May 14, 2025 • 25 mins
Episode 75: The Power of Perseverance: Stories of Strength and Resilience
In this episode of Conversations with Kimen, host Kimen Petersen delves into the essence of perseverance. Through personal stories and experiences, Kimen illustrates how persistence and overcoming obstacles lead to a more fulfilling and resilient life. Highlighting athletes who push through physical and mental barriers, Kimen underscores the importance of endurance, proper recovery, and maintaining a positive mindset. These inspiring anecdotes and insights aim to empower listeners to embrace challenges and persist toward their goals. Tune in to be motivated by tales of unwavering determination and strength.
00:00 Introduction to Conversations with Kimen
00:28 The Essence of Perseverance
01:59 Personal Stories of Perseverance
04:26 The Role of Mindset in Overcoming Challenges
07:52 Balancing Recovery and Effort
09:51 Inspiring Stories of Athletes
19:11 Kimen's Personal Journey and Goals
25:00 Conclusion and Final Thoughts
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:01):
. Conversations with Kimen is aboutinspiration, life lessons, and wisdom.
Your host, Kimen Petersen shareshis stories to inspire you to live
a more soulful and illuminated life.
The topics covered in this podcastare as personal opinions inspired by
life, experience, and conversationsshared with amazing people.
Kimen hopes to encourage you tobe guided by life in the flow.
(00:23):
So the whole journey is moremanageable and joyful and fulfilling.
Perseverance.
It's interesting.
I was considering doing, , persistenceas the topic, and I was talking
to somebody and they were like,yeah, persistence is good.
(00:46):
And it's the idea of like, we'rewe're going at something again and
again and again, and again and again.
Almost unrelenting.
I said, you know what's really amazing?
Perseverance.
I thought, wow, becauseperseverance implies that you
(01:08):
are persisting in an effort.
Despite difficulty, delay an obstacle.
You're fighting through mental, emotional,physical in order to reach your goal.
And perseverance also impliesthat it's not coming easy
(01:29):
and it's not coming quickly,
but you're the type of person that's gonnakeep on going until you get to there.
I was, I. Just looked in the dictionaryto see what is per perseverance.
And one of the things I saw,perseverance is the ability to keep
doing something in spite of obstacles.
(01:50):
People who sh, who persevere showsteadfastness in doing something
despite how hard it is or howlong it takes to reach the goal.
And I thought athletes.
I mean, if you looked up per perseverancein a dictionary, you would see pictures
of athletes, probably especiallyrunners, you know, I mean, even myself.
(02:13):
Um, and I'm not sayingI'm an exceptional runner.
I really do like runningand I getting out there.
Right now I'm working towards ahalf marathon and I am pushing
through a lot of things.
It is like this thought process.
There was this quote I heard recently,which I'm using when I'm running
(02:33):
right now, and it says, the mind willgive up long before the body will.
And I thought, wow, that's pretty cool.
And so as I'm running,I'm doing a workout.
I remember I'm doing a workout and I'mgetting in the later stage of the workout
and I'm doing it on a path that, uh.
You know, when I go one direction, it'sdownhill, so it's a little bit easier,
(02:56):
and the other direction is uphill.
And as I'm getting to the end ofthis, this, uh, this interval,
it's getting real hard and mybrain's going, I can't do this.
And it's funny, I thought, I thoughtabout that quote in that moment.
And so I checked in with my legsand I'm like, are you guys okay?
Are you guys tired?
(03:17):
And they're like.
No, we're, we can keep on going.
There's no problem here.
And I'm checking in with myhips, like, are you guys tight?
Are you guys worn out?
And like, no.
And so I asked my legs,can you go a little faster?
And they did.
And then the thought processthat I can't kind of dissipated,
(03:39):
you know, I have so many ac um, so manyexamples in my life of perseverance.
I have a marathon runner who had a twoyear stretch where nothing went right.
You know, and literally all thebig marathons they were going into.
(04:02):
Something happened like they got a GIissue and one, and then they got a, they
woke up with a cold in the other and theywere building for a really big race and.
It was pro, I, I think itwas about 10 weeks out.
And it's, I'm, I, I can't do this.
(04:23):
I want to quit.
And that's the thing about it.
You know, people have this assumption thatperseverance means you don't have these
thought processes where you want to quit.
Perseverance means you'regonna push through everything.
No, in reality.
In true reality, we always havesome resistance and it's sometimes
(04:49):
it's mental and your brain is likegoing, no, no, I can't do this.
