To have any doubt in your body is the biggest weakness an athlete can have. There are times when I physically can't get myself to go for a skill because I'm thinking, 'My knee hurts really bad.'
Shawn JohnsonRead
Retiring was scary and it was tough to give up gymnastics, but so many great opportunities have come from it that I never expected.
Interpretation
Retirement can be challenging, but it often leads to unexpected opportunities.
Shawn Johnson reflects on the fear and difficulty of retiring from gymnastics, a major part of her life. Despite the initial challenges of letting go of her sport, she emphasizes the positive outcomes and new opportunities that have emerged from her transition, highlighting the theme of embracing change in life.
In practice
In a motivational speech about embracing change in life.
To have any doubt in your body is the biggest weakness an athlete can have. There are times when I physically can't get myself to go for a skill because I'm thinking, 'My knee hurts really bad.'
Gymnastics has made me strong. I feel like it broke me down to my lowest point, but at the same time, it has given me the greatest strength anyone could ask for.
If you want change, you have to make it. If we want progress we have to drive it.
When I was 15, I changed my name legally. I think it was largely due to my struggle about being gay. Everything just didn't fit, and I was trying to find things I could identify myself with, and it started with my name.
Here's where redesign begins in earnest, where we stop trying to be less bad and we start figuring out how to be good.
Because it is such a huge crisis, because it puts us on a firm science-based deadline, it's a once-in-a-century opportunity to build a better society and address raging inequality, create huge numbers of jobs, rebuild our public infrastructure. But, we can't do it unless we break every single rule in the free-market playbook. Which is why the worst people in the world all deny climate change.
Maybe we have to break everything to make something better out of ourselves.
You invite things to happen. You open the door. You inhale. And if you inhale the chaos, you give the chaos, the chaos gives back.
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