Retiring From Sport - a podcast by Siri Lindley

Welcome to the Bed Head Chronicles.  I woke up this morning thinking about how hard it is to end a chapter in your life not knowing what's next.  And I was thinking about this in relation to athletes, and when it's time to retire from the sport and how difficult that is.  Especially for athletes that have been doing sport their entire lives, and the mind wants to continue but the body is saying no.  Whether it's injuries or just exhaustion or not being able to perform it at the same levels anymore; and that can be quite devastating to athletes because over time the sport becomes their identity.  It's all they know.  It's who you are and we as athletes, when it's time to finish competing, we think that who we are and what people see in us, the respect that we earned, the friends that I've made, the things we've achieved.  We think that that's all because of the sport. 

What if the sport was just the vehicle through which we found ourselves?  Through which we stepped into all that we now know about ourselves, our strength, our power, our confidence, our light? What if the sport was just meant to deliver us right here where you are now?  And although it's time to say goodbye to the sport, and say goodbye to everything that brought you that fame, that respect, that self-respect, that self-love?  How about saying that in you for delivering me to this space where I can now, truly, have an even more powerful and greater impact on this world and those around me.  Because I now have access to everything I need to truly create the extraordinary life I dream of. 

Thank the sport for delivering you to this new identity that is you as your most powerful self.  You as someone that can take on anything because you've proven through your sport that you can be afraid, you can do it anyway -- that's courage.  You can take on something that may seem impossible but devote your life to putting your heart, your soul, your body, your mind, your everything into making your dream come true.

You can be resilient.  You can be relentless.  You can be determined.  You can fail, but you can get back up again, and you can achieve.  You now have that knowledge.  You have that proof. 

Yes, sport becomes our identity to a certain extent, but when it's time to give up the sport for whatever reason, it's not that you have nothing left.  It's that you now have more than you could have ever dreamed of.  More to bring into this next chapter of your life.   The sport delivered you to your greatest place of power within yourself.  Now find out what is your real identity.  Sport was the vehicle, but what your identity is who you are.  Are your strength, your courage, your compassion, your love, your heart, your soul, your spirit. 

Those will always be inside you with the sport or without it.  Tap into your true identity, which is who you are on the inside.  Everything that got you to the levels you got to in the sport, and everything that is going to see you step into this next chapter of life, creating the extraordinary life that you dreamed up and touching all the lives around you.  How can you use all the power inside of you that you have earned through all your hard work, through all your experiences with your failures, your successes, your victories, your happiness, your joys, your sorrows?  How can you use all of that inside of you to touch the lives of everyone around you, and to make a difference in this world?  Go where your heart pulls you.  Believe in you.

Trust you are so much more than sport.  you are everything that is inside of you right now.  Share that with the world.  You are a gift.  Go make a difference because you can.

For more tips and advice about living an authentic life go to https://www.sirilindley.com/authentic/

Further episodes of The Bed Head Chronicles

Further podcasts by Siri Lindley

Website of Siri Lindley