What Simone Biles taught me about PERSEVERANCE🥇
In today’s post we’ll chat thru…
① How Simone Biles Paris Run got me INSPIRED.
② A QUICK RECAP on Simone Biles’ story.
③ 4 LESSONS from Simone Biles on PERSEVERANCE.
LET’S DIVE IN. 🖤
Hello, Hi, and Welcome back! I’m really pumped for today’s episode bc if you’re like me…you’ve most likely been glued to watching sports on TV for the past three weeks all due in part to the Summer Olympics. I feel like I’m more of a Summer Olympics girly than a winter one (although I do love some figure skating). bc growing up my hero’s were women like Dominique Moceanu, Kerri Strug, and Shannon Miller. At the time, their tenacity and grit and “YOU CAN DO IT” attitudes towards their sport were so inspiring to me. And I know that today the conversation surrounding the insane amount of pressure they were put under…how damaging that was for them (mind, body, and spirit)…gosh, it would be a completely different conversation than how it was viewed or treated at the time, right?! You still can’t deny that those women were hero’s for a lot of us little girls back in the day.
And so this year’s Paris Olympics and the return for one more run at Gold for Simone Biles + the USA Team got me inspired to create a conversation around what these heros of ours can teach us. Today we’re gonna talk about mental health, perseverance, being really freaking great at your craft, and what it looks like to never give up on your dreams. Basically all the things we love, right? So. Let’s dive in.
FIRST. A QUICK SIMONE BILES RECAP…
Let me start with a quick recap if you’re not familiar with Simone Biles’s story or need a little refresher -
You might remember that the 2020 Tokyo Olympics were actually held in 2021 due to COVID and the pandemic, and bc of that, there were a lot of unique challenges the athletes faced. The delay of the Olympics, for starters. Isolation, quarantine, and lots of daily testing for COVID were a strain on the event. The venues were empty and families couldn’t attend, so the support system and the energy from the crowd was missing. There was just a lot of added stress beyond the normal pressures an athlete of that caliber would have to endure.
Coming into the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, Simone Biles was already a beautifully decorated gymnast with multiple Olympic and World Championship medals (I think 20+?!) and she was considered the favorite to win multiple gold medals at those games. Again…lot’s of pressure. And I know…you might be like “it’s her job to handle pressure” but we have to remember that top performers are human, too. Even though we want her to stand on a pedestal for the gold, we have to take people OFF of the pedestals we place them on and remember that at their core - they are people…imperfect and all. Coming into the vault, Simone experienced what’s known as the "twisties," which is a mental block that affects a gymnast's spatial awareness while performing twists in the air. This condition makes it extremely dangerous to perform high-difficulty routines as it increases the risk of serious injury. It’s crazy when you go back and rewatch her vaults…you can see her eyes lose focus and it’s almost like her head was floating in air trying to find something to spot. Super scary. Realizing the danger and recognizing the need to prioritize her mental and physical health, Simone made the decision to withdraw from several events, including the team final and the individual all-around competition. When she withdrew from the finals, saying she was experiencing the “twisties” and needed to focus on her mental health, she was called a quitter and accused of abandoning her teammates.
After returning home she continued to advocate for her mental health as well as other athletes and took a break from the sport until announcing that she’d be back in the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris with the USA Gymnastics Team. I’m giving you cliff notes and missing a lot of the middle stuff, but between what most would consider the lowest point of their career to the most INSPIRING comeback these past few weeks in Paris, I wanted to share what Simone’s journey can teach us about the PROCESS of getting back up when you fall down…and what it looks like to never give up on your dreams.
WHAT SIMONE BILES TAUGHT ME ABOUT PERSEVERANCE:
① MAKE LIFE ABOUT MORE THAN YOUR CALLING + CRAFT.
IDK about you, but there have been multiple times in my life where I was so attached to my job, my work, my craft, my calling…that THAT became the THING my entire identity was wrapped up in. Can you relate? Maybe it’s performing or music or art or a sport…maybe it’s transitioning from single to wife or double-income-no-kids to mom…and when that thing or season of you life is gone, a piece of you (or all of you) feels like it died along side of it. I feel like I’ve learned this lesson over and over again. I’m reminded time and again not to make good things in my life the GOD things, ya know? The identity or labels I place on myself should never be the idol that I worship. Teacher. Performer. Beachbody Coach. My identity has been wrapped up in those things so much so that when they were gone I didn’t know who I WAS without them.
Simone Biles is a perfect example that in order to persevere for the long haul, you have to find things beyond THE THING. When she stepped back from the identity of GYMNAST, she took a lot of time to be present in her HOME LIFE and her HEALING. So what’s “your thing?” Are all your goals set around it? Are all of your conversations centered around it? Is your schedule filled by it? That’s cool. I love that. And…what about the other areas of your life? Remember in this space I talk about all the areas of self care and when we truly take care of our WHOLE SELF we make sure we’re looking at it all. What’s been getting the back burner? Can it be brought forward? And how can make YOU + YOUR VALUE/WORTH less attached to what you do and rest in the fact that YOU, as you are, are exactly enough?
② THERAPY + HEALING ARE COOL (+ a process).
I love when I person in the spotlight shows their vulnerability. It’s the thing that makes so many of us on the other side of screens feel more “normal” ya know? It’s our human-ness that connects us. When Simone openly shared that she was struggling, she also openly shared that an athlete’s MIND is just as important as their BODY. When we see an injured athlete, it’s easy to applaud them for getting the help they need to recover, but it’s so much harder when you can’t physically SEE the pain. Trauma lives in the body and will come out in whatever way it needs to. And you might think “whoa…trauma…that’s not me…” but friends, we ALL have something weighing on us. And it helps to talk to someone who is trained to listen and offer a fresh, unbiased perspective. You know the phrase “hurt people, hurt people?” Well a few years ago I heard the phrase “healed people, heal people” and I love that. When you heal, you offer hope and healing to those around you.
