the whole transition, be sure to speak to someone. Speaking through your concerns will help to distinguish between actual areas which you can prepare for, and issues which you are needlessly concerned about.  Through talking, you may also be able to find individuals who can help you with particular areas of preparation.  Writing down the things that scare you may also help.

6. Look forward to the opportunities that lie ahead

Each transition brings with it opportunities.  Transitions help us to grow and to ‘raise the bar’.  Don’t be afraid to get excited about these opportunities, and be ready to avail of other opportunities that result as a by product of the transition.

7. Keep some things consistent

You may also benefit from keeping something consistent in your life.  For athletes starting university, just continuing to compete in your sport will be that consistent thing.  Retiring athletes who walk the dog daily, for example, should continue to do so.  However, be careful here.  Trying to life your old life rather than availing of opportunities in your new life will only lead to regret.  If you feel that you need to make a clean break, do so.

We will look specifically at retirement transition planning in a future post.

Personal identity: a short task

In a previous blog I wrote about the importance of having an identity that is not solely based around your successes as an athlete.  I want to take this opportunity to share a task that I asked young talented individual to complete as part of a workshop I ran on dual careers a few weeks ago.  This is a useful task for individuals of all ages to complete, and is a good starting point for career planning, a way of focusing and motivating individuals, or simply an exercise to boost confidence.

This is me
Explore your personal identity by filling an A3 sheet of paper with things that make up you and your personality.  Use words, phrases, sentences, pictures, or images cut from magazines and lay out the page in whatever way you feel appropriate.  Include some or all of the following:

• Successes that you have had outside of sport
• Characteristics that define your personality (e.g. three words that describe you)
• Long term goals – 1 for sport; 1 for education/career; 1 for life in general
• What I would like to be when I ‘grow up’.
• Hobbies
• Things you like (food, books, tv) – Pick one and explain why you like it
• Skills (maybe things that you’ve learned from sport that you can apply to life
• Things that make you happy/laugh
• Things that you like about your sport
• Why you do your sport
• Favourite subjects at school
• Your coping skills
• You top values*

This should be a positive document.  Use only positive words.  From this task you should see that there is more to you than just a person that goes to school, or a person that does sport.  You are multidimensional!

* Values-type exercises are among my favourite career planning tools.  Below is a list of some values.  Take some time working through the list and thinking about what each word means to you (each individual will interpret the values differently).  The theory is that those who are happiest in their careers have work and careers which meet their values.  Once you’ve made a list of the values that are most important to you, write them on a small piece of paper, and place it in your wallet.  Check it regularly and ensure that your values are being met on a daily basis.

Older individuals can take the above task a step further to help with career decisions.  Instead of just depicting the current you on a sheet of paper, you can depict your career so far as a journey or timeline, and explain how you’ve got from one stage to the next.  In a metaphorical sense, plotting your journey so far will help to see where the road is leading you.  Write down the key stages and words and talk through the plot with a friend or any willing listener.  This is a useful task when big decisions have to be made, as it takes the emphasis away from the pressure decision, and helps get you into your comfort zone.  We are all experts in our own lives, so that’s where we should focus our attentions.

I’ve included a further adaptation of the ‘This is Me’ task from a career perspective below.  This is something that I did for a recent job interview.  Essentially all of my work experience is in a sporting perspective, but writing it down like I did below helped me realise just how broad that experience is.  It’s ok to have life experiences that are just sports related, but recognising the skills that are transferable is key.  We’ll explore transferable skills in a future post.

Hopefully doing the above task will help you realise just how multi-dimensional you are and highlight areas that you can branch into.  Maybe it’ll inspire you to take up a new hobby, or generate an interest that you can explore on training camps when you have plenty of time on your hands.

Preparing for the rainy day - without stressing about it

Lifestyle support is, in many ways, a form of preparation for the unknown.  How will we cope when things go wrong? What will we do with our lives when we retire from sport?    But how do we prepare for things going wrong, without stressing about it or constantly fearing the unknown?  How do we plan for the rainy day without becoming so scared of the rain that we don’t want to leave the house?

