A wee bit about Carol:
Mom of two, Wife, Wrestling Coach, Mental Performance Consultant in training. Freestyle Wrestling Olympic Champion and Bronze Medalist, 2x Pan American Games Champion, Commonwealth Games Champ, 4x World medalist. Canadian Hall of Fame Inductee
What does it mean to you to Live Your Fierce?
Living Fierce means having the courage to pursue your passions even through the fear of failing miserably. It also means having the determination and the grace for yourself to keep finding a way, even after you've failed miserably many times over!
What were some of the obstacles / barriers to reaching your goals and living your fierce?
I've always had a very loud-mouthed inner critic. Still deal with it everyday! Once I actually achieved the pinnacle of an amateur athlete's career, it didn't go away. Could not financially support my training early in my career.
Describe 1-3 things which were instrumental to your overcoming these obstacles / barriers.
1. I surrounded myself with supportive people: my parents, coach and club supported me financially early in my career so that I could have those early experiences that really helped motivate me to really pursue being the best in my sport;
2. Teammates, coaches, friends, and family believed in me and supported my pursuits.
3. I really worked hard on my mental game: worked with a couple of mental performance consultants. Learned a lot of strategies and skills to build confidence, perform under pressure, and to deal with the road bumps along the way.
What are some of the attributes you look for when choosing your support system:
Compassion, humour, can commiserate and allow me to wallow but will also help pick me up off my face and see from a different perspective.
Carol's words of fierce…
Be self-aware about what self-care means to you.
Sometimes, balance in your life means "on average" - some days it's about being able to give your undivided attention to your family, other days, it's about leaving the kids at home with daddy so mommy can go and kick some ass out in the world.
