The Journey is the True Reward
As an Olympian, I know how much investing in the 'day by day' process and focusing on getting 1% better can add up to big payoffs down the road... in track and in life.
In my corporate and school talks, I speak about my Olympic experience and the growth and lessons learned from detours along my road to the world's biggest athletic stage.
SPEAKING
Control What You Can Control
When life inevitably hits us with obstacles or road blocks, focusing on what we can control helps us create a plan to move forward with strength.
The global pandemic changed the way we all lived and worked as well as its role in postponing the Olympics. On top of the uncertainty of when our next races would be and training facilities being closed, I had to have foot surgery 12 months before the Olympics.
I was nervous and scared I wouldn’t make it back healthy and ready to go before Tokyo...but my coach told me something powerful: he said to control what I could control.
Things outside of our control - opinions of others, our competitors, the weather or the pandemics effects, the past, our future.
Things within our control that we can focus on: our mindset and how we talk to ourselves, our effort, choosing to show up.
I focused on the things I could do day by day to bring myself back to full health and make my Olympic dream a reality. Control What You Can Control.
Progress Over Perfection
It took me 10+ years to get to the biggest stage in sports and one major reason why I beleive I made it to the Olympics was because I intentionally focused on finding what my best was one step at a time.
I focused on small 1% gains that would add up later and remembered that my best effort is always good enough... there is no such thing as the perfect race, perfect job, or perfect progression. We each have our own timeline and our own unique gifts to explore.
Corporate Talks:
School Talks:
Hannah Godfrey | SVP Customer Experience, Adyen
"Maddy gave the most amazing motivational talk I think I have ever heard during our International Women’s Day opening ceremony at Adyen. This was streamed via zoom to the entire company. It was refreshing to have a speaker not from the business world share their story, the parallels between the world of professional sports and high growth technology company environment were extremely relatable. Maddy was super engaging, at times had us all laughing, at other times on the edge of our seat. Her honesty and candor in telling her story brought a tear to my eye. "