Planning for all eventualities needs to become a passive part of our being.  We need to remember to always have a raincoat or umbrella in the bottom of our kitbags, without even thinking about the rain, or how a wet day might affect our performance.  This comes with planning and practice. 

But planning can only take care of so much, and for the days that even the best planning in the world couldn’t have prepared us for, we need to develop a sense of humor and acceptance.  Beating ourselves up over something we couldn’t control won’t make things any better.  There are times when we just need let go of the control and let the adrenalin take us through.

And don’t ever look back on the rainy days and regret not having taken the opportunity to splash about in the puddles.  Because those are the days when the sun truly shines for us.

The role of lifestyle support in the professional era

In a previous post we examined what Lifestyle and Personal Development support is.  In this post, we look at why such support is vital in the modern high performance sport environment, using rugby union as an example.

Lifestyle support is the youngest of the performance support services, and it’s only in the last ten years that lifestyle or personal development advisors have become regular staff members within the high performance sport environment.  In some ways, this is not surprising.  The need for such support has increased with increased professionalism in sport.  The role of the lifestyle or personal development advisor is often to manage or counteract the negative aspects of being a full-time athlete.  The role is often a hidden safety net which allows performance directors to continue on their one-track road to success at any cost.

Encouraging athletes to consider dual careers and to prepare for life after sport is often in direct conflict to the messages portrayed by those who manage performance (encouraging centralized training and full-time sport, and recommending reduced distractions from performance) or the very environment that increased professionalism brings with it (increased time demands as an athlete; increased money and subsequent reduced need to work). 

Counteracting the effects of increased professionalism

If we take Rugby Union – a sport which has shifted from an amateur sport where players were not paid to a big business sport where players have the potential to earn enough as a player to set themselves up for life, in the space of just over a decade – as an example, we quickly see why lifestyle and personal development planning has become so important.

Rugby has traditionally been associated with private schools and third level institutes where, in the armature era, most players had well-paying jobs and secure futures when they retired from the sport.  Quickly, and refreshingly, the sport has become the sport of the masses, both in terms of participants and spectators, but unfortunately, professionalization of the sport has meant that an increasing number of players forego their education, in favor of a sports career which one injury or a bad run of form could end in an instant.

Players are being talent spotted earlier and earlier, reducing the chances that they will have naturally completed their education by the time they reach senior level.  Of course academies insist that players stay in school, and many provide additional tutoring and support to enable players to do so, but the point is that these measures have to be put in place just to maintain equilibrium.

For many players, the lure of big money contracts in France can be too great to ignore, and while living and playing in another country can be a life-changing experience for many, money can’t be the only reason to move.  Players should be encouraged to consider all factors in the decision making process and those who decide that France is for them may need to be supported through the major life change.

The celebrity status associated with being a successful player, and the accessibility of players to the fans via social media can bring about a host of other issues.  Blanket bans of social media can prevent players making stupid mistakes, but do little to increase the player’s marketability or help them develop a unique image.

While it may sound like a bit of a contradiction, professional players tend to have a lot of time on their hands.  This can bring with it a range of potential problems, including boredom, addiction, depression and anti-social behavior. 

Managing lifestyles for performance purposes

Athletes are often busy people with a number of different factors to juggle.  Athletes need to be fresh and well rested to perform at their best, and a well managed lifestyle will help them to perform in their sport and to get the most from potential opportunities that arise.  Talk management, goal setting and decision making skills can help an athlete manage their lifestyle, while managing stress and priortising demands will also have far reaching benefits. 

Preparing for life after sport

We have spoken before about the importance of preparing for life after sport, and encouraging a player/athlete to prepare for life after sport is an important part of lifestyle and personal development support.  Few athletes/players get to choose when they end their careers, particularly in a sport like rugby where career-ending injuries and deselection are common reasons for retiring.  Athletes should be encouraged to plan for life after sport from the very beginning. 