I want to quit.
It's funny, when I was talking to that itmarathon runner, I was like, well just,
just, just take it one day at a time.
Don't look at what, what two daysdown the road you have to do.
Just get the work done.
'cause the interesting thing in anything.
(05:11):
It's all you really have to do isdo the work in the present moment,
come up against the obstacle you,you only need to do this one rep.
And then when you're done that one, onemore time, and when you're done that
(05:32):
one, one more time and done that one onemore time until you get to the final one.
Perseverance means you overcomeyour mind because the, the brain is
incredibly, I don't know, challenging,I would say, or at least mine is.
(05:54):
I don't know if yours ischallenging in the way mine is.
My brain will come up withall these reasons why I can't
and.
Sometimes I've learned to say, thank youfor sharing, and I go and do it anyway.
Or like I said, when I'm out running, I,I, the other day I was also, I was doing
kilometer repeats on the track and on thefourth one, I can't, I can't, I can't.
(06:18):
And like I just checked in with my legs.
They're fine.
Go, just go.
Keep on breathing.
Go, go pump the arms.
Go, go pump the arms.
And my brain was still saying,we can't, but my body was
saying, well just watch me.
Because I did,
(06:39):
the body is incredibly strong, resilient.
I always tell people able to healitself capable of huge things.
Right?
And then there's the fear thatgets in the way of that, like, as I
always say in my practice, is the.
(07:03):
There.
There was this time when the conversationw out there was injury was a result of
overwork, which is kind of scary 'causeyou'll, you could, like you're building
for something big and you could besuper afraid of the fact that you may
be taking a risk of injuring yourself.
(07:23):
And then.
As soon as you start thinking aboutthat, that's gonna raise cortisol levels.
And if you get into the sympathetic,pathetic nervous system, too often
it's gonna tighten up muscles.
And then if you have a problem, it'sgonna be more evident when you're
training, working out everything, andyou're gonna think about it too much,
(07:44):
which is gonna tighten up the area more.
So potentially you could be causing aproblem because of that fear of overwork.
I.
Now they've changed that now, or they'reworking on changing that and they believe
the truth of injury is not overwork.
(08:04):
It's under recover.
It's like not gettingenough rest in between.
Hard work.
It's like pounding too much.
It's like.
Not fueling properly,not sleeping properly.
So if you are someone who's concernedabout your body and your health and
(08:27):
injury, then you gotta get really,really, really intentional about
your rest, about getting the properamount of sleep, about fueling in the
proper moments, about watching yourmindset about not indulging a negative.
Mindset, like the innercritic not indulging it.
(08:48):
Sometimes you're going to tell it.
Thank you for sharing, gettingthe rest, making sure that you eat
the, the amount of food you needto eat according to your load.
Like and if your load's reallyhigh, balancing your recovery with
your load because the body can doabsolutely like unbelievable things.
(09:11):
It can do way more thanwe could even dream.
But you have to balanceyour recovery and your load.
'cause if you don't dothat, then you're at a risk.
So sleeping, eating properly, fuelingright after, fueling during, keeping
your mindset in a proper place.
(09:34):
If you need fine mentalhealth, mental performance.
You know, strength, strength workjust to make sure the muscles
are strong so they can endure.
But let's get back to whatwe were talking about here.
'cause we're talking about perseverance.
I'll tell you a posterchild for perseverance.
I work with this really incredible,uh, rugby player and she suffered a
(09:59):
significant injury to her back, uh, aboutjust over six months ago, I believe.
And.
I had to have surgery andwhile she was waiting for
surgery, it, it was really bad.
I mean, this is a human being who'sgoing through pain all the time.
(10:22):
And imagine if you were living a lifewhere you are in, or have you lived a
life where you're in pain all the time?
How insidious that is
and you know.
One person may say, okay,I'm never doing that again.
(10:42):
But not this person.
Even though they were having a tough time,a really tough time, somewhere in their
back of their mind, they knew they couldfind their way back to what they loved.
You know, if that isn't per perseverance,like when you're in that space.
But not only that, the perseverancereally showed up when they started,
(11:03):
started working their way back.
Started, you know, got to thepoint where they could swim again.
Got to the point where they could, theycould start like they walked and walked
and walked and walked to strengthen untilthe point where they were allowed to run.
And then they ran and ran and ran.
(11:26):
And they were lifting, lifting in the gym.
