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Evolve or Repeat: The Skater’s Two Choices · The Nadia Chapman Show

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  Music.
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  Hey, everyone. Welcome back to a brand new episode of the Nadia Chapman Show,
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  the figure skaters edition.
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  I've got a straight up message for you today, and I'm not going to sugarcoat it.
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  Every time that you step on the ice, you've got two choices.
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  You either push yourself and evolve, or you stay where you are.
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  That's it. There's no in between. You're either growing or you're repeating.
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  You're either building the next level of yourself or you're staying stuck in the same loop.
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  Do you recognize yourself in one of those?
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  Here's the thing. Staying stuck,
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  as you know, feels safe. It feels comfortable. It feels way less risky.
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  But I'm not here to tell you, oh, comfort is the most dangerous place you can live as a skater. No.
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  Comfort is where progress goes to die.
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  Yikes. So today we're going to talk about this and we're going to be talking
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  about why skaters get stuck,
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  stop pushing through, and why so many of you are playing small,
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  skating small and how you can choose evolution instead of every single day repetition
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  even when you don't feel like it.
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  So let's start from the beginning. Why do skaters stay comfortable?
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  And I know that you can think maybe of some people you know that just kind of
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  show up at the rink and they're not really moving forward.
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  They're staying at the same level. Why is that?
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  Well I'm going to tell you, because it feels good in the moment.
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  So you're not risking falling and not risking hurting yourself.
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  You're certainly not risking embarrassing yourself. You don't risk messing up
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  in front of your coach or your teammates and other skaters and parents watching in the stands.
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  Every time that you avoid pushing yourself.
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  You shrink. Every time that you say, oh, I'll just stick with what I know and
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  what I can do well and what I'm comfortable with, you're making it hard to evolve
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  because your comfort feel really safe now,
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  but it's robbing you of what can be later.
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  So often in my lessons, I will ask a skater, even a skater I don't really know
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  that's in skating school, I say, what do you suck at? or what scares the crap
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  out of you? What is the jump that you don't like?
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  And they'll be like, oh, you know, I don't know. They'll give me a skill or
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  a jump or a spin, something they don't like because they're not good at it or
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  something that they're afraid of doing.
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  And my job is to say, wonderful, that's exactly what we're gonna be working on today.
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  And sometimes their eyes go big and they're like, oh no, but I don't like that jump.
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  And I say, well, that's the thing because you're not good at it.
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  Let's tackle what you suck at.
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  And that's my whole mission as a coach is to help you step out of your comfort
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  zone and do the things that you're not good at.
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  If we keep doing the easy skills, and if we keep doing what's easy and makes
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  you look really good, you're never going to evolve as a figure skater.
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  That's the thing. And here's the part that most skaters miss.
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  The choice to evolve or the choice to stay the same doesn't happen once a season.
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  It happens every practice.
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  When you fall, you have two choices. Either you stay down and you complain and
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  you roll your eyes and you moan or you get up and you try again instantly, right away.
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  When you're tired and your legs are burning and your lungs are screaming and
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  you feel like spitting and you have snot all over your nose, you've got two choices.
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  Either you step off the ice and call it a day, or you do one more run through and you push through.
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  And when competition pressure hits you hard, you have two choices again.
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  Either you skate safe and you hold back and you hope it's good enough,
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  or you skate like a maniac that you've got nothing to lose,
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  full of fire fearless and powerful
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  so you always have two choices every
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  practice is also a choice point
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  every moment on the ice is training your
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  future self so you get to decide you get to choose so what does evolution looks
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  like on the ice so let's paint the picture of what it actually looks like to
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  evolve as a figure skater all right so as a coach i'm not gonna be here just
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  yakety yak yak on how you should push yourself.
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  I'm going to help you choose evolution instead of staying at the same place.
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  So let's coach through this because evolving is not about just trying harder.
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  It's about training yourself to choose growth, even when every single ounce
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  of who you are wants comfort.
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  I've been there. I know. First of all, micro commitments.
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  So don't think about the whole practice. Think one jump, one spin,
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  one more run through one thing at the time, one day at the time.
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  As a matter of fact, that's how you built that grit.
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  Second, reframe your failure. So stop thinking, oh, if I fall, I fail.
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  Start thinking, if I fall, I'm learning. Failure is the tuition you pay for
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  growth, guys. I'm not going to say that often enough.
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  Number three, identify your goals. This is so important and crucial.
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  So don't just chase landing a jump. You've got to decide. I'm the skater who pushes past fear.
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  I'm the skater who finishes strong. I'm the skater who evolves every day.
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  These should be huge goals behind your skating. That's how you're going to push
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  yourself out of your comfort zone.
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  Number four, oh Lord, do the messy work.
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  Do it messy. Do it ugly. Fall on your face. Get up. Do it again.
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  Do it scared. That's how champions are built.
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  Not waiting by the wall. Not waiting for things to be perfect.
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  Not waiting for nobody to be watching, okay?
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  But slowly showing up anyway, even when things are not perfect.
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  And lastly, I need you to learn to celebrate your resilience.
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  And that means don't just celebrate the medal and the podium.
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  Celebrate yourself. Celebrate the fight you're in. Celebrate the grit you're building.
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  Celebrate the way you show up, even when you don't feel like it,
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  especially when you don't feel like it, okay?
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  Your skating journey is not just about skating. And I think that if you're listening
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  to this podcast at this point, you understand that by now.
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  My coach used to say, skating is the school of life. And she was right.
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  Skating is not just about gliding on the ice. It's about life.
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  Every day, you have two choices.
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  One is to evolve and grow, and one is staying at the same spot where you are.
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  So whether it's in school or in friendships or in your career,
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  in your dreams, you always have those two choices.
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  And skating, because it is the school of life and we're learning so much as figure skaters,
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  I'm going to tell you the courage you build to evolve on the ice is that courage
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  that's going to carry you everywhere in life.
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  I am, I'm not going to tell you how old I am.
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  I still tell my mom, I still thank my mom for putting me on the ice at four years old.
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  And I say all the time how skating shaped who I am and how grateful I am for
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  all the lessons I've learned as a skater and now as a coach and now as the mother of a figure skater.
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  It's unbelievable. We are so lucky to be in this sport.
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  Skaters listening, stop waiting, stop playing safe, stop hoping that everything
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  is going to get easier because it won't.
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  You don't need easier. You need stronger. So every practice that you do and
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  every fall that you take and every choice that you make in this journey is shaping
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  you as a skater and as the person that you're becoming.
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  So here's my challenge this week. This week, at least once per practice, choose evolution.
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  Choose to push a little higher, okay? Push one step a little further.
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  Try to jump scared or do the extra program. I want you to skate braver because I know you can.
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  Because every single time that you evolve, you get closer to that skater,
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  to that human that you're meant to be.
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  So remember, those two choices, evolve or stay the same at the same spot.
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  So which one are you going to make today?
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  Thank you so much for listening today. If this episode spoke to you in some ways, do me a favor.
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  Make sure you hit the follow button so you never miss an episode. and also download.
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  Downloading an episode is the way us podcasters get some feedback about who's listening or not.
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  So remember, wise words of the day.
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  You always have two choices. Evolve or stay the same.
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  So choose growth, guys. Choose grit.
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  Choose you. Capiche?
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  Until next time, keep pushing, keep rising above, and I'll see you on.
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  Music.