Creating the well-balanced individual

Players and athletes can potentially become trapped in a life where they eat, sleep and breath their sport, with little balance or connection with the ‘real’ world.  True, many transferable skills, including teamwork and goal setting, can be learned in the sporting environment, but players who have nothing to think about other than turning up to training on time, who are surrounded by similarly-minded teammates on a regular basis, and whose only daily decision is chicken or salmon for lunch at the club canteen, can loose touch with reality and quickly forget how to fend for themselves.  They can also quickly become bored.  As lifestyle and personal development consultants, we therefore have a responsibility to expose the players to other experiences and opportunities.  Many sportspeople value the contribution of distractions in their lives.

Recent examples include Irish 800m runner Mark English who, not long after winning the 800m bronze medal at this summer’s European Athletics Championships, stated that he was looking forward to getting back into his Medical studies at UCD:

"I love having something to distract me from all the training during the winter," English said. "You can't just be an athlete with nothing going on in your life." - See more at: http://www.independent.ie/sport/other-sports/medical-career-offers-refreshing-perspective-for-clinical-english-30521181.html#sthash.Ait3NEZU.dpuf

"I love having something to distract me from all the training during the winter," English said. "You can't just be an athlete with nothing going on in your life." - See more at: http://www.independent.ie/sport/other-sports/medical-career-offers-refreshing-perspective-for-clinical-english-30521181.html#sthash.Ait3NEZU.dpuf

"I love having something to distract me form all the training during the winter," English said.  "You can't just be an athlete with nothing going on in your life." (Irish Independent 20/8/14)

Similarly, Jo Pavey, who at 40 won 10,000m gold at the same championships, stated that being a mother to two children helped improve her performance:

The mother of two ... thinks it is her self-satisfied approach to life and flexibility that is key to the form that has finally given her the first major title of her career. (Athletics Weekly 13/8/14)

Having distractions away from sport is particularly beneficial when dealing with injury, and as mentioned previously, having an identity which is not completely dependent on sporting success can help an athlete cope with retirement. 

Social responsibility

Sport has a responsibility to look after its players and athletes and to help create well-rounded individuals who can give back to the community.  Giving athletes the skills to deal with setbacks and to manage mini transitions can help prepare them for life beyond sport.  Athletes should be encouraged to make the most of every opportunity that comes their way.  They should never see competing in sport as a sacrifice or an excuse to put their lives on hold.  They should exit the sport a better person than they entered it.  Player welfare is an important factor, and with an ever increasing number of cases of depression, eating disorders and addiction being reported among high performance sportspeople, it’s clear that even more work needs to be done on that front.

Therapeutic Actions and Activities: The Key to Emotional Balance?

Too often we view therapy as something which only those with severe depression, anxiety or psychological issues undergo to 'fix' their problems.  But perhaps we can all benefit from taking part in therapeutic activities.  Maybe there are activities we can engage in on a regular basis to prevent depression, anxiety or other psychological issues, and prevent disappointments, anger and upsets from becoming long-term issues or affecting our performance.  It's only in recent years that I've noticed what I do to keep myself 'sane', and performing at my best, but having identified them allows me to keep a check on my emotions.  These are my top 4 therapeutic activities:

Writing

When I was young, I struggled with writing,  I was inadequately skilled to transfer the thoughts and images inside my head into anything resembling beautiful pros, but over time I have found joy in writing.  Simply putting words together gives me confidence and a sense of purpose, and I can't even begin to explain the sense of achievement obtained from writing and publishing a book.  And apparently I'm funnier when I write than when I talk!  But writing has a much broader benefit.  Putting my thoughts in writing can help keep me focused, reaffirm my goals, identify what is making me angry/confused/blue, and work through those issues.  Writing a blog or something which someone else is going to read, forces me to express my thoughts in a postive way.  Both myself and Rachael have written blogs that will never be published, but simply putting our thoughts on paper eradicated the confusion or anger that we were feeling, or helped us change our perspective on a particular situation.  If you are angry about something, try writing down your arguments for why you're angry, what the other person's perspective might be, and what you can do to fix it.  As you right, some of your opinions might change, and some of the anger abate.  Then you can look to sort out the real issues.  Don't underestimate the power of expressing yourself on paper!

Tidying up for someone else

If I'm feeling particularly blue, or stressed because things are slipping out of my control, something which gets me back on track, is sorting out an untidy store cupboard or an out-of-control attic for somebody else.  The more impossible the task seems, the harder I work to bring it under control, and the happier I become.  It's as if putting order on a seemingly uncontrollable mess makes my thoughts and emotions look a lot easier to manage.

