Motivational Speaker Yvonne Camus: See Yourself At Your Best

Motivational Speaker Yvonne Camus: See Yourself At Your Best

so what that meant for me was as a
single mom I had to recruit my younger
sister to move into my house with me
because the volume of hours of training
becomes just massive and we have to
train in the darkness because this race
is 24 hours a day so a typical day for
me at that time I would get up at about
4:30 in the morning I’d rushed down to
Lake Ontario I’m near where I live in
Mississauga I mean our paddling coach
and my team and we’d paddle for a couple
of hours in the morning and then I’d
rush back home I’d get my kids out of
bed I get them off to school I’d get
showered I’d go to work I’d try and do a
weight training session at lunch and
then I’d rush back home at the end the
day get my kids through homework dinner
bath bed and then I’d go and train again
because we had to train in the darkness
and this went on for several months and
you can imagine the schedule was almost
impossible to maintain and so one night
we had a cycling training workout
scheduled from 8 o’clock at night till 4
o’clock in the morning and I literally
dragged my sorry butt into that workout
and the coach looks at me he goes Yvonne
what’s wrong
I said I’m exhausted I’m exhausted I
don’t think I can do this tonight I
can’t keep up with these guys because
I’m the first to admit I can acknowledge
in athletics men are faster and stronger
than women and so on our team not only
my the slowest person when we’re racing
I’m the slowest person when we’re
training so even just to do a workout
with these guys for me always felt like
it was pushing me just a little bit you
know too hard and so I said to the coach
I don’t even want to try and keep up
tonight and he looked me what he said to
me that night has impacted me so much
since and I love sharing it so I’ll he
he’ll to me he said you know what Yvonne
he said eight out of every ten workouts
that you and I are gonna do together are
going to be perfectly fine you’re gonna
show up you’re gonna get on the bike
you’re gonna do the workout you’re gonna
go home afterwards you were cooper cover
it’s exactly what you and I both expect
he said but one out of every ten
workouts that you and I are gonna do
together is going to be complete crap
you’re gonna hate it you’re gonna hate
every second of it you’re gonna get on
the bike and immediately feel like
there’s something wrong you
maybe I’m a mechanical issue or your
legs are too heavy you feel like you
have concrete blocks for feet you know
you can’t get enough oxygen everything
is working against you there’s a
headwind you know it just feels like
nothing you can do could make it better
and he said the only thing I’m gonna
tell you is on those days just give
yourself a little credit for showing up
and then go home do the workout and then
go home you said because one out of
every 10 workouts that you and I are
gonna do together it’s gonna be
incredible
it’s gonna be amazing you’re gonna get
on the bike and feel fast it’s gonna
feel good you’re gonna want to explore
it he said on that day that day you’ve
got to promise me you’re gonna push it
you’re gonna push it because you want to
figure out what it is you are capable of
when you’re doing it at your best and
you know I walked away from that
conversation and I can tell you it’s
been like having my eyes opened up to
the fact that you know so many of us
make the mistake of evaluating ourselves
on the one out of 10 days when we’re
total crap you know when we look at
ourselves in that light and we think oh
these are my true colors you know this
is why I can’t ever do or have you know
and I’ve discovered your casual
observation that the most successful
happy people I mean are people who have
the ability to evaluate themselves when
they are at their best they see
themselves in the light in the
possibility in the optimistic you know
state of being able to see what it is
who they are when they are at their best
and I want you to just pause for a
second in your own mind just pause for a
second and think about the last time you
had it you were brilliant
you know athletes call it being in the
zone and you know when you’re there it
feels so good think about the last time
you had it and then just explore it a
little bit in your own mind just turn it
over and think about the details because
really successful athletics it’s truly
about defining and be able to being able
to recognize what environment you
perform at your best and paying
attention to the details you’ve probably
heard you know some of us are even
superstitious about the order we put our
clothes
or you know how we set up before we
start a race but it’s those details that
we believe help produce our best
performance and I think if we’re
optimistic about our ability not only to
repeat our best performance but surpass
it we will always overcome that
challenge of improvement that gap
between where we are and where we want
to be