My guest today is Rowena Birch, an Olympic and European judo champion. Rowena is also the current president of the British Judo Association.
Outside of judo, Rowena has coached at elite levels across many sporting disciplines and corporate leadership. She has retrained as a financial advisor and now runs her own business.
Rowena talks about how she coped with not being selected for the Barcelona Olympic games by prioritising her training and reorganising her life to maximise her focus.
Self Belief and reflective self-discovery. Being in the right place and loving the sport is vitally important, as is knowing that just because you don't get instant results doesn't mean you are doing anything wrong.
The mindset of enjoying the journey. The danger of over-focusing on results instead of the process. Keeping going relies on finding ways to enjoy what you are doing.
After Competition. Using the skills learned from the experience of competitive sport and applying them to coaching and revelling in an environment of learning - creating and developing new skills.
Letting go of an elite sporting persona and finding a new place in the world of judo after the elite competitions. - Adjusting techniques to a new reality and accepting that your body and circumstances have changed.
Core Identity - The importance of being part of the judo community, how the core values of honesty, integrity, courage and respect have shaped Rowena's identity
embuing a passion for learning and self-development.
Starting new challenges Using the tools of being an athlete to embrace new challenges and learn new skills. Breaking new tasks into logical, systematic pieces.
References
You can find out about Rowena's business here: https://partnership.sjp.co.uk/partner/goldenbirchesfinancialplanning.
I chose Rowena's book: How Much is Enough: Money and the Good Life by Edward Skidelsky and Robert Skidelsky.