I think there's so much emphasis on body image and results and outcome, but really what you should be after is to be healthy and to feel good about yourself.
Abby WambachRead
When you're a pro athlete, life is very narcissistic - everything relates back to you and how you play. When you are getting out of pro sports, you suddenly have to get a little more mindful of what's going on around you and how you affect the rest of the world.
Interpretation
This quote emphasizes the shift from a self-centered existence in professional sports to a more outwardly focused perspective after retiring.
Abby Wambach's quote reflects on the transformation that professional athletes experience as they transition out of their narcissistic careers, where their lives revolve around personal performance and recognition. Upon retirement, they are compelled to become more aware of their impact on the wider world and the need for mindfulness regarding their relationships and responsibilities beyond the sport.
In practice
In a motivational speech to young athletes about life after sports.
I think there's so much emphasis on body image and results and outcome, but really what you should be after is to be healthy and to feel good about yourself.
For any athlete growing up, the Olympics is the one thing you watch with your family, and it's the one thing you dream about. Seeing your country's flag go up as you get a gold medal is the best thing you can achieve.
I would trade all the individual awards I've won for a World Cup.
My teammates have put me in all different kinds of positions to score goals, and I can't say it enough, and I really through and through believe it in my heart that I'm only as good as my teammates allow me to be.
As soon as I started to realize that I could make a living playing professional soccer, I went to that place where I could torture myself because I knew it would make me better for the championship game.
I don't care how many championships you've won or how many records you've broken - if you've had a hand in pushing forward not only a game but women in sport's movement, then I think that's pretty darn good.
I've been baking bread and looking after the baby...Everyone else who has asked me that question over the last few years says. 'But what else have you been doing?' To which I say, 'Are you kidding?' Because bread and babies, as every housewife knows, is a full-time job. After I made the loaves [of bread,] I felt like I had conquered something. But as I watched the bread being eaten, I thought, Well, Jesus, don't I get a gold record or knighted or nothing?
A man either lives life as it happens to him, meets it head-on and licks it, or he turns his back on it and starts to wither away.
This is where I started life. This is where I went to uni. This is where the people I know are. This is my country, and when I put on my Great Britain vest, I'm proud, very proud, that it's my country.
Going to trial with a lawyer who considers your whole life-style a Crime in Progress is not a happy prospect.
Life without balance can cost you your relationships. Life without balance can cost you your health. Life without balance can cost you your spirituality. Life without balance can cost you your wealth and your happiness. So find things to motivate you from all areas of life. Your success depends on it.
Whatever I have tried to do in life, I have tried with all my heart to do it well; whatever I have devoted myself to, I have devoted myself completely; in great aims and in small I have always thoroughly been in earnest.
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