Drawing up a plan

There are few things more motivational than ticking items off a to-do list, or crossing off sections of a weekly plan, but sometimes just putting the plan together in the first place can give you the kick start you need.  Putting  everything that needs to be done down on paper can help put order on chaos, and turn panic into calm.  Often we know that there's a lot to be done, but putting together a plan can help focus us. 

Running

Running has always been my sanctury.  Many a problem or conundrum has been sorted out in my head while on a run, and many big, life-changing decisions have been made over the course of a 5 or 6 mile run.  I find it difficult to run when angry, negative or highly stressed, and I don't like not to run, so those thoughts and and emotions are quickly turned into positive ones in order to let me get on with the business of running. Running also allows me time to dream and hatch plans to take over some aspect or other of the world.  Often I later realise that my dreams are unattainable or my plans unachievable, but every once in while I come up with a grand scheme that will change my life forever.

Singing in the shower, collecting sticks for the fire and walking the dog are just some of the other activities which help me turn negative thoughts or emotions into positive ones, and allow me to gain control over my life.

Talking is one of the most popular and effective forms of therapy, and it's true that a problem shared is a problem halved.  If you are feeling stress or down, or feel that your life is spiraling out of control, talk to someone.  Just getting things off your chest can make a worry or stress disappear.  However, always talking about your problems without any bias for action or motivation to change things, can be a very ineffective form of therapy.  Talking can sometimes reaffirm negative emotions such as anger or hatred, result in you asking for advice rather than making decisions for yourself, and waste a lot of time.  Always talking to the wrong person may lead you to moan, or wallow in self pity.  This, I feel, is why I find writing far more therapeutic.  With nobody taking my side, I have to work issues out for myself.  After all, there is nobody as expert in my life as I am, and we all have capacity to solve our own problems.  Talking can help us realise that, but we shouldn't just talk to those who will take our side, or tell us what to do.  In a future post, we will look at the role of talking as a form of therapy in more detail, and examine how it can be most effective.

You don't have to be down or depressed to engage in therapeutic activities.  Regularly engaging in therapeutic activity can help prevent depression, manage stress, make decisions and refocus on what's important, and simply doing things that we enjoy can help us maintain that all important 'balance' in life.  Find the activities and situations where you can best control your thoughts and emotions and engage in them when needed. 

Lifestyle, personal development and welfare support

There's more to high performance sport than training for an event, turning up, and competing.  Athletes, particularly in the professional era, have a lot to think about.  Eating healthily on a tight budget, keeping their finances in order, balancing a social life with an intense training programme, dealing with the media, keeping sponsors happy, handling the expectations of others, coping with long periods of time on the road, building functional relationships with coaches and teammates, keeping anti-doping whereabouts information up-t-date, and dealing with injury and other setbacks, are just some of the additional challenges faced by athletes.  Add to that the everyday demands of human life, work and educational commitments, personal relationships and financial concerns, and the busy life of the athlete, becomes the hectic life of the person.

With all these concerns and issues to balance, it's easy to see why an athlete might benefit from having a member of support staff to keep them on top of their 'life'.  But there is also something else that needs to be considered, and that's where the welfare, career or lifestyle support person really comes into their own.  A sporting career is like few other careers.  A lucky athletes will compete at their peak to somewhere in their early to mid thirties.  Many will finish much earlier, be it due to injury, burnout, lack of funding, or simply reaching their sporting goals.  Usually when individuals retire, they're done with work.  They've earned enough money to see them through their final years, and though a life without work can be difficult for anyone, of any age, to adjust to, the more relaxed pace of life is usually welcomed.  Retiring from a career in your early thirties is a whole different conundrum.  Goals may not have been achieved, few athletes have earned enough money to last the rest of their lives, and having lived on adrenaline and endorphines for many years previously, a massive void normally dominates the outlook of a retired sportsperson.  Retirement in the athlete has been likened to bereavement, and a particularly traumatic one in those who have not prepared for the retirement, or have not been able, for whatever reason, to retire on their terms.

