Happy Friday! I hope everyone is having an amazing week! Here are some fun and interesting things from my world right now.
This book.
I’m currently reading Blueprint by Katie Hoff. I heard her on the Rich Roll podcast, and her story is so interesting I bought her book. Katie was an Olympic swimmer in 2004 and 2008. Before the 2008 Olympics the media referred to her as the “female Michael Phelps” and she was expected to win multiple gold medals. When she came away from the Beijing games with a silver and two bronze medals, she (and the rest of the world) felt as if she had failed.
The story of how she dealt with that disappointment- and subsequent ups and downs of her career- is fascinating, but my favorite thing about this book is that it’s “interactive.” She’ll talk about a key race, and then there’s a code you can scan into your phone to see a video of it. I LOVE this feature! It’s fun to see the race as it occurred, while knowing what was going through her mind at the time.
Related fun fact…
A few years ago I read about a study which showed that Olympians who won a bronze medal were, in general, happier than those who won silver. This was based on interviews of the athletes after their races, and facial analysis during the medal ceremonies. The conclusion was that athletes who won bronze were just happy to have medaled at all, while those who won a silver medal felt that they had “lost” the gold.
And a quote!
This week I’ve been all about embracing the good in every situation, and I came across this quote:
Who else loves watching the swimming in the Olympics? – I assumed everyone did until my sister told me she thinks it’s boring! To each his own…
8 Responses
Oooh, I love that quote! I am also trying to focus on the good lately! I set a new moon intention on that last night! I had just listened to a podcast on responding with love, no matter how upsetting a situation may be. So I’m trying to do that! It’s not always easy when I’m dealing with work stress or when my partner is in a mood. But I’m working on it. I saw Katie’s episode on the Rich Roll podcast but haven’t listened yet. Now I need to! I listened to the sleep one on your recommendation, and it was fascinating!
You’ll like Katie’s episode. The poor woman (girl, for part of it…) – she really went through a lot.
In all honesty, I was never much of a swimming spectator until our son was on the high school team. Our kids all had the requisite summer swimming lessons, and spent many hours in the water. None of them ever had any interest in competitive swimming, though. There were a lot of “jocks” in his class, and he wasn’t one of them, so basketball season was usually spent on the bench LOL. But, he did well on the swim team, and even swam on the men’s team at his community college (and he qualified in four events for the NJCAA championships). He was a distance swimmer (500, 1000 and 1-mile), but also was in a few relays on occasion. None the less, I never realized how tough a discipline swimming is until watching him and his teammates. I’m trying to persuade him to do a tri…he ran cross country (one season), and biking wouldn’t be too tough to pick-up. But, it’s my idea LOL, so it hasn’t happened (yet).
Ooh, that’s exciting! Neither of my kids is athletic, but I would have loved to watch them swim! Yes, he would do great as a triathlete. Most people who come to the sport as adults have trouble with the swimming.
Thats interesting that bronze medal winners were happier but it makes sense! That’s a great quote- Its all about having the right perspective!
Yep, I’ve been having to shift my perspective a lot lately and it works wonders!
Not an olympics person at all. Sorry. BUt love the idea of the interactive book. I read a lot on the Kindle and wish more books did that
In addition to races, there were some other thing you could view, like interviews and actually her husband’s proposal! It was a fun book.