the next Mia Hamm?
Are you someone who commits to something and sees it through to the end?
Or are you someone who quickly decides you don’t like something - whether it’s too much effort or too inconvenient - and you find an excuse to quit?
Or do you fail to even try, possibly for those same reasons?
When I was in Junior High School, I joined the soccer team. I have no idea what sparked my interest, but I was stoked about being a part of a team. I had my dad take me to Cleats & Sneaks and I twisted his arm to buy me only the best gear, because I needed to look the part. And then about three weeks in, and much to my father’s chagrin after spending all that money, I quit. I quit because there was too much running involved in practice. One might call this ironic, because two years later when I entered High School, I joined the track team. As you can imagine, a track team involves running…a lot!
Whenever I’ve shared that memory, I’ve always said the reason I quit soccer was because of the running, but if I’m being honest with myself, and you, I quit because I was scared. I had never played or even watched soccer before, and I was worried that I would embarrass myself and be a steadfast benchwarmer.
In hindsight, I approached my decision to quit with a fixed mindset. I decided that because I wasn’t naturally gifted I would embarrass myself on the field, so therefore I couldn’t stay on the team. If I had had a growth mindset, I would have recognized that it was okay to look like a beginner while I learned how to play the sport, and that the only way I could become a soccer player, was to practice playing soccer. * The girls who knew how to play, and who played well, had probably been participating in the sport for years, so of course I needed to put in the work to earn my spot on the field. I also could have recognized my own strength as a morale booster. Someone need encouraging? Naturally, I’m your person. Need someone to dribble a soccer ball down the field? Well, that would have required practice, discipline and hard work…
Sadly, I never gave myself the chance to learn or to be the star performer, gracing the bench, cheering on her friends, nor did I put in that aforementioned work, and I honestly still regret it.
I share this story in the hope it inspires you to question your own motives when you quit or fail to start something. When we open ourselves up to new experiences and possibly challenges, we are giving ourselves the chance to reinvent ourselves.
Who knows, maybe I could have been the next Mia Hamm? I mean, we did both attend UNC 😉
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*as a parent, I now can recognize what it’s like for someone to learn something new for the first time, and how you might look completely ridiculous while doing it, but that it’s ok. When my 2-year-old son picked up the mini soccer ball at class and threw it into the goal, or sat on my lap in the middle of the floor watching the other kids run around, I obviously didn’t laugh at him. That kid has a completely open mindset when it comes to trying new things, and I will do everything I can to keep it that way!