The lifestyle adviser or welfare support person can help the athlete prepare for retirement in a number of ways.  Crucial to the transition is the development of other skills, and preparation for another job or career after sport.  A considerable volume of research supports the pursuit of dual careers from the early days, and though the value of dual careers is widely accepted, the reality is often very different.  Centralised training, increased professionalism, and increased social pressures on athletes makes the pursuit of education, training and employment very difficult for high performance athletes.  Furthermore, the increased money involved in sport often means that athletes don't need to work during the good years, meaning that they have less experience, and less earning potential after sport.  As professional increases, the role of lifestyle and welfare personnel becomes more important.  They are, to some extent, constantly fighting against the system.

Helping with transitions, dual careers and retirement is just part of what the lifestyle, career or welfare support person will help an athlete with.  Councelling and communication skills are important, and by helping an athlete work through their small issues, they are helping build the skills to manage and deal with issues and challenges in the future.  Development of goal setting, time management, conflict resolution and decision making skills will stand to an athlete in future sporting and non-sporting contexts, and though largely relevant to life outside of sport, some of these skills will actually help the athlete in their sporting performance.

This piece from the EIS website outlines how Performance Lifestyles helped Olympic champion rower Katherine Granger achieve sporting success. One of the greatest challenges of this whole area of support, however, is that not all strategies will help to improve performance.  Conflicting roles often exist, particularly if the lifestyle advisor or welfare officer is employed directly by the governing body or funding agency.  How do you support an potential Olympic medallist with depression would be best to spend time away from the support, when the sport as a whole, and ultimately your position, is dependent on medals won at the Olympics.  Obviously, the athlete's welfare is always top of your agenda, but measurement of your performance can be far from clear-cut.

While nutritionists are universally called nutritionists, and sports psychologists are known as sports psychologists across the board, different terms are often used to describe the people who provide the crucial lifestyle support to athletes.  UK Sport, and relevant home country sports institutes (EIS, SINI, SIS and SportWales), refer to the area as Performance Lifestyles, delivered by Performance Lifestyle advisors.  The Irish Institute of Sport run a Performance Transition Support Programme that is "designed to help [athletes] recover, refocus and re-energise" after an Olympic Games, and prepare for the next phase of their life. They refer to the area as Athlete Lifestyle.  TASS refer to the area as Education and Lifestyle Support; The Australian Institute of Sport deliver support through their Personal Excellence (PE) and Athlete Career and Education (ACE) programmes and High Performance Sport New Zealand runs an Athlete Life Programme delivered by Athlete Life Advisors. The England Cricket Board and the Professional Cricket Association run a comprehensive programme delivered by their Personal Development and Welfare Team, while the support professional rugby players receive through the RPA is delivered by Player Development Managers. Support personnel on some university scholarship programmes are simply called mentors.  The skills required by these professionals, the CPD opportunities available, and routes into this type of work will be covered in a future post.

Most professional athletes have access to lifestyle support through their national governing body or professional players association.  Athletes who are not yet at that level, and who would benefit from support, can contact us at Athlete Life Development to discuss and arrange one-to-one or small group support sessions.

Identity in sport

Recently, something happened which surprised me a lot.  I reached a point where I just couldn't talk about athletics anymore!  The watershed moment came on a recent altitude training trip to Ethiopia when I was staying at a training camp, surrounded by athletes, talking about athletics, all day long.

Don't get me wrong.  Sport is my life!  I run twice a day most days of the year, am in a bad mood when I haven't trained, have competed in the sport for more than 21 years and have no immediate plans of quitting, plan my social life around the race calendar, spend my holidays altitude training, studied sports science for 7 years, and have spent my entire working life supporting athletes and writing about sport.  I could not imagine my life without sport.  But at that moment in time, I just wanted to talk about something else!

I guess that even after all these years of being involved in sport, I've still managed to develop a personality independent of it.  True, sport has done a lot to make me the person I am, but I am not defined by it.  And that moment brought home to me just how important it is for athletes of all levels to have interests away from their sport, and to be able to switch off from repetition times, competitors' results, and target paces. Not only will it help with your performances as an athlete, but having interest outside of sport, and having an identity that is not completely built around sport, greatly eases the retirement transition.

