Arianna Merritt, MEd | Health Educator & Digital Creator

Profile of Perseverance: Sharleen Hoar, PhD

Sharleen Hoar (Ph.D.) has been supporting elite and aspiring performers of all ages to achieve personal and performance excellence since 1996. She is a member of the Canadian Sport Psychology Association and is the mental performance lead with the Canadian Sport Institute - Pacific working with Olympic and National team athletes, coaches, and sport science and medical professionals. Sharleen attended the 2014 Commonwealth Games and the 2015 Pan American Games, and supported clients through three Olympic games including the 2010 and 2014 Winter Olympic Games in Vancouver (Canada) and Sochi (Russia), respectively, and 2016 Summer Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro (Brazil).

Profile of Perseverance: Danelle Kabush, PhD

Today, Danelle Kabush, is sharing her experiences of perseverance with us, as she is a professional athlete and mental performance consultant. Danelle combined her love of psychology with her other lifelong passion, sports, and completed her doctorate in Sport Psychology from the University of Ottawa in 2007. Along with competing, she works as a mental performance consultant to many different athletes in various sports. You can check out her website at http://danellekabush.com. Keep up the great work Danelle! Thanks for encouraging me to persist. I'm really glad I connected with you! Read Danielle's interview below!

Rise & Shine Interview: Wade Wilson

Today, Wade Wilson, is sharing with us his thoughts about perseverance. Thanks Wade! His message is really valuable and insightful. I suggest you read it. Hope you are all having a wonderful weekend!

Self-Reflection is a wonderful but scary process. It is difficult to objectively look at our faults and acknowledge them, however being able to learn from past set-backs is necessary to achieve excellence. We can self-reflect on both positive and negative experiences to find strength to persevere.

Rise & Shine Interview: Loren Fogelman

I'm excited that Loren Fogelman has decided to share with me as part of my series on perseverance. Loren Fogelman is author of The Winning Point and founder of Expert Sports Performance.com, a company devoted to teaching elite athletes how to consistently achieve high performance, maintain focus during competitions and create the confidence to reach their BIG goals. Having been a psychotherapist since 1985, she knows how to identify core issues -- the challenges that are getting in the way of your game – and how to tackle them with a laser-focused approach. During courses and coaching programs, Loren teaches her clients proven strategies for reaching their goals by working smarter, not harder. Psychology, physiology and productivity strategies when combined create a comprehensive training program, boosting performance.

Who Else Wants to Turn Their Dreams into Reality?

I had this powerful dream the other night which I have to share with you.

It relates to a situation I have been going through over the past year. I find that if you have been thinking about something a lot, your mind has a way of incorporating those thoughts into your dreams.

Press On! : What Rowing Taught Me About Resilience

You may have the best intentions, but if you do not know how to deal with setbacks, you will be unsuccessful at achieving your goal.

In yesterday's post, I mentioned the three stages to goal setting: planning, implementation, and maintenance. Many people have a goal; one way of achieving that goal is to devise a great plan. However, people often fail to take into consideration the obstacles that they may encounter in the process.

"Obstacles are those frightful things you see when you take your eyes off the goal" - Henry Ford

How Badly Do You Want To Win?

I remember thinking this when I watched the University men’s soccer teams play in the national championships in Victoria, BC, recently.

Picture this: it is the semi-finals round of a major national sports tournament. There are two teams in this round of the competition. Both teams have worked really hard to get here. Both have practised hard and won their important games. The players have most likely been playing for many years and have practiced daily. Each team has also grown really tight as a unit. But, watching the teams recently, I was reminded that it doesn’t matter how well you have played in the past or how much you practice; in the semi-finals, it is about this moment. Each player must be totally “present” in the game.

I've lost my drive...rowing drive that is...

I had an interesting experience on the erg (indoor rowing machine) yesterday that I have to share.

I came to the gym eager for a great workout and got on the erg. It was going great, had my headphones on, and in a great mood. Then out of nowhere, around the four minute mark, my legs stopped. It was the weirdest thing, I literally LOST my drive (in more ways than one, motivation and is part of the rowing stroke).

The drive in rowing is the part of the stroke where the rower pulls the blade through the water using their legs, back and arms to propel the boat. It is a fundamental part of the stroke, as the rowing is 80% leg muscle power. Don't believe me - try rowing; you'll soon realize it's all about the legs.

Finding Arianna: A Journey of figuring out what my goal is in life

I think I have had many whispers in my ear over my lifetime, I usually refer to them as weird coincidences.

I think every individual's life journey should be about finding your passion and being strong enough to go after it.

Kyle Hamiltons video all the little moments add up to the big moment - I think all the people that I have met over my journey and all my experiences had led me where I am today.

NO MORE EXCUSES: What I learned from my first day of Bootcamp.

Do the following sound familiar to you? These were all statements that I said before or during my first day at a fitness Bootcamp yesterday. It didn’t hit me until after that I use too many excuses.

“I am going a bit slower today BECAUSE I didn’t sleep well last night” – said as I was hiking

“I am taking my time down the hill BECAUSE I sprained my ankle” – on the way down

“I’m nervous to start this program BECAUSE I’ll look like a beginner” – in the car before Bootcamp

Or maybe some of these sound familiar to you....

A lesson learned from Michael Phelps: Persevere

I saw Michael Phelps compete at the Pan Pacific Swimming Championships in Victoria, B.C. in 2006. I am a fellow swimmer and find him, like many of his fans, inspiring to watch. Prior to this time, I had only seen him on magazine covers, talk shows, and at the 2004 Olympics. I will admit that before seeing him, I thought he was this amazingly talented swimmer who had innate talent and did not have to practice. Also, I thought because he was a celebrity he was somehow different than other swimmers. However, when seeing him in this environment, my views changed and I became even more impressed with him. I realized he works extremely hard and that all those medals are well-deserved. He is human like the rest of us. He may have the physical strength yet it is his mental strength that I admire most and makes him excel.

Are some athletes missing a fundaMENTAL component to their training?

Practice makes perfect, right? Or, if you keep training and improving, you will win medals, right? The common motivational advice from other athletes is: "Keep practicing and never give up!"

When I hear statements like these, it seems that athletics can be simplified into a formula. You train for this many hours (10,000 hours as said by Malcolm Gladwell) or repeat the motion 50,000 times, and you will excel at it. In many sports programs, the focus is on the physical and technical aspects. The athletes constantly train to improve their technique to become the best they can be. They go to practice and do drills to better their performance.

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