Tuesday Jun 20, 2023

73. When Adversity Strikes, Keep Showing Up | Amanda Marek

Key takeaways:

• Control what you can and let go of what you cannot control.

• After adversity strikes, take time to recover. Seek out resources to determine what happened and why it happened and get back out there.

• Don’t compare yourself to other athletes, because your success may look different from their success.

The road to success is rarely a straight line. In today’s world, people are used to seeking out instant gratification, but becoming a successful athlete does not happen overnight. Instead, success comes from consistency and continuing to show up even in the face of adversity. In today’s episode, Amanda Marek, triathlete and triathlon coach, speaks with Dr. Andrew Fix about how to keep pushing forward after a setback.

When Amanda was 7 years old, she was diagnosed with a seizure disorder. Doctors told her mother that she should be pulled from all sports, but her mother had other ideas. She refused to give up on her daughter and instilled that same tenacity in Amanda. After falling in love with triathlons in her senior year of college, Amanda pushed herself to train hard and entered her first full IronMan in 2015. Even though she was in love with endurance sports, success did not come easily. She continued to have issues with the running portion, culminating in a huge blow out in 2018 where she had a seizure 400 meters from the finish line. Where many people may have given up after such an adverse event, Amanda pivoted, seeking out the resources she needed to recover properly and making a new plan for how to best prepare Amanda’s body for a successful run.

The road to success is full of ups and downs. It’s all about staying consistent and getting back up after each mistake or setback. If you are interested in trying a triathlon, you absolutely can make it happen with dedication and a lot of hard work.

Quotes

• “All too often I think people see really everything from sport to your professional life to social, everybody sees it as a straight line. But it's a lot of ups and downs. It's a lot of mistakes and getting back up and getting to the top of that straight line.” (8:45-9:11 | Amanda)

• “There's no shortage of options on how you can do this and how you can be successful. I'm a big advocate for anyone getting involved in the sport.” (25:24-25:37 | Amanda)

• “Consistency is the most important thing.” (25:50-25:53 | Amanda)

• “We live in a society where there's kind of this need for instant gratification…you have to make that decision to show up and put the work in.” (26:54-27:38 | Amanda)

• “I had a seizure 400 meters from the finish line. And, being the stubborn person I am and knowing what happened and knowing my body, whether it was right or wrong, I crawled to the finish line.” (43:08-43:22 | Amanda)

• “It's really important to not compare yourself to every other athlete because what they do is going to be a lot different than what you do, and your success may not look like their success.” (59:44-59:59 | Amanda)

Links

Flux Footwear

Coupon Code: drandrewfix

10% off

Xero Shoes: 10% off https://xeroshoes.com/go/drandrewfix

drinklmnt.com/physioroom - free variety pack with purchase.

RAD Roller - $5 off

http://radroller.refr.cc/drandrewfix

Revogreen

https://revogreen.co/drandrewfix

Connect with Amanda Marek:

Tri 4 Schools: https://tri4schools.org/