“All it is is pain”: Skier Jessie Diggins on discovering her potential
I don’t pretend to be operating at the level of a top Olympic athlete in one of the most grueling sports (though my resting heart rate of 38 bpm probably indicates something) but the words of Jessie Diggins quoted below have resonated with me. Who is she? According to Wikipedia:
She is the most accomplished cross-country skier from the United States in the sport’s history having won three World Cup overall titles, four Olympic medals, seven World Championship medals, and numerous other event championships.
Her words that resonated with me
The New York Times profiled her in a piece titled ‘All It Is Is Pain’: The Olympian Testing the Limits of Endurance: Jessie Diggins has become the best-ever American cross-country skier because of what she pushes her body through. It described an experience where she learned about herself through reaching her potential, physically and mentally:
Diggins was overwhelmed at seeing some 20 skiers wearing the same green race suit. She couldn’t figure out who she needed to pass, or even which green suits were on the third leg and which were on the final leg. Pushing herself in a way she had never done before, she passed all 20 skiers from the rival team, then collapsed at the finish thinking she was going to die.
“Then, 30 seconds later, it was, Oh — I’m not going to die,” Diggins recalls. “It was a huge lightbulb. This whole next level had been there the whole time, and I can access it if I am willing to push that hard. All it is is pain. It’s not permanent damage. I want to know what my true potential is. I never want to wonder, What if I had just been a little tougher mentally?”
“All it is is pain. It’s not permanent damage. I want to know what my true potential is.“
I don’t think I’ll reach her level, but I can still hold her as a role model. Doing burpees twice-daily, or tabatas on the rowing machine, isn’t supposed to explore my limits of pain and I wouldn’t want to feel like she did twice a day every day, but there are plenty of times I want to give up or just go to sleep without doing them, or skipping a day posting here, or skipping a cold shower in my unheated apartment when it’s well below freezing outside.
When I finish any of those things, they’re over. I don’t suffer. On the contrary, I know more about myself. I develop what I lack otherwise: discipline, integrity, credibility, self-awareness.
What’s the cost? Almost nothing in time or money. I don’t belong to a gym or buy fancy equipment. I just explore my limits.
Diggins’s words will help propel me to do my sidchas with more joy, discipline, and effort for a few years beyond what I would have otherwise.
Inspirational Diggins performance
If you haven’t seen her big “Here comes Diggins” finish in 2018, prepare for tears to well up in your eyes:
Here’s a longer version for more context:
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