Cometh the hour, cometh the woman...
No matter how much we try to sanitise the process or analyse the system there does still come a moment when we need to step up to the plate #Resilience #Courage
On the 3rd of August Scotland’s Eilish McColgan took gold in the 10,000m at Birmingham 2022.
The 31-year-old won in a Commonwealth Games record of 30 minutes 48.60 seconds for her first major title as she beat Kenya’s Irine Cheptai following a race-long duel.
'This is the most incredible moment of my career, I couldn't hear myself think or breathe, in that last 100m".
Eilish McColgan
Her race win had not come easy. A battle with Covid prior to the Commonwealth Games, after a niggle put paid to her 10,000m hopes at the World Athletics Championships just a few weeks' before, resulting in a disappointing 10th place finish. The story began in 2010 at her first Commonwealth Games in Delhi . Then again in Glasgow 2014 and the Gold Coast in 2018 were she consistently finished 6th.
Throughout this period she demonstrated extreme resilience in refusing to give up, finding the strength to stay focussed and keep training.
During various keynote speeches, and in numerous articles I discuss techniques and processes that help individuals become more resilient.
Ideas such as micro goal setting, dealing with FEAR - False, Expectation, Appearing, Real and ensuring that you understand your "in order to...". All these techniques enable an individual to take that extra step when the pressure is on.
There is an element to resilience that our business community seems uncomfortable discussing - courage!
This is not a question of "manning up" a phrase that means very little and is seldom helpful but rather choosing to be courageous!
Accepting that what you are doing is hard, outside of your comfort zone and maybe beyond your reach but choosing to press on any way.
When Eilish entered the final few hundred metres of that race she was beyond training and rational perspective; those things had led her to that moment. Then she stepped up, accepted the pain, and found courage ...
It's important that we foster courage and accept that sometimes we must operate outside our comfort zone even when uncertain of the results. Eilish risked overexerting herself and failing, in order to give herself the chance to take Gold.
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