And like glaringly obvious whatthey could lift and how they could
lift was nothing like they'd been.
And I'm sure it felt demoralizing,but they continued regardless of
that, regardless, trusting thatthey would find their way back
(11:51):
and, and you know, it's about sixmonths since that injury and this
amazing human being like, um.
They're, they're literally likea hundred year old Buddhist monk.
Now, in my eyes, the wisdomthey've developed in the early
twenties is, it's astounding to me.
(12:15):
Like the understanding and theappreciation and gratitude they
have for every day for getting, likethey, she's like, I get to do this.
It's not like I have todo this, I get to do this.
We're privileged.
Like just that mindset,this perseverance mindset.
Um.
(12:37):
It.
I, like I said, every time I talk toher, she's just like, wow, I'm just gonna
learn a whole bunch from this human being.
And they're getting closerand closer and closer.
And they're not allowed to, they'renot allowed to do contact yet, but
they're allowed to train and pass.
And even in the middle of all that,this athlete and like, like really
unfair, sprained their ankle.
(12:59):
And yet they were like, they werelike, I had my moment to feel upset.
And then I just got back to workbecause yeah, it's like wow.
Like I feel like if I hit another afterthat long line of upset and I would,
(13:23):
it would just destroy me to hurt myselfagain and wonder if, if I can, but
like post your child for perseverance.
And actually we were talk, I wastalking with her about this idea of
creating this episode of perseverance,and she said, you know, the word that
comes to mind, my mind is endure.
You know, they talkabout endurance, right?
(13:45):
The ability to go hardover long periods of time.
Or the endurance, uh, theability to endure, endure
tough times and keep on going.
This is perseverance.
I have this amazing runner and, um, they,I mean, life has definitely not been fair.
(14:10):
Not at all, like multiple bone injuriesand irritations have kept this person
from competing for quite some time.
I. And honestly they've hadtheir moments with this.
It's been really hard at moments andI've, I've had the privilege to be
(14:30):
there with them and like hold space forthem and try to like encourage them,
like it's been a privilege all along,but just to witness this human being.
Go through this time and time again,and it didn't demoralize this athlete
(14:54):
and it didn't make them give up.
It just made them stronger.
And like the, the last, thethird, third and recent one.
Oh my God.
Like I had to send them a quote thatwas like, you are handling this so
much better than your old self would've
(15:16):
see.
That's perseverance and that's ahuman being that I want to support.
That's a human being thatinspires me to be my best.
You know, just witnessingperseverance will change your life.
It's changed mine.
I see it every day in allthese athletes I work with.
(15:37):
How they come up with the moments thatare really, really, really tough and.
They, they feel what they feel.
They feel the way through it, andthen they just get back up and
they go again and again and again.
And it's like, I have an episodelike it's called One More Time.
And it's like this idea oflike, how many times is enough?
(15:58):
Well, for these humanbeings, there isn't a number.
They're just gonna keep on doing it.
Over and over again, and it inspiresme so much that I want to be that same.
I want to like, I want to takeon some of that in my life.
I wanna be somebody who just keeps onrelentlessly over and over and over.
(16:20):
No matter what gets in my eye, I wannapersevere through everything I like.
I don't want to create.
Hardship in order topush my way through it.
Like this is what's something Iused to do when I was younger.
I would create a tough timein order to move forward.
I don't want to do that, but I want to bethe kind of person who walks up and looks
per looks, looks tough moments in the eyeand like, I got this, it was like this
(16:46):
quote, um, I put out on my social mediaa while ago, like I'm the type of person.
That I could be crying and in thatsame moment I would say, I got this.
You know,
it's interesting.
(17:07):
Life isn't always fair in a sense thatcertain people go through a lot more.
But if you turn it a little bit andunderstand that the way we develop
strength is going through toughtimes, the way we develop resilience
is overcoming the tough times.
(17:28):
The way we create mental, emotional,physical strength is overcoming
what we thought we couldn't.
So in a sense, if you could almostlook at as life is not fair.
Yes.
It's not fair.
That people should go through toughthings, but it's also not fair that these,
(17:48):
some of these people get these incredibleopportunities to develop incredible
resilience, which will pay off in the longrun more than anything you can imagine.
You know, I was talking to this incrediblevolleyball player I work with who has a
scoliosis, and I wasn't trying to be, um.
(18:13):
You know, I wasn't trying to downplay whatthey go through physically, emotionally,
and mentally, but I was just trying toremind, remind them a little bit that
she would never be as amazing as sheis if it wasn't for the challenges.