And I also want to note that it’s a process and it’s not linear. Just bc you’re doing the work doesn’t mean something won’t cause you to feel the hurt or experience the pain again. I almost think of healing as the rebuilding of a house. If the house was broken and shattered you would start by removing all the broken pieces, analyzing how or if they could be used again, getting yourself to a solid foundation, and then beginning the work of rebuilding one piece at a time. Healing can feel like a full on rehab project at times and that’s part of that process.
③ DITCH SOCIAL MEDIA WHEN YOU’RE DOWN.
In Simone’s documentary on Netflix “Simone Rising,” she talks about how she deleted social media off her phone and turned comments off on her accounts even when they were active again. Positive. Negative. It didn’t matter. She was controlling the narrative vs allowing others in. Ya’ll. Social media is the WORST place to hang out when you’re down. And she realized this and removed the ease of entry AND protected her heart once she was back which is an awesome example for us to consider - Remove the ease of entry. Protect your head + heart when you’re in. In today's digital age, social media can be a double-edged sword. While it connects us and allows us to share our lives, which I LOVE…it can also increase pressure, comparison, and negativity.
Simone faced immense scrutiny and criticism on social media, the kind that most of us will never have to experience or be exposed to. But regardless, that ADDS to the stress we’re already experiencing and it's a reminder for all of us to be mindful of our social media consumption. You have the power to curate your feed, take breaks when needed, and remember that what you see online is often a highlight reel, not the full story. When you’re down…ditch social media.
④ EASE BACK IN WITH THE BASICS.
Also in her documentary, Simone walked us thru the process of what it looked like to return to the gym and start training herself again. She didn’t enter and start practicing vault routines again. No. She just drove to the gym one day a week and hung out. Maybe jumped on the trampoline. And when she was ready to start focusing back on her sport, she eased in with the BASICS. I think this is such a valuable lesson for all of us…the road gets long. Motivation comes and goes. Things happen. We all fall down or get off track. And when you decide to re-enter, you often want to start right back from where you left off. Ya’ll. My husband might kill me for sharing this, but he does this ALL THE TIME. While he’s an avid cyclist…he tends to go into spurts of strength training. He stops lifting weights for like a month of two and then when he decides it’s time to get back into it, he’ll bust out a leg day with the same weights he got up to on his last strength stint.
And then he can’t walk or sit on the toilet for a week. 🤣 Tell me you get this.
What if instead of trying to “get back where we left off” we eased back into our routines with the BASICS? That’s actually what the topic of this fall in The Sisterhood Membership is all about. “BACK TO THE BASICS - doing the things that help us feel our best.”
For Simone that was setting her alarm.
Getting dressed in her workout clothes.
Driving to the gym.
Moving her body.
Going thru the routines that helped her get to where she was.
And as she got better with the BASICS, she added on and progressed her training from there.
Even if you aren’t an Olympic athlete, which I’m gonna guess is most all of us…we all have those things. The things that help us FEEL + SHOW UP as our BEST SELVES. And this fall I want to help you DO THOSE THINGS. I want to help you EASE BACK INTO THE BASICS of feeling your best.
THINK - Water. Movement. Meal plans. Mindset. Sleep. Sunshine.
You know…the things that are easy to do and also really easy NOT to do. Simply put, we're saying YES to LESS and going back to the fundamentals that help us feel our best. Enrollment is opening on August 26th for the fall season so I’m shameless plugging it in NOW bc I want you to be there WITH US this fall. I’ll drop the link to get on the waitlist in the show notes OR you can go to inspirebeautybritt.com/jointhesisterhood for all the deets.
Okay…and one more BONUS LESSON as I land the plane on today’s episode bc I love you + I want this one tattooed on your heart -
YOU CAN ONLY CONNECT THE DOTS LOOKING BACK…SO GIVE YOUR JOURNEY TIME BC ONE DAY IT WILL ALL MAKE SENSE.
Imagine if Simone went home and decided that she was done. I have to believe that there were a lot of moments where she wrestled with that idea. I have to imagine there are moments of defeat in your life and journey where you also wrestle with thoughts of throwing in the towel or giving up on what God has laid on your heart. I get it. Maybe not in the kind of spotlight that Simone Biles has to handle it in, or in your exact story, but I can empathize with this bc I walk it, too. Reminding myself that ONE DAY…maybe not today…but ONE DAY…the hard things I’ve been thru, the waiting seasons, the healing that seems to feel like it’s all for nothing bc the old me just shows up out of nowhere…I have to believe that ONE DAY it will all make sense - the dots will connect. That you and I will look back on these moments and realize they were part of the story we were writing. Every great story. Every great movie. Every great Netflix binge. They all have a struggle smack dab in the middle. So. Friends…if you’re in the struggle, can I encourage you that maybe you’re not done yet? Maybe the story is about to get really freaking good. But you’ll never know if you don’t keep going.
Take the example of Simone Biles -
Make your life about MORE than just that one thing.
Heal and heal and heal again from anything that’s weighing you down…bc we’ve all got something.
Ditch social media in those times you’re down.
And ease back in with the BASICS, friends.
And even better…ease back into the BASICS with US. Your online community of friends who want to see you WIN AT LIFE. You deserve to feel your best. You deserve to persevere in creating a life you crave. And you deserve to do it alongside a community of women who have your back. If today is speaking to you or you just really vibe with this space and the community + conversations we’re having then I know you’ll love The Sisterhood Membership so be sure to save your name on my wait list.
Regardless though, and as always, I’m rooting for you and I can’t wait to see you back here next week on The Self Care Sisterhood Podcast. 🖤🤟🏼
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