Sailing the unknown

Now that I’ve finished my career as a professional athlete, it’s time to figure out what I want to do next. The step into business life is a big one - finding my way will require some brainwork and soul searching.

The most valuable question I can ask myself is: What have I learned in my career as a professional athlete and how can I use those skills in business life?

„All too often, we focus on results, rather than the process.“ - Marguerita Cheng, Blue Ocean Global Wealth.

In ski racing, what people see and what the media talks about takes place in roughly two dozen minutes over the course of the season. However, the amount of work that goes into those minutes is so disproportionately large, it makes me dizzy. In the end, the results are all that matter, but the process is 99% of the work and should get 99% of our attention. Something you learn in ski racing is to be in the moment. Because of the potentially serious consequences of making a mistake, you learn to narrow your focus and concentrate only on the task at hand. Handling pressure, managing risk, planning, visualizing and executing that plan at all costs – yet at the same time improvising – was my daily business. I’m not saying I’m an expert in all these things, or any really, but I’ve spent 15 years studying my behaviour in out-of-the-norm situations.

Grit

What separates the good athletes from the best? There is a lot you pick up out there along the way, and countless books are looking into that exact topic. But a modern word you will come across sooner or later is grit. Grit is „self-discipline, combined with a passionate commitment to a task and a burning desire to see it through“. Of course, I’ve read the book „Grit“ by Angela Duckworth. It can be inspiring to read a book about success – you realize that in the end it’s all about: What is my goal and how badly do I want it?

Relying on myself

Something I’m grateful to have learned along the way is the ability to rely on myself. When I’d be standing in the start gate of a steep, icy, bumpy downhill, neither mama nor a coach was there to help me out. It was all on me then and it is all on me now as well. I ask experts for advice, I trust my team 100% - but I need to execute myself, and for now, that means I need to decide in which direction I want to go.

Asking the questions

Asking myself uncomfortable questions (What do I fear? Am I standing in my own way? Am I willing to pay the price?) feels familiar - from what I’ve observed, the best athletes are the ones that are brutally honest to themselves and I assume it’s the same in business life. 

Motivation by rising the fun tolerance

Self-discipline and motivation are finite, but if you develop the ability to have fun in painful, boring work, you have a great chance of constantly catching enough inspiration to keep moving forward. Like almost anything else, it’s a matter of tolerance. 

Feeling a little lost and overwhelmed while dropping out of sport and into business is a common thing for ex-athletes. I do know my weaknesses - I’m 31 years old and I haven’t worked a day in my life. At least not in an office, or the field I want to approach in the future. I was a university student for 2 semesters only, during an almost career-ending injury break, so I have no bachelor or master’s degree in my back pocket. That used to make me cringe, but thinking about what I DID learn, makes me look into the future more optimistically. 

Navigating new possibilities feels like steering a sailing boat. Sometimes there is wind, sometimes there isn’t. A storm comes up with huge waves. A beautiful sunset with calm sea. Cruising along. Sailing in full speed. But sometimes, I feel like I’m not even a sailor, so what the heck am I doing here?

To be continued…