Today, I listened to someone talk about what he called the “Trifecta of Priorities”. In his video, he explains the relationship between physical health (i.e trying to get back into shape), relationships, and business. The basis of his argument was that if you decide to really hone your focus on one, you essentially have to choose which of the other two you’ll give less priority to. You cannot have 100% focus in all three domains or else your ability to care for the most important person in your life (YOU) will suffer.
As high-performing athletes, especially, we become used to the idea of pushing ourselves in our sport and becoming laser-focused on seeing achievements in that realm. This eventually carries over into other aspects of our lives, and for many, begins to look a lot like perfectionism. We strive to be the perfect friend, daughter, student, partner, etc. We often forget about ourselves.
To get back to the argument I was mentioning earlier, I do believe that it is hard to have our complete, passion-driven focus in multiple areas. We do have to learn how to shift our priorities. I also like to think about this as setting boundaries.
For example, If we decide to commit to working on our fitness pre-season but we’re also a student and a partner, we have to set boundaries around those other important areas of our lives so we can get our needs met. We have to set aside 1 on 1 time with our significant other so we can reduce any unwanted friction between each other and we have to set time aside to attend to our school work. If we don’t we’ll see major changes, either in ourselves (burnout) or in the results we get in those other areas of our lives (poor grades, crumbling relationships).
-Coach Lauren
