The most important lesson Aquil has taught me is to define what is hard and only then can you begin to change it. When I find myself at a lost with a given situation, you can bet that one of the first calls I make is to my friend Aquil.
At first I can only say that I do not know exactly what is wrong, things just feel so hard. And he will say, Susan that is not enough. Tell me what is hard. What is possible to change now? What are you going to focus on to turn things around? He has reminded me of the life lesson of breaking things down. When something is not working as a whole, break it down and find one part to focus on and regain control. Then piece by piece it will come back to you.
Aquil Abdullah and his partner Henry Nuzum in double sculls.To highlight an important moment in his career as an athlete, Aquil was a finalist at the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens rowing doubles, finishing sixth! However, this was not before he experienced the heartbreak of missing the 2000 Olympic Games by a fraction of a second (only 0.33sec). For me, he was someone who knew what it felt like, what it meant to me, to miss out on the Beijing Olympics by a mere 3 points.
With that, his second lesson for me to learn was about finding the courage to dig deeper in training and competition. As he was once told by his former coach, he told me that you will not soon forget this feeling. You need to learn to use if to push yourself in the following training and competitions when you think you cannot go further – you dig! You dig to China if you need it!
What a great friend and supporter to have! I mentioned before that it is important to surround yourself with strong people that can help you achieve your goals, and I consider myself pretty lucky to have Aquil there for me, to bring out an athlete in me I had only dreamt about until now!
Your Athlete,
Susan
Susan, how lucky you are to have found a fellow athlete who has "been there", so to speak, to inspire you to dig deeper. I really liked the idea of "breaking it down", which I will share with my classes when we're particularly stumped on a French task - what part of it is hard? How can we fix this, one step at a time.
ReplyDeleteMadame Noble
Susan:
ReplyDeleteI'm sure your parents have sent this to you already, but just in case....here's the link to the Examiner article that ran on Friday.
http://www.thepeterboroughexaminer.com/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=1423195
Lisa
Yeah, that is great! I was told yesterday about the article and I feel flattered at the response. The funding is important and helps me tremendously. But honestly, I just love this opportunity to inspire the kids and hope my story can help :>
ReplyDelete