That she's faced, like those physicalchallenges that she has in her body are
(18:35):
exactly what have created her and howamazing she is and how she can overcome.
She can do hard things.
She can really do hard things, andit doesn't mean it's comfortable
and it doesn't feel good, and ithurts and it feels bad the next day.
(18:57):
Yet she's developed the type of resiliencethat few human beings I've met have,
well, I guess I'm kind of, I'm kind oflucky 'cause I'm in this, the kind of
cohort that comes and see me when it's,it's kind of full of these human beings.
It's no wonder I'm so inspired, like,uh, it went out to do 16 k run today,
and so I just kind of scouting out.
(19:19):
I, I signed up for a half marathon.
And this is interestingtoo, uh, in a sense.
So right now, I mean, I have a goalpace and I'm a long ways off it, or at
least I feel I'm a long ways off it.
And sometimes I don't know how it's gonnacome together or if it'll come together.
(19:39):
Like I've set some really big goals,like to, like for me, a really
big goal is a sub two hour halfmarathon for my first one, which
means I have to hold a five 40 pace.
4 21 0.1 kilometers.
That's my A goal.
But I've also learned by, ohsorry, let's get this clear.
My a goal is sub two hourmarathon and have fun.
(20:02):
My be goal is to complete thehalf marathon and have fun.
And it's interesting 'causelike I get up pretty early now.
Um, I'm in the office 12 hours a day.
Six days a week.
I love my job.
I wouldn't change this for the world.
I'm so fortunate to be ableto like, work with amazing
(20:25):
human beings and do what I do.
I'm just like, I'm over themoon and yet I want to do more.
It's like, and it took me a while tobuild up to the, the amount I'm doing.
Uh, it was tough in moments.
Um.
So a few years ago I added likephotography as a pastime because all
(20:46):
I was doing was working and then afterworking with these incredible athletes
and being so inspired, I got intorunning and I set this huge list of
goals and it, you know, it started justwalk running every second day and it
was like get up to five kilometer run.
It was like, get up to 10kilometer run, run 21.1.
(21:09):
Okay.
And then it was time to run a race,five kilometer race, uh, 5,000 on
the track where these really amazinghuman beings came and paced me.
And that was hard.
It was hard, but I, I can honestlysay in that effort, I pushed harder
than I thought I was capable of.
And I never quit on myself.
(21:32):
And I, did I hit my goal?
No.
Did I care?
Not really.
Moment of feeling sad.
Then I ran a 10 K and injured my hipand it's taken me months and months,
like about, I think about eight weeksago I was running like, it would take
me 35 minutes and 40 seconds to run 5K.
(21:54):
And last week I ran 5K in under20, in uh, just over 29 minutes.
And the whole way as I was building back.
I'm feeling pain in my hip andI'm wondering, just wondering,
is it gonna get any better?
Am I gonna make it tomy, my half marathon?
(22:19):
It's, it's funny with that kind ofresistance, and yet I just keep on going.
So I get up, I get up like4, 4 15 in the morning.
I have a coffee and a water,and then I go for the run.
This, this is, this iswhat perseverance is.
And honestly, some days I'm, I'mrunning along and I'm, I'm so tired.
(22:41):
I'm so tired.
I'm so tired.
And during the day I'm so tired.
I'm so tired, I'm so tired.
But like the human body is, is soamazing that it can push through things.
Like, think about it.
Your mind's gonna give uplong before your body will.
Think about perseverance as thisamazing, like being persistent through
(23:06):
difficulty in order to reach a goal.
If you want to do anythingamazing in this life.
Perseverance has gotta be in your toolkit.
It has to because life is goingto hand you challenges and like
if you really think about it like.
(23:26):
My amazing athlete who's beenthrough all these challenges.
I can't remember exactly how she statedit, but I feel like this was starting.
She's like, until it gets tough,it's hard for me to give a
hundred, like, like really push.
But once I come up against resistance,I push and see, this is why I can't,
(23:50):
uh, like this person is gonna towthe line at the Olympics one day.
I have no doubt in my mind.
Worlds Olympics pro runner, they haveit all and they don't have it all.
In spite of everythingthey've gone through.
They, they have it all because ofit, because everything they've gone
(24:14):
through has developed strength,resilience, mental strength,
emotional strength, physical strength.
This person is an unstoppableforce, and this person inspires
(24:34):
me more than they'll ever know.
