Self-Discovery and Acceptance | Triathlete, Angela Naeth

Angela Naeth (0:00)

The racing is an opportunity. It's not something I'm clutching onto, but it's something that I get to experience and grow from, rather than I have to do this, I have to make world championships, I have to do well, I have to do all this stuff. It's more of like, these are opportunities in my life to see what I have inside, who I am, how I'm going to learn from it and grow from it.

And just having that little slight change in perspective has been huge.

Michael Gervais (0:35)

All right, welcome back or welcome to the Finding Mastery podcast. I'm Michael Gervais, and by trade and training of sport and performance psychologist, as well as the co-founder of Compete to Create. And the whole idea behind these conversations, behind this podcast, is to learn from people who have committed their life efforts towards mastery. Hopefully mastery of self and mastery of craft. What we wanna do is we wanna dig to understand how do they organize their inner life?

What is it that they're searching for? And what are the mental skills that they use to build and refine their craft?

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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 and 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, it's findingmastery.com/training, and I'm really excited to see you there.

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Now, this week's conversation is with Angela Naeth, currently ranked among the top triathletes in the world with three sub-nine hour Ironman performances. Legit. And Angela is a multiple 70.3 and Ironman champion and has had 30 plus podiums on the 70.3 and Ironman distances. Now, if you're not familiar with 70.3, that's the total distance in miles for what's considered a half Ironman. That's right. A full Ironman triathlon is 140 plus miles. And it goes in this order, 2.4 mile swim, 112 mile bicycle ride and a marathon 26.2 miles.

And in 2018, Angela, while battling Lyme disease, placed eighth in the Ironman World Championships with a time of 8 hours 57 minutes. And it's just remarkable to do that, let alone to do it with Lyme disease. So, you know, it begs a question, like, why would you run an Ironman triathlon with Lyme disease? And why put her body through something that intense? And for Angela, it's really clear she's using sport as a means to help her better understand herself and discover what she's capable of, what she's made of.