Ariana Kukors: Swim

Michael Gervais (0:09)

All right, welcome to the Finding Mastery Podcast. And my name is Michael Gervais. And in this conversation, we're gonna sit down with Ariana Kukors.

And these conversations are meant to spend time with people who have touched mastery or are hungry to understand it, and to really unpack and understand their learning, their process, their journey, and the mindset skills that have led them on this path, and that they've cultivated and worked through. I wanna take a minute here to announce a really exciting event that we have coming up. As you continue to navigate the challenges and opportunities of 2024, I wanna pose a question. What are you doing right now to be great with stress? How are you working with stress on your pursuit towards your most important ambitions and goals? And I just wanna get right to the heart of the key elements, one in particular, for what it takes to excel in today's high heat, high stakes world. Because stress is not the problem that we think it is. Stress is a synonym for change. And our ability to be agile with change, that is the real opportunity at hand. So if you're wanting to unlock extraordinary results and sustainable performance in your life, it's not about avoiding or reducing stress. And as simple as that sounds, it's very tricky to do, but it is about fundamentally changing your relationship with it.

And that's why I'm so thrilled to invite you to a special event. It's a free virtual event that we're offering, and it's called The Power of Embracing Stress. It's on Wednesday, March 6th at 2 p.m. Pacific. So to sign up, just head over to findingmastery.com/training. Whether it's advancing in your career or improving your health or cultivating stronger relationships, I think a new approach to stress can be one of the most powerful unlocks for you in your life. So join us for this free virtual training, The Power of Embracing Stress, on Wednesday, March 6th at 2 p.m. Pacific. Go to findingmastery.com/training to sign up. Once again, that's findingmastery.com/training, and I'm really excited to see you there.

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So this is going to beg the conversation about nature and nurture. And I think what she would describe is that she obviously had a genetic predisposition, but at the same time, the culture that she grew up in, the family unit and the culture that her coaches created were phenomenal. So there's really some deep insight from parents as well as people that are in the business world on developing a culture that allows people and challenges people to be their best.

Okay, so in a nutshell, she became the fastest person in her sport in the world.

And that happened when she broke the world record. And then she eventually went on to become an Olympian in 2012

So she's been through, sorry, she's been through some real challenges in swimming and most notably missing the Olympic team in 2008 just by a fingernail.

And she missed it by eight one hundredths of a second. She talks about this and we really break down like what was her experience and what led her to be able to shift and grow from an incredibly painful experience for her.