I'm a better human being for havingthe opportunity to work with all
these athletes, and I, it's aprivilege to work with amazing people.
Uh, it's not a right.
And it's not lost on me.
(25:00):
Thanks for listening.
Thank you for listening to thisepisode of Conversations with Kimen.
Please remember to follow andlike this podcast on Instagram,
Spotify, apple Podcast, Pod Beanor wherever you find this episode.
Please share this podcast withanyone you feel would be inspired
(25:20):
and benefit from this content.
. Conversations with Kimen is aboutinspiration, life lessons, and wisdom.
Your host, Kimen Petersen shareshis stories to inspire you to live
a more soulful and illuminated life.
The topics covered in this podcastare as personal opinions inspired by
life, experience, and conversationsshared with amazing people.
Kimen hopes to encourage you tobe guided by life in the flow.
(00:23):
So the whole journey is moremanageable and joyful and fulfilling.
Perseverance.
It's interesting.
I was considering doing, , persistenceas the topic, and I was talking
to somebody and they were like,yeah, persistence is good.
(00:46):
And it's the idea of like, we'rewe're going at something again and
again and again, and again and again.
Almost unrelenting.
I said, you know what's really amazing?
Perseverance.
I thought, wow, becauseperseverance implies that you
(01:08):
are persisting in an effort.
Despite difficulty, delay an obstacle.
You're fighting through mental, emotional,physical in order to reach your goal.
And perseverance also impliesthat it's not coming easy
(01:29):
and it's not coming quickly,
but you're the type of person that's gonnakeep on going until you get to there.
I was, I. Just looked in the dictionaryto see what is per perseverance.
And one of the things I saw,perseverance is the ability to keep
doing something in spite of obstacles.
(01:50):
People who sh, who persevere showsteadfastness in doing something
despite how hard it is or howlong it takes to reach the goal.
And I thought athletes.
I mean, if you looked up per perseverancein a dictionary, you would see pictures
of athletes, probably especiallyrunners, you know, I mean, even myself.
(02:13):
Um, and I'm not sayingI'm an exceptional runner.
I really do like runningand I getting out there.
Right now I'm working towards ahalf marathon and I am pushing
through a lot of things.
It is like this thought process.
There was this quote I heard recently,which I'm using when I'm running
(02:33):
right now, and it says, the mind willgive up long before the body will.
And I thought, wow, that's pretty cool.
And so as I'm running,I'm doing a workout.
I remember I'm doing a workout and I'mgetting in the later stage of the workout
and I'm doing it on a path that, uh.
You know, when I go one direction, it'sdownhill, so it's a little bit easier,
(02:56):
and the other direction is uphill.
And as I'm getting to the end ofthis, this, uh, this interval,
it's getting real hard and mybrain's going, I can't do this.
And it's funny, I thought, I thoughtabout that quote in that moment.
And so I checked in with my legsand I'm like, are you guys okay?
Are you guys tired?
(03:17):
And they're like.
No, we're, we can keep on going.
There's no problem here.
And I'm checking in with myhips, like, are you guys tight?
Are you guys worn out?
And like, no.
And so I asked my legs,can you go a little faster?
And they did.
And then the thought processthat I can't kind of dissipated,
(03:39):
you know, I have so many ac um, so manyexamples in my life of perseverance.
I have a marathon runner who had a twoyear stretch where nothing went right.
You know, and literally all thebig marathons they were going into.
(04:02):
Something happened like they got a GIissue and one, and then they got a, they
woke up with a cold in the other and theywere building for a really big race and.
It was pro, I, I think itwas about 10 weeks out.
And it's, I'm, I, I can't do this.
(04:23):
I want to quit.
And that's the thing about it.
You know, people have this assumption thatperseverance means you don't have these
thought processes where you want to quit.
Perseverance means you'regonna push through everything.
No, in reality.
In true reality, we always havesome resistance and it's sometimes
(04:49):
it's mental and your brain is likegoing, no, no, I can't do this.
I want to quit.
It's funny, when I was talking to that itmarathon runner, I was like, well just,
just, just take it one day at a time.
Don't look at what, what two daysdown the road you have to do.
Just get the work done.
'cause the interesting thing in anything.
(05:11):
It's all you really have to do isdo the work in the present moment,
come up against the obstacle you,you only need to do this one rep.
And then when you're done that one, onemore time, and when you're done that
(05:32):
one, one more time and done that one onemore time until you get to the final one.
