Hannah Steelman
Knowing Your Identity Beyond Your Sport
I was once asked to do the following exercise as part of a leadership conference at my university: list five things outside of your sport that makes up your identity. I had to take a moment to think because usually, my sport (running) would be near or at the top of that list. Next were my faith, my family, my academics, my relationships, and my career goals. It’s funny how the things which are most important to us make up our identity, and usually in the order of importance.
Something I have learned time and time again as a competitive athlete is that sports can make us or break us, if we let it. My sport is a big part of who I am, but it does not define me wholly. One poor performance does not make me any less of a person just like one good performance does not make me a better person. As someone who is competing nearly year-round, this is something I have to constantly remind myself and it will probably never be an ‘easy’ reality to accept. I am an enneagram Type Three, “the achiever” (yes, I fully believe in this personality assessment) which means that I tend to find a lot of my self-worth in my accomplishments.
Many athletes will find themselves to be type three’s as well as they are driven, goal-oriented, and competitive. This becomes problematic for me when I have an off-day; if I am not careful, I could let it defeat me and strip me of my confidence. Bad days are inevitable in sport, so it is very important for us athletes to know how to best respond to them. I don’t believe in just “shaking it off”. We are athletes, we are passionate, and we shouldn’t have to be okay one-hundred-percent of the time. My personal rule-of-thumb is to take at most 24 hours to sulk and/or process what happened and then move on. In between the poor race and the next one I’ll work with my coach to assess what went wrong and find out what I need to do differently the next time around. I love it when, after a setback, I come back stronger and better than ever at the very next chance I get. I love doing this for me, the people in my corner, and most importantly, the Lord. Not for some higher status or to help resolve an identity crisis.
With college athletics comes the pressure to perform. This will at times make it seem like sport is everything, but it simply isn’t. I know there are several things outside of my sport that make up my life and who I am. Sports become so much more fun when we take the pressure off and live in this reality. I am grateful to have been taught this early on in my sports career before entering the professional world. Now, I want to share this message with every young athlete that I can and ask, where does your identity outside of your sport lie?
Hannah Steelman
IG: @hannahsteelman_