I Am… Dame Jessica Ennis-Hill on Balancing Drive with Living in the Moment OR on Training in the Feeling Space

Jonny Wilkinson (0:00)

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Welcome to the I Am Podcast, where we explore performance and potential, and where we get pretty excited about things like peace, trust and relaxation. Jessica Ennis-Hill, the well-known track and field star, is on hand to help us this week.

Jess set some pretty high bars during her career, and she cleared, I think, more or less all of them. Her Super Saturday gold medal winning show stopper during the 2012 London Olympics will live on in the minds of those present for that unique and amazing occasion, and for those also who even managed to watch it at home.

It was definitely a moment that transcends sport. It became a defining detail in the story of this immensely gifted heptathlete. But there's so much more to my guest beyond this victory and all her many others too. I feel privileged that she allowed me access to the human being, to the upbringing, to the mindset, the challenges and the amazing future that lies ahead for her too. Some people she says are driven by winning and some motivated maybe by not losing. Jessica Ennis-Hill she says was always fixated upon what she wanted. To be honest, I myself heavily fluctuated between the two. Being even more honest, I probably spent much greater time using failure and worst case scenarios as the fuel for my performances. Fear, anger, desperation, these are powerful energies. When we're in these kind of states, we don't sit around doing nothing, we get stuff done. And as a short term survival tool, it's necessary and it's effective.

But as a performance tool though, when it's our dreams on the line and not our existence, they can actually reveal themselves to be very limiting and terribly destructive. It's never actually about getting everything to go perfectly in order to prepare us for a performance. It's more to do with shaking loose everything that stands in the way of our dreams and finding that feeling place.

We have said this before, that it all boils down to how we take that next step. If we put enough devoted, fully fledged ones together, we may also end up running our phenomenal 800 meters and being crowned Olympic champion in front of millions of home country supporters. Finding ourselves in our own personal dream worlds. Which Jess can tell you all about how that feels. Thanks very much to Jessica Ennis-Hill for opening up, for sharing her amazing stories, for being so honest.

It was a fabulous opportunity for me to understand a bit more behind what goes on on that track and field and also in that amazing environment when the pressure seems to be so high.

I hope you really, really enjoy this episode. I hope that it's of benefit. Let me know what you think. Let me know what's coming up in you. This is a massive part of guiding us forward. I can't thank you enough for your support. Take care. Looking forward to catching up soon. My name is Jonny Wilkinson. This is the I Am Podcast with Jessica Ennis-Hill.

Jessica Ennis-Hill, this is a real pleasure to have you, to be able to pick your brains and get a real feel for your experience. I've got loads I want to explore across the sporting boundaries, but also a lot to do with you and your journey and your transformation. And I guess, first of all, how are you today?