I have often heard people say that you shouldn't study sport if you're an athlete; it'll be too much.  I can see where they're coming from, but there are a couple of flaws in their advice.   Who is going to make the best sports academics and practitioners, apart from the people who are genuinely interested in sport?  When advising athletes about career choices, I always encourage them to do something that they are interested in. Why study aeronautical engineering when you have no interest in either airplanes or engineering?  Yes, don't study sports science just because it has sport in the title - when you have no interest in science - but don't just avoid it because you already do sport.  There are many other ways to develop an identity that is not completely dependent on your sport and your performance as an athlete.

Let one thing lead to another

You may start out studying sport science, but this may lead to an interest in a particular area which takes you away from sport (e.g. biomechanics in ageing populations), and back again (e.g. how exercise can delay the ageing population).  Your interests are inspiring your career choices, but you have not pigeon-holed yourself because of what you see your identity to be.

Taking my own career as an example, I can explain this a little better.  I studied sports science because I was interested in sport and science.  This got me interested in research, and I did a PhD which looked at menstrual health in female athletes, something which I had a personal interest in.  Along the way I realised that I wanted to help athletes, and got a job supporting high performance athletes.  During this time I was surrounded, not only by high performance athletes, but by colleagues with a range of interests and hobbies.  I learned who to develop websites - when I set up a club website - and developed an interest in writing when writing athletics reports for a local newspaper.  I learned a range of skills on the job, that could be applied to a number of situations outside of sport.  Training at altitude in Kenya developed an interest in travel, and in African sociology and history.  I also got interested in photography, and started taking photos at races.  And I've always loved reading.  So the transition to writing a book which involved travel, taking lots of photos and running was an obvious one.  When doing that I learned about publishing, promotion, blogging and other social media, not to mention developing my stress management, self motivation and personal management skills.

The sport that I love has always been my guiding light, but I feel I have managed to develop a well rounded personality, with a range of interest (even if all these interests are related to sport).  I don't think I am defined by my results in athletics (probably just as well), or by anything else I have achieved along the way.  I am defined by how I behave, interact with others, and approach life.  All of these have been molded by my participation in sport, but would not change dramatically if I stopped running, and got a job away from sport tomorrow.

Surround yourself with the right people

There is no doubt but that being surrounded by the right people affects who we are, and how successful we become.  For some athletes that's being surrounded by other athletes that will motivate and push them. For others, being in a competitive environment 24/7 is just too much, and some successful athletes don't hang around with athletes at all.  Yes, you need people to understand you, but that doesn't always have to be other athletes.  Find the right mix of people for you.  Don't become stuck in a rut just because you and all your fiends have the some interests, drive and goals.  It's good if your friends have the similar values to you, but you don't have to have the same hobbies or interests as somebody else to get on with them.  In fact having a friend group with different interests, backgrounds and roles will not only help you in your sporting life, but will also help you moving forward from sport.

Don't let your results define your own self-worth

It's good to have stretching goals, to work hard towards those goals, and to celebrate in achieving those goals.  In fact there are few things more rewarding than finally realising a dream.  However, your self worth should't be defined by how fast you've ran, or what you achieved in sport.  I see myself as Elizabeth Egan, the person who takes on massive task, learns what she needed to along the way, overcomes a few setbacks along the way, and achieves what she sets out to do, rather than Elizabeth Egan who wrote a book.  The first is about character, is long-lasting and is independent of talent.  More importantly it consists of skills that can be transferred to any aspect of life.  The times we run, or medals we win are dependent on luck, other external factors, and talent, and will soon be forgotten about.  We can dine out for a lifetime on our personality and character, but even the Olympic golds will be forgotten about.

In summary
To have a long a successful sporting career, and a successful and rewarding life after sport, learn to have interests outside of sport. Surround yourself with a variety of well-rounded individuals, who may or may not participate in sport at a high level.  Other interests don't always have to have a negative impact on your focus or energy.  In fact, time away from thinking about training and performances usually have a positive impact.