How Focusing Your Energy on YOU Takes Motivation to The Next Level

Clouds rolled past the airplane window as we began our descent back to Detroit. I pulled my phone from my pocket to see if we were low enough to get reception. As I unlocked it, my phone buzzed with Twitter notifications, “Women’s Triple Jump American Record, Previously Held by Tori Franklin, BROKEN!”

I flared up like pinecones in a fire.“Okaaayy,” I thought to myself. My lips tightened and my inner lioness bellowed a dominating, territory-enforcing roar. I was on an airplane, but I wanted to go straight to practice. I would’ve stood up and started doing triple jump technique drills in the aisle if I wasn’t cornered in the window seat. There was a new sense of urgency to get better, be more focused, do extra, and do whatever it takes for me to get the American Record back.

When I was young, my sole focus was to win. I didn’t care who I was up against, I didn’t care to know their name or where they were from. If they lined up next to me, they were getting their butt “Hwhooped.” For many years, winning was the only thing that motivated me. But when I got to college, suddenly I wasn’t such a big fish in a little pond, and I didn’t win all the time. I began to realize that my focus had to change, or I would be destined to always feel unmotivated and inadequate for not being the best athlete on the track.