Perseverance means you overcomeyour mind because the, the brain is
incredibly, I don't know, challenging,I would say, or at least mine is.
(05:54):
I don't know if yours ischallenging in the way mine is.
My brain will come up withall these reasons why I can't
and.
Sometimes I've learned to say, thank youfor sharing, and I go and do it anyway.
Or like I said, when I'm out running, I,I, the other day I was also, I was doing
kilometer repeats on the track and on thefourth one, I can't, I can't, I can't.
(06:18):
And like I just checked in with my legs.
They're fine.
Go, just go.
Keep on breathing.
Go, go pump the arms.
Go, go pump the arms.
And my brain was still saying,we can't, but my body was
saying, well just watch me.
Because I did,
(06:39):
the body is incredibly strong, resilient.
I always tell people able to healitself capable of huge things.
Right?
And then there's the fear thatgets in the way of that, like, as I
always say in my practice, is the.
(07:03):
There.
There was this time when the conversationw out there was injury was a result of
overwork, which is kind of scary 'causeyou'll, you could, like you're building
for something big and you could besuper afraid of the fact that you may
be taking a risk of injuring yourself.
(07:23):
And then.
As soon as you start thinking aboutthat, that's gonna raise cortisol levels.
And if you get into the sympathetic,pathetic nervous system, too often
it's gonna tighten up muscles.
And then if you have a problem, it'sgonna be more evident when you're
training, working out everything, andyou're gonna think about it too much,
(07:44):
which is gonna tighten up the area more.
So potentially you could be causing aproblem because of that fear of overwork.
I.
Now they've changed that now, or they'reworking on changing that and they believe
the truth of injury is not overwork.
(08:04):
It's under recover.
It's like not gettingenough rest in between.
Hard work.
It's like pounding too much.
It's like.
Not fueling properly,not sleeping properly.
So if you are someone who's concernedabout your body and your health and
(08:27):
injury, then you gotta get really,really, really intentional about
your rest, about getting the properamount of sleep, about fueling in the
proper moments, about watching yourmindset about not indulging a negative.
Mindset, like the innercritic not indulging it.
(08:48):
Sometimes you're going to tell it.
Thank you for sharing, gettingthe rest, making sure that you eat
the, the amount of food you needto eat according to your load.
Like and if your load's reallyhigh, balancing your recovery with
your load because the body can doabsolutely like unbelievable things.
(09:11):
It can do way more thanwe could even dream.
But you have to balanceyour recovery and your load.
'cause if you don't dothat, then you're at a risk.
So sleeping, eating properly, fuelingright after, fueling during, keeping
your mindset in a proper place.
(09:34):
If you need fine mentalhealth, mental performance.
You know, strength, strength workjust to make sure the muscles
are strong so they can endure.
But let's get back to whatwe were talking about here.
'cause we're talking about perseverance.
I'll tell you a posterchild for perseverance.
I work with this really incredible,uh, rugby player and she suffered a
(09:59):
significant injury to her back, uh, aboutjust over six months ago, I believe.
And.
I had to have surgery andwhile she was waiting for
surgery, it, it was really bad.
I mean, this is a human being who'sgoing through pain all the time.
(10:22):
And imagine if you were living a lifewhere you are in, or have you lived a
life where you're in pain all the time?
How insidious that is
and you know.
One person may say, okay,I'm never doing that again.
(10:42):
But not this person.
Even though they were having a tough time,a really tough time, somewhere in their
back of their mind, they knew they couldfind their way back to what they loved.
You know, if that isn't per perseverance,like when you're in that space.
But not only that, the perseverancereally showed up when they started,
(11:03):
started working their way back.
Started, you know, got to thepoint where they could swim again.
Got to the point where they could, theycould start like they walked and walked
and walked and walked to strengthen untilthe point where they were allowed to run.
And then they ran and ran and ran.
(11:26):
And they were lifting, lifting in the gym.
And like glaringly obvious whatthey could lift and how they could
lift was nothing like they'd been.
And I'm sure it felt demoralizing,but they continued regardless of
that, regardless, trusting thatthey would find their way back
(11:51):
and, and you know, it's about sixmonths since that injury and this
amazing human being like, um.
They're, they're literally likea hundred year old Buddhist monk.
Now, in my eyes, the wisdomthey've developed in the early
twenties is, it's astounding to me.
(12:15):
Like the understanding and theappreciation and gratitude they
have for every day for getting, likethey, she's like, I get to do this.
