In this episode, we speak to extraordinary athlete, Chloe Dalton, on building “Range and Resilience”, skills we all need to get us through these extraordinary times.
Born in Singapore, the Australian star started out in basketball, crossed over to Rugby Sevens where her team won a Gold in the 2016 Rio Olympics then went on to play for Carlton in the Australian Football League. But clearly, her rugby days are not over because late last year, she committed to be in the Tokyo Olympics and is currently dual training in both the AFL and Rugby Sevens.
Here are some takeaways from this wide-ranging conversation.
• What do you do when someone tells you something you don’t want to hear about yourself? (At age 15, she was told she wasn’t a natural at basketball)
“There’s a real balance between looking at when it’s not working, looking to adapt and looking to change and try something new. But then also making sure that you persevere and not just think, Oh, this is getting a little bit hard, I’m just going to give up and totally change all together.”
• Set your sights on a goal, write it down and then do your research
(How she picked on Rugby Sevens as the sport that would get her an Olympic gold)
“I went onto Google and I googled a list of Olympic sports. I had a look at triathlon because I was quite good across country and I was about on a bike, but I didn’t like swimming. Then I looked at martial arts, but then thought that that was probably a sport that people did from when they are quite young. Then I saw the Rugby Sevens was going to be in Rio for the first time in 2016. And I’d grown up in a rugby family so I had a really good understanding of the game.”
• How do you build range?
(Being able to) “Willingly put myself into challenging situations. In my sporting career, the thing that I’ve found the most enjoyment out of is putting myself into this new situation, which I might not necessarily have the skills or the knowledge, but I know that I have the base foundation in terms of discipline and motivation and the work ethic to get there.”
• Change the reason why – how do you accept the loss of control and stay motivated
“The biggest thing that I’m trying to work on is probably being okay with not being in control, and being able to accept things that I can’t control. It’s really important to actually process those emotions rather than just kind of moving on and having this really positive attitude really quickly. I’m probably in the process of doing – and changing the reason that I exercise.”
• It’s okay to be a beginner, just be teachable
(“The weight of being successful was replaced by the lightness of becoming a beginner.” – Steve Jobs)
“You can be okay with not being good at things. And you can be okay with asking questions about things because you aren’t expected to know the answer. And you aren’t expected to be good at things. … the biggest thing that I strive to be in my career is teachable.”
• Featured image – Chloe Dalton (middle) with her parents at the 2016 Rio Olympics
