Who are you now that you no longer play sport?

Who are you now that you no longer play sport?

By Annette Huygens-Tholen

A retired athlete can face challenges in moving on beyond sport regardless of how prepared they think they are. A life committed to sport can result in a strong identification as an athlete or sportsperson and even specifically with the sport that they play.

Rather than looking forward towards a new career, a retired athlete might find themselves looking to the past at how they were, and what they did achieve. They may even make the mistake of thinking that’s all there is.

An individual’s identity has a strong influence over their actions, decisions and even beliefs. Identity is an “I am” statement and a person can have several. A person may identify with their job (I am an electrician), their hobby or interests (I am a good cook) or even their emotions (I am depressed).

Your identity has overarching control over everything you do. All too often, people limit themselves by putting a label to who they are or what they do. Their identity may be attached to their behaviour, for example having made a mistake, a person might identify with being bad, or a loser, rather than limiting the label to the action/result. Have you ever heard a parent calling their child ‘naughty’ rather than stating that what they did, (their behaviour) was naughty?

A change of identity can have the most transformational impact on one’s behaviour and results. When I realised that I was more than a sportsperson and that with my skills I could easily identify with being a business person, it completely changed how I spent my time and what was important to me. Consequently my results started to change and I have been focused forward on my business since.

What does it take to change? Awareness is a start and a desire to change. Being open to realising that how life is today or has been in the past does not have to be how it is tomorrow. Knowing that change is possible opens one up to the curiosity of how to change.

I work with individuals to discover their current strengths and then create change through transferring skills and talents to a new context and new mindset.

Identity is about your ‘being’ and being precedes what you do and what you have in life. Often people will wait to ‘be’ something when they have done something or have something in their possession. For example, “I’ll BE happy when I have…..”, or “I’ll be successful when I do….” The secret is to be whatever it is you want to be right now, or act as if.

Be happy now to create the results you want.

Be a business person now to create success in business.

Your actions and possessions will change in accordance with your being and identity. It is important to understand your identity as it can be the difference between attaching to your past results as an athlete or to moving on successfully with a new expanded and well-rounded identity.

To re-create success in a new career requires an individual to identify with their new role (eg business person) so that their beliefs, values and actions are all congruent to produce the results they want. Who do you need to BE now to create your success beyond sport?

About the author:

Annette Huygens Tholen is a former international beach volleyball player and participated in the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games. She experienced the difficulties of transition from sport and is now a Master Results Coach and International speaker using her learnings and experience to empower athletes to reproduce emotional and financial success in their life after sport. Annette also teaches seminars for the world's biggest NLP Coaching and Training Organisation -The Christopher Howard Companies. For more information on how to successfully transition after sport, please visit www.annetteffect.com and sign up for the free mini-Ecourse.