Monday, August 23, 2010

A New Beginning

I have one question on my mind these days: how do I proceed forward? It was about a year ago now that I accepted the possibility that change could be a good thing and that coming back to Canada and working with a local coach here in Toronto would be what I needed to take that last step into major international competitions. However, here I am standing at the end of a disappointing and frustrating 7 months at UofT and preparing to make a coach and training location switch. Second thoughts creep in, and say that I should not have listened to various people who talked me into leaving my training location in the Netherlands. Unfortunately, that is just the trouble with hindsight 20/20; it feels so easy to say should have, could have, would have ...

When there is a clear ending, there are two questions that come to mind: do you regret the choice? Would you do it over again? To the first question, the answer is yes. However, to the latter, it is complicated to know for sure what I would or should do. I had a great deal of information to make the choice, but it was not enough. If I knew then what I know now of how the situation really is and not what it is made to look like, I know the answer would be no, and so I am starting over. As I prepare to move forward, I take a moment to think only of the positives.

Throughout the year I various conversations with my old coach, Bart, about my struggles, and fears and he would remind me that the person who knows Susan Coltman the best is me; I know what I can do and what I need to be able to perform, so it was time to take control for myself. I also had the great support of my friend Aquil Abdullah, and he too would remind me of my inner strength and that I needed to able to stand up for myself and know what I needed.

A noted American Author once said, "There will come a time when you believe everything is finished. That will be the beginning." This moment marks my new beginning. Wish me luck!

Your Athlete,
Susan

3 comments:

  1. Hi Susan,

    Sorry to hear about your struggles. Perhaps your struggles were just part of the adjustment? Either way, I hope you caan come back stronger than before. Your posts can be very inspiring. Any idea where you're going to end up this year?

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  2. Hi Susan,
    My son and I are very sorry to hear about your back injuries. We met you during a UofT Junior Blues session for kids and you told us about your hope of competing at this year's Commonwealth Games. You're an amazing athlete--hopefully a change in coach & a re-affirmation to trust your instincts will be what you need.

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  3. Hi Susan,
    I recently came up with your blog, sorry to hear about your bad times and hoping that nowadays it is being much better. I really enjoyed going through some of your posts and your encouraging and inspiring writing. I know it is been a while without writing but I was wondering if you would be interested in sharing your posts on Glipho? I bet that our users would be very interested in your stuff! It's a quite new social publishing platform, where you can connect to every social network accounts, really easy to use it and communicate with your followers and a good way to get exposure! In additional, you are able to import the posts from your blog in a super-easy way without affecting it at all.

    Please, have a look and take a tour to know more about http://glipho.com/ and if you feel like it, in one click you can set up your account!

    I hope you will join our Glipho community soon.

    All the best,

    Maite

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