5 things I’ve learnt in 2016 that I hope to bring in to 2017
A column by Aisyah Gala

I know that a quarter of 2017 has already passed, but look, it’s never too late to look back at 2016 just to remind yourself of the things you’ve learnt in that year that you want to bring forward to 2017, and the rest of your life.

And to be honest with you, I had an honest reflection session with myself on my Olympics journey only about a few weeks ago (which is probably six months late but like I said, it’s never too late for a change).

2016 is definitely one of the best years of my life. I experienced one of my lowest points and reached the peak of my rowing career, all in one year.

I travelled to a handful of amazing cities and met wonderful people in my journey to the Olympic Games. And then I went through a phase where I lost my identity as a person because I was too obsessed with being a rower and so I went embarking on a journey to “find myself”, which sounds re-ally cheesy but I swear by it now.

And they say, when you finally learn to love yourself, you will only then be able to love others. I never really understood what that meant until I experienced it myself.

Here are the 5 lessons I’ve learnt in 2016 which I will definitely continue to embrace and improve on in 2017:

#5: Work hard and be patient

In 2016, I’ve learnt that the only way to become successful is to put in the hard work. There is simply no short cut to success, so stop looking for quick-rich ways or tips and tricks to lose weight in seven days because even if you do reach your goal, you are not able to sustain it. It will come and go and then what? You go back to square one.

I knew that my goal in 2016 was to qualify for the Olympics and that was in April. The hard work of course did not start in January 2016 – it started years ago, probably five to six years ago when I first told myself that I wanted to be an Olympian. Success does not happen overnight; sometimes it does not even happen for months or years. But you just keep grinding.

Just keep going, no matter how hard some days are. Sometimes it is okay to take one step back to move two steps forward. It is okay to pause and give yourself a break, but what is most important is moving forward. What helps when times are hard and you feel like throwing in the towel is the reason why you started in the first place.

I am sure you have heard of this plenty of times, but when the times comes when you are struggling to move forward, no matter how strong you think you are, you would definitely need to be reminded to look back at how far you have come. What could help is when you have a goal, ask yourself why you have set that goal for yourself.

What is the purpose of having that goal? How important is it for you to achieve that goal? Think about all the obstacles that you may face while attempting to reach that goal and what you are going to do about them.

Write these things down and paste them on your bedroom wall, so you will get reminded of your goal every single day. And start grinding, now.

#4: Enjoy the process

It made a whole lot of difference to my life when I told myself to enjoy the journey. I was significantly happier, calmer and these positive vibes translated into faster boat speeds, being fitter and stronger… and when I am fast, I am happy. And it became a continuous cycle of happiness and enjoyment.

I realised that the Olympic Games itself was going to be two weeks long but the journey to get there will take months, even years. If I don’t enjoy the days leading up to the Games, what is the point of doing what I’m doing? It just takes one second to snap out out being stressed or sad.

I am grateful to have the ability to find the positive in every situation. Like for example, I feel the fattest when I gained 10kg and I could not fit into my clothes anymore, but instead of reminding myself that I am heavy and big, I told myself that my body is not fat- it is Olympics-ready.

I have a wise friend who once shared with me the 86,400 seconds theory. He said we have 86,400 seconds in a day – that means 86,400 chances to create moments. It just takes you one second out of that 86,400 seconds to realise you are privileged to have each day to change your day from a bad to a good one.

#3: Focus on the NOW

2016 was the first time I had proper mental training. Before I was exposed to mental skills training, I have always thought that you prepare mentally for a race the night before and on race day, everything will be okay.

Miracles do not happen overnight. What I have learnt and now advocate is that mental training is just like your physical training. It is something you have to work on every single day. It is not just about visualising the race or reading motivational quotes.

Mental skills cover a whole plethora of concepts like confidence, expectations and trust. The most impactful lesson I learnt from Coach Hansen (my mental skills coach) was letting go of expectations.

It was one of the hardest things I ever had to do to do but when I managed to go in a race not giving a damn about results or what others think, it turned out to be the best race I’ve ever done.

Control the controllable, my coach always reminds me. There is absolutely no point worrying about things that are beyond our control. We are not a time-traveller so there’s no point thinking about the future or the results. Neither are we mind-readers so we should not be so worked up over what others think about us.

The only thing we should be focusing on is NOW and making the most out of it. Focusing on the NOW also helps me to stop procrastinating- one of my hardest bad habits to get rid of!

Whenever I feel like I have to get something done, I would do it right away before the information even gets to my brain. I am definitely still working on this one though. I have to remove the word “later” from my dictionary.

A good question I often ask myself to prevent procrastination is, “If not now, then when?”

#2: Trust

Because my life is pretty much planned out according to my training schedule and my races, my coach has more say in it than I do because well, he’s the expert in the field. Thus, a lot of how I work towards my goals depends on how much I trust him.

I remembered when it was so close to the Olympics qualification, I was getting all worked up when I started thinking to myself, “What if I haven’t done enough training? What if I’m not race-ready yet?”

There is no answer to these stupid questions that I had in my head. So, all I can do is to put my trust in my coach and my training. I trust that my coach knows what he’s doing. I trust his expertise and knowledge in the field. I trust that he wants the best for me too as much as I want the best for myself. I also have to trust myself, knowing that I will push hard for every training. I trust that the programmes my coach has prepared for me is designed to make me faster, better and stronger. Sometimes you just have to take that leap of faith.

#1: Believe

And the most important lesson I’ve learnt in 2016 is to believe in myself, to believe in whatever I’m doing and to believe that ultimately, the universe will conspire to help you achieve when you want something (thanks, Paolo Coelho for that).

If it’s not for believing that I could be an Olympian, I would never have made it. Believe in yourself – there is something inside you that is greater than any obstacle.

To an awesome year ahead, or whatever is left of it x

Love,
Aisyah