It's not like I have todo this, I get to do this.
We're privileged.
Like just that mindset,this perseverance mindset.
Um.
(12:37):
It.
I, like I said, every time I talk toher, she's just like, wow, I'm just gonna
learn a whole bunch from this human being.
And they're getting closerand closer and closer.
And they're not allowed to, they'renot allowed to do contact yet, but
they're allowed to train and pass.
And even in the middle of all that,this athlete and like, like really
unfair, sprained their ankle.
(12:59):
And yet they were like, they werelike, I had my moment to feel upset.
And then I just got back to workbecause yeah, it's like wow.
Like I feel like if I hit another afterthat long line of upset and I would,
(13:23):
it would just destroy me to hurt myselfagain and wonder if, if I can, but
like post your child for perseverance.
And actually we were talk, I wastalking with her about this idea of
creating this episode of perseverance,and she said, you know, the word that
comes to mind, my mind is endure.
You know, they talkabout endurance, right?
(13:45):
The ability to go hardover long periods of time.
Or the endurance, uh, theability to endure, endure
tough times and keep on going.
This is perseverance.
I have this amazing runner and, um, they,I mean, life has definitely not been fair.
(14:10):
Not at all, like multiple bone injuriesand irritations have kept this person
from competing for quite some time.
I. And honestly they've hadtheir moments with this.
It's been really hard at moments andI've, I've had the privilege to be
(14:30):
there with them and like hold space forthem and try to like encourage them,
like it's been a privilege all along,but just to witness this human being.
Go through this time and time again,and it didn't demoralize this athlete
(14:54):
and it didn't make them give up.
It just made them stronger.
And like the, the last, thethird, third and recent one.
Oh my God.
Like I had to send them a quote thatwas like, you are handling this so
much better than your old self would've
(15:16):
see.
That's perseverance and that's ahuman being that I want to support.
That's a human being thatinspires me to be my best.
You know, just witnessingperseverance will change your life.
It's changed mine.
I see it every day in allthese athletes I work with.
(15:37):
How they come up with the moments thatare really, really, really tough and.
They, they feel what they feel.
They feel the way through it, andthen they just get back up and
they go again and again and again.
And it's like, I have an episodelike it's called One More Time.
And it's like this idea oflike, how many times is enough?
(15:58):
Well, for these humanbeings, there isn't a number.
They're just gonna keep on doing it.
Over and over again, and it inspiresme so much that I want to be that same.
I want to like, I want to takeon some of that in my life.
I wanna be somebody who just keeps onrelentlessly over and over and over.
(16:20):
No matter what gets in my eye, I wannapersevere through everything I like.
I don't want to create.
Hardship in order topush my way through it.
Like this is what's something Iused to do when I was younger.
I would create a tough timein order to move forward.
I don't want to do that, but I want to bethe kind of person who walks up and looks
per looks, looks tough moments in the eyeand like, I got this, it was like this
(16:46):
quote, um, I put out on my social mediaa while ago, like I'm the type of person.
That I could be crying and in thatsame moment I would say, I got this.
You know,
it's interesting.
(17:07):
Life isn't always fair in a sense thatcertain people go through a lot more.
But if you turn it a little bit andunderstand that the way we develop
strength is going through toughtimes, the way we develop resilience
is overcoming the tough times.
(17:28):
The way we create mental, emotional,physical strength is overcoming
what we thought we couldn't.
So in a sense, if you could almostlook at as life is not fair.
Yes.
It's not fair.
That people should go through toughthings, but it's also not fair that these,
(17:48):
some of these people get these incredibleopportunities to develop incredible
resilience, which will pay off in the longrun more than anything you can imagine.
You know, I was talking to this incrediblevolleyball player I work with who has a
scoliosis, and I wasn't trying to be, um.
(18:13):
You know, I wasn't trying to downplay whatthey go through physically, emotionally,
and mentally, but I was just trying toremind, remind them a little bit that
she would never be as amazing as sheis if it wasn't for the challenges.
That she's faced, like those physicalchallenges that she has in her body are
(18:35):
exactly what have created her and howamazing she is and how she can overcome.
She can do hard things.
She can really do hard things, andit doesn't mean it's comfortable
and it doesn't feel good, and ithurts and it feels bad the next day.
(18:57):
Yet she's developed the type of resiliencethat few human beings I've met have,
well, I guess I'm kind of, I'm kind oflucky 'cause I'm in this, the kind of
cohort that comes and see me when it's,it's kind of full of these human beings.
It's no wonder I'm so inspired, like,uh, it went out to do 16 k run today,
and so I just kind of scouting out.
(19:19):
I, I signed up for a half marathon.
And this is interestingtoo, uh, in a sense.
So right now, I mean, I have a goalpace and I'm a long ways off it, or at
least I feel I'm a long ways off it.
And sometimes I don't know how it's gonnacome together or if it'll come together.
(19:39):
Like I've set some really big goals,like to, like for me, a really
big goal is a sub two hour halfmarathon for my first one, which
means I have to hold a five 40 pace.
4 21 0.1 kilometers.
That's my A goal.
But I've also learned by, ohsorry, let's get this clear.
My a goal is sub two hourmarathon and have fun.
(20:02):
My be goal is to complete thehalf marathon and have fun.
And it's interesting 'causelike I get up pretty early now.
Um, I'm in the office 12 hours a day.
Six days a week.
I love my job.
I wouldn't change this for the world.
I'm so fortunate to be ableto like, work with amazing
(20:25):
human beings and do what I do.
I'm just like, I'm over themoon and yet I want to do more.
It's like, and it took me a while tobuild up to the, the amount I'm doing.
Uh, it was tough in moments.
Um.
So a few years ago I added likephotography as a pastime because all
(20:46):
I was doing was working and then afterworking with these incredible athletes
and being so inspired, I got intorunning and I set this huge list of
goals and it, you know, it started justwalk running every second day and it
was like get up to five kilometer run.
It was like, get up to 10kilometer run, run 21.1.
(21:09):
Okay.
And then it was time to run a race,five kilometer race, uh, 5,000 on
the track where these really amazinghuman beings came and paced me.
And that was hard.
It was hard, but I, I can honestlysay in that effort, I pushed harder
than I thought I was capable of.
And I never quit on myself.
(21:32):
And I, did I hit my goal?
No.
Did I care?
Not really.
Moment of feeling sad.
Then I ran a 10 K and injured my hipand it's taken me months and months,
like about, I think about eight weeksago I was running like, it would take
me 35 minutes and 40 seconds to run 5K.
(21:54):
And last week I ran 5K in under20, in uh, just over 29 minutes.
And the whole way as I was building back.
I'm feeling pain in my hip andI'm wondering, just wondering,
is it gonna get any better?
Am I gonna make it tomy, my half marathon?
(22:19):
It's, it's funny with that kind ofresistance, and yet I just keep on going.
So I get up, I get up like4, 4 15 in the morning.
I have a coffee and a water,and then I go for the run.
This, this is, this iswhat perseverance is.
And honestly, some days I'm, I'mrunning along and I'm, I'm so tired.
(22:41):
I'm so tired.
I'm so tired.
And during the day I'm so tired.
I'm so tired, I'm so tired.
But like the human body is, is soamazing that it can push through things.
Like, think about it.
Your mind's gonna give uplong before your body will.
Think about perseverance as thisamazing, like being persistent through
(23:06):
difficulty in order to reach a goal.
If you want to do anythingamazing in this life.
Perseverance has gotta be in your toolkit.
It has to because life is goingto hand you challenges and like
if you really think about it like.
(23:26):
My amazing athlete who's beenthrough all these challenges.
I can't remember exactly how she statedit, but I feel like this was starting.
She's like, until it gets tough,it's hard for me to give a
hundred, like, like really push.
But once I come up against resistance,I push and see, this is why I can't,
(23:50):
uh, like this person is gonna towthe line at the Olympics one day.
I have no doubt in my mind.
Worlds Olympics pro runner, they haveit all and they don't have it all.
In spite of everythingthey've gone through.
They, they have it all because ofit, because everything they've gone
(24:14):
through has developed strength,resilience, mental strength,
emotional strength, physical strength.
This person is an unstoppableforce, and this person inspires
(24:34):
me more than they'll ever know.
I'm a better human being for havingthe opportunity to work with all
these athletes, and I, it's aprivilege to work with amazing people.
Uh, it's not a right.
And it's not lost on me.
(25:00):
Thanks for listening.
Thank you for listening to thisepisode of Conversations with Kimen.
Please remember to follow andlike this podcast on Instagram,
Spotify, apple Podcast, Pod Beanor wherever you find this episode.
Please share this podcast withanyone you feel would be inspired
(25:20):
and